Overton Working To Improve 3rd Grade ELA, Math

Third grade students in Overton County are falling behind the district’s goals for English/language arts and math proficiency levels.

The district’s TISA accountability report showed third graders were 0.4 percent shy of the 38 percent goal for English and over two percent below the 44 percent goal for math. Director of Schools Donnie Holman said officials are working toward improvement.

“We’re honing in on certain areas that we definitely want to improve,” Holman said. “And then of course celebrate a little along in those areas that we’re doing well. But as long as there’s a school and as long as there’s students we’ll always be trying to improve on something.”

Holman said the report shows the system exceeded its goal to get the district’s average ACT score to 17.8 with a final average of 18.4. Holman said their schools are doing well overall outside of the struggles with third grade English.

“We want to do better in all areas always, of course,” Holman said. “But that main goal being the third grade ELA, we want to improve in that area as well.”

The report showed that over eighty percent of high school students were qualified as “Ready Graduates” according to the state’s requirements. The district’s goal was to have a ready graduate rate of 66.3 percent.

Holman said they adjust their plans each year to encourage as much growth as possible with their various test scores and academic metrics.