Highest Percentage Of Jackson Students Performing At Grade Level In Five Years, TCAP Data Shows

TCAP data shows Jackson County Schools with the highest percentage of students performing at grade level expectations in five years.

Director of Schools Kristy Brown said schools focused on ELA and math skills this year and expected to see gains in these scores. She said it’s encouraging to see their hard work paid off.

“We are at or above the state expectations or state average in several of our areas, a little below overall,” Brown said. “But we are certainly making gains on that and we are excited to be moving in the right direction.”

Brown said that overall, ELA scores had 31 percent of students overall meeting expectations. She said that they saw higher gains in elementary and middle schoolers.

Brown said that math scores also made an improvement district-wide. She said that while there is certainly more to teaching than state testing, the schools do have a focus on it because it sets the expectations for standards that are assessed at that time.

“So right now we are analyzing our student data, putting goals to address learning gaps and the places that we want to focus on and prioritize for the next school year,” Brown said. “And we are excited and motivated to do that.”

Brown said that some ways they hope to address the learning gaps are by expanding their Tennessee AllCorps tutoring and also working on pacing and use of focus document in math to lead into the upcoming math book adoption.

Brown said that the success of the students wouldn’t be possible without the hard work and support from teachers, families, and the community.