Schools make honor roll on state report card on The Murfreesboro Post

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Schools make honor roll on state report card

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By: THE MURFREESBORO POST

Posted: Sunday, November 4, 2012 12:00 am

The Tennessee Department of Education has released its annual report card on districts and schools, and the report shows Rutherford County Schools performed well and Murfreesboro City Schools continued to show improvements in 2011.

The report card is difficult to compare to previous years because the new report reflects the first year of the state’s waiver from the No Child Left Behind Act.

Tennessee now operates under a new accountability system, which has been approved by the federal government.

“The credit for our results should go to principals, teachers, students and parents,” Director of Schools Don Odom said. “Our schools would not be successful without the commitment of our educators and their expertise. It’s a team effort that requires students to apply themselves and families to reinforce at home the importance of education.”

Highlights of the performance of county schools include:

• The district earned all A’s for achievement, which includes third through the eighth grades, as well as writing for third, fifth and 11th grades.

• Two A’s and two B’s for value-added learning gains

• A graduation rate of 90.7 percent

• For math, in third through eighth grades, the district saw a 7.7 percent increase in those scoring proficient or advanced

• For reading/language arts in the same grades, the district saw a 4.7 percent increase in those scoring proficient or advanced

Odom said he will deliver a presentation about the report card and other district measures to the Rutherford County Board of Education later in November.

Murfreesboro students lead in reading

City schools also showed improvement in academic acheivement and value-added.

“We are pleased with our overall growth. Murfreesboro City School students exhibited growth in academic achievement in all content areas,” Director Linda Gilbert said.

As a system, city schools posted an A in math, a B in reading and language arts, an A in social studies, and a B in science in the achievement category, which measures overall student performance.

“We believe the enhanced curriculum implemented last year has positively impacted our students’ achievement,” Gilbert said. “Of course, the driving force behind this achievement is our teachers.

The scores in reading and science are an improvement from 2010 and 2011. In both of those years, city schools earned B’s in the two subjects.

In the value-added category, which measures improvement from year to year, city schools garnered a D, the same score as last year.

This was mostly from a 1 percent drop in performance in the fifth grades across the system, but the sixth grades outperformed 2011 by 2.8 percent.

“In specific scores, city schools boast the highest growth in Middle Tennessee in reading and language arts,” she said. “Although our science scores are also improving, we know they can be better. Our schools are enthusiastically implementing strategies to better address science in the classroom.”

To view the entire report card, go to www.tn.gov/education.

Tagged under City Schools, County Schools, Department of Education, Don Odom, Education, Linda Gilbert, MCS, RCS, Tennessee

Member Opinions:

By: roadrock on 11/8/12
Why is it that Rutherford Co Schools makes statements such as "credit for results should go to the principals, teachers, students and parents", while Gilbert only recognizes her croanies at Central Office and then kindly mentions teachers.?? The "enhanced curriculum" she so references is just more additional work for teachers who are already under the gun to obtain TCAP scores. It does nothing to match up with State standards. Its concept is another harebrained power scheme and justification for her Director of Curriculum which is a relative.