TENNESSEE, USA — Newly released state performance data showed multiple East Tennessee school systems found themselves among the lowest-performing districts in the state in the last academic year.
However, two school districts were considered "exemplary" in the report. They were Newport City Schools and the Tennessee Schools for the Deaf. Sandra Burchette, the director of Newport City Schools, said they used their time during the COVID-19 pandemic to improve.
"Our district was able to remain in-school during the pandemic with only missing a few days," she said. "What we did, we used the data, and we found areas in which we felt we could make a difference."
Those areas were math and English. This is the second year in a row that Newport City Schools has been named an exemplary district.
It is also the first time The Tennessee Schools for the Deaf was designated as "exemplary." They said that they also strived to maintain in-person learning during the pandemic while implementing specialized lessons for American Sign Language and English.
A full statement from the school district about the ranking is below.
“The Tennessee Schools for the Deaf district was thrilled to receive the Exemplary designation from the Tennessee Department of Education. While this is a new recognition for our district, we feel our efforts during the pandemic to maintain in-person educational programming as much as possible resulted in a positive impact for our students. Our district will continue to implement highly specialized American Sign Language/English bilingual instructional programming to realize increased and steady outcomes for our students. In closing, it is with much gratitude to the school leaders, teachers, staff, and students who made this honor possible.“
They even noticed improvements from the previous school term. They said they saw a 10% improvement in their English and mathematics pass rates, showing that students there performed better on state tests.