Tennessee Announces 2010-11 Adequate Yearly Progress and State Report Card

NASHVILLE – The Tennessee Department of Education released today the list of schools and school districts that showed gains and those that did not show sufficient progress on performance standards under the federal No Child Left Behind guidelines for the 2009-10 school year. In a unique year, the Department has concurrently released the annual comprehensive report card on Pre-K-12 education, including state, district and school-level information on achievement, demographics and discipline.

 

Across the state, schools and districts faced challenges with increased standards and assessments. During this year of transition, however, many schools and districts have shown improvement and progress. Among those successes, Bedford and Madison County School systems made their way off of the high priority list and 25 schools across the state came off the high priority list as well.

 

“As we all know, this has been a unique and monumental year for education reform in Tennessee,” Education Commissioner Bruce Opie said. “Several factors converged to impact student success, including increased standards and assessments, yet our educators and school leaders have still shown great progress. This is just the beginning of what will be a transformational process for our state.”

 

The State Board of Education set new academic proficiency levels on July 30, 2010. At the same time, the State Board voted to reset the state’s academic benchmarks under No Child Left Behind, which required approval from the US Department of Education.

 

Tennessee currently measures whether schools and districts are making “adequate yearly progress” (AYP) toward the goal of 100 percent of students being proficient in Reading and Math with a 90 percent high school graduation rate by 2014. Individual schools not meeting benchmarks in the same subject area for two years are considered “high priority” and receive additional support and interventions from the state. A status determination for a school system is based on failing benchmarks in the same subject for both the elementary and high school grade spans.

 

Schools and districts must meet performance standards in 37 categories at each grade span to be deemed in “good standing” under federally mandated No Child Left Behind.

 

For more information, visit http://tn.gov/education/reportcard/index.shtml or http://tn.gov/education/nclb/ayp/index.shtml or contact Amanda Maynord Anderson at (615) 532-7817 or Amanda.Anderson@tn.gov.                       

 

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