TNReady scores: Nashville public schools math and English scores decline at almost every high school

Jason Gonzales | The Tennessean

Show Caption Hide Caption TNReady scores: How students did on 2017-2018 state tests The 2017-18 school year saw additional problems with the TNReady test. Lawmakers passed a measure that lessens accountability this year.

Metro Nashville Public Schools saw widespread drops in TNReady scores at almost every high school in math and English.

The dips in scores were almost uniformly spread across the entire school district, including at its traditional, charter and magnet schools, according to an analysis of 2017-18 year school-by-school TNReady data released by the state on Thursday.

Student proficiency is considered "on track" or "mastered" on the TNReady test.

The data shows high school year-over-year proficiency drops include the district's top performing schools — Martin Luther King Jr. Academic Magnet High School and Hume Fogg Academic Magnet High School.

In math, only Middle College High School and LEAD Academy recorded increases.

In reading, RePublic High School was one of the schools to increase its scores, while Pearl Cohn High School scores were unchanged.

Overall, among all Nashville schools, 9.5 percent of high school students were deemed proficient on high school year-end math tests. That was down from 12.1 percent last year.

And 18.1 percent of high school students were proficient in English, down from 24.4 percent last year.

District spokeswoman Dawn Rutledge said in a statement that MNPS recorded growth better than the state overall in literacy and science across grades 4-8, but that there were numerous technical interruptions for online high school tests.

"We understand the importance of testing, and realize there is more work we need to do, but we also recognize the need to get testing right for our children and families, and we must have reliable assessments that teachers can use to help better inform instruction and measure how our students are performing," Rutledge said.

Tennessee high school students, on average, saw gains in math, but English scores dipped overall, from 29.4 percent of students considered proficient, down from 34.6 percent in the 2016-17 year.

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Some schools' scores aren't reported

Seventeen high schools didn't have high enough math proficiency rates to be reported by the state. Maplewood High School reading scores were also omitted from the state report after posting a 5 percent proficiency rate in the 2016-17 school year.

The state leaves off data if there are fewer than 10 students or 1 percent of all students scoring within a certain category, according to Sara Gast, Tennessee Department of Education spokeswoman.

That means the Nashville public high schools without proficiency scores, Gast said, recorded numbers so low that the number of students proficient was below the threshold that could be reported by the state.

Grades 3-8 English and Language Arts highlights

Elementary and middle school English and Language Arts scores were the one highlight this year for Nashville public schools.

In the 2017-18 school year, 26.7 percent of third through eighth students were on track or higher in the subject, up from 25.4 percent in the 2016-17 school year

Top performers included:

Glendale Elementary, with 88.4 percent of its students proficient.

Lockeland Elementary, with 81.8 percent of its students as proficient.

Julia Green Elementary, with 80.1 percent of its students scoring proficient.

Percy Priest Elementary, with 79.1 percent of its students scoring proficient.

And Valor Flagship Academy, with 66.3 percent of its students scoring proficient

A mixed bag for Nashville's lowest-performing schools

A few schools on the state's priority school list took a step back. That includes drops in math and reading scores at Buena Vista Elementary, Jere Baxter Middle and Robert Churchwell Elementary schools.

Whitsitt Elementary and Madison Middle schools both posted gains in the two measures. Inglewood Elementary took a step back in reading but saw gains in math.

The schools posting the lowest recorded scores in 2017-18 were:

Tom Joy Elementary, with 5.1 percent of its students proficient in reading.

Caldwell Elementary, with 5.1 percent of its students proficient in math.

TVAAS growth

Every year the state releases Tennessee Value-Added Assessment System, or TVAAS, ratings that show how well a district recorded a year's worth of academic progress among its students.

Overall, the district scored the lowest measure in increasing scores on every test for its students.

Among the district's schools serving grades 3-8, there were 37 schools that posted the highest yearly composite academic growth among its students — 24 traditional schools and 13 charter schools.

TNReady can't be used against schools

This round of data reveals student performance year-over-year on the TNReady test, but the scores cannot be used against districts, schools, teachers or students for accountability purposes.

The decision to soften accountability came from lawmakers after another spring of issues on the online test, which was required to be taken by high school students.

Recently, Nashville Public Schools Director co-wrote a letter to the state with Shelby County Schools' superintendent declaring "no confidence" in TNReady. Joseph and SCS director Dorsey Hopson requested the state halt testing and convene a working group to sort out the challenges.

Tennessee Education Commissioner Candice McQueen responded saying testing is a state and federal mandate and the state is working to improve the test administration.

TNREADY RESULTS: State-run ASD struggles, but individual schools show improvement

TNREADY SCORES: TNReady results mostly flat, but results dip in high school English

Reach Jason Gonzales at jagonzales@tennessean.com and on Twitter @ByJasonGonzales.