School-level TNReady results as well as school and district student growth data for 2018 were released Thursday morning.
The scores for TNReady show that nearly 700 schools, which is more than 40 percent of schools in Tennessee, improved across the majority of their grades and subjects in 2018.
“While we know we still have room to improve, we also want to celebrate the hundreds of schools in Tennessee that showed progress this past year,” Dept. of Education Commissioner Candice McQueen said.
The results look at students' overall achievement and include whether a student scored on track or mastered in their spring assessment.
Growth scores look at how much students are growing regardless of whether they were proficient.
The board of education said taking the results together show a fuller picture of students' performance.
The Tennessee Value-Added Assessment System, or TVAAS scores, measure student growth year over year.
According to the Tennessee Dept. of Education, a TVAAS score is calculated by taking a student’s performance and comparing it to the performance of his or her peers who have performed similarly on past assessments.
Specifically, the 2018 TVAAS scores show the majority of Tennessee's school districts met or exceeded growth expectations. However, out of 147 districts, only 59 had an overall TVAAS composite of Level 5 or the highest level of growth.
And only 11 districts including, Greene County, Greeneville City, Hamblen County, Jefferson County, Loudon County, Maryville City, Oneida Special, and Roane County earned the highest level in all 5 subject areas for the TVAAS composite.
The composite includes literacy, numeracy, science, and social studies.
At a school level, there were 65 schools across 36 districts that also earned a Level 5 TVAAS score across all subject areas.
“Students and teachers are making encouraging strides on both TNReady and in their overall growth, and today’s results point to bright spots across the state where students saw across-the-board success this past year on the state assessment. We want to learn from those places as we also continue to improve," Commissioner McQueen said.
A full spreadsheet with school-level TNReady results is available here. These will also be posted on the department’s website this fall. The TVAAS scores for 2018 for districts and schools are available here.