County TCAP Scores in Line with State Results

by Kevin Cummings, Messenger Staff Writer

Franklin County students performed very close to their state counterparts on standardized testing, according to the director of schools.

Recently released statewide results show an overall increase in scores on high school end-of-course exams compared to last year and a plateau in TCAP scores for grades 3–8 — within 1 percent of last year.

The state will likely release local scores after the start of the school year, but Franklin County Director of Schools Rebecca Sharber said she has seen the results. Officials can’t give specifics, but the county’s scores closely mirror state increases at the high school level, as well as increases in TCAP math scores, she said.

“I still think we can do better, but we just haven’t seemed to find the right mix of everything to do better,” she said.

Statewide on the TCAP, 51.3 percent of students were proficient or advanced in math, compared to 50.7 percent last year.

Sharber said there were fluctuations in other testing areas compared to the state, but many similarities, including a dip in reading scores. The statewide numbers show 49.5 percent of students were proficient or advanced in reading in 2014, compared to 50.3 percent in 2013.

Chris McDonough, Sewanee’s representative on the Franklin County Board of Education, said he has heard officially and unofficially, that county TCAP scores are down for science and social studies, but up for math. He said he hasn’t seen all the scores, but he is especially interested in the reading scores.

“This year saw the introduction of a new reading program followed with radical fidelity,” he said. “Many seasoned teachers disliked having their lesson plans dictated to them by the program, and I sensed a real loss of morale. My hope is that it was worth it, but at this point I cannot really say.”

Sharber said a significant problem with state standardized testing is it is not in sync with Common Core standards taught in the classroom. 

“…I think teachers are having trouble trying to determine how to not only teach what they’re supposed to teach, but make sure that children are taught on what’s going to be tested because that is kind of a moving target in Tennessee right now,” Sharber said.

This year the state legislature delayed a move to replace the TCAP next school year with a test based on Common Core standards. The state plans to seek bids from test makers and implement a new standardized test for the 2015–16 school year.

Sharber noted that she does not like standardized testing because it favors privileged children, and she has presented an alternate idea to Tennessee Education Commissioner Kevin Huffman and his team. She said she would like to see students take a pre-test at the first of the year and then a post-test at the end of the year to accurately determine what a child has learned.

“They said there’s nothing available like that so they’re not going to take the time to try to find somebody to create it, but I think that would be the fairest way to work with children and I think that would be the fairest way with teachers,” Sharber said.

This year’s TCAP was steeped in controversy after the Department of Education failed to release results in time for report cards. The state granted many school districts, including Franklin County, a waiver to exclude TCAP scores from students’ final grades.

For statewide standardized testing results, go to <www.tn.gov/education>.