Jackson Schools Director Happy With TCAT Growth

Jackson County Schools recorded a victory in TCAP scores just released, especially in math.

Director Of Schools Jason Hardy said scores among third through eighth grades increased two percentage points. This year marked the arrival of a new math curriculum in the school system.

“The math improvements that is something we had really been targeting,” Hardy said. “We have had some areas that we knew that we had to really get deeper into, and our math curriculum, we changed our curriculum the year before last so last year was our first full year and to see three through eight math scores go up two percentage points that was definitely a victory.”

TCAP scores increased five percentage points in science, ten percentage points in social studies. High school tests showed improvement in English proficiency and biology.

Hardy said the system saw results from the focus on third graders’ reading scores, through the promotion and retention law.

“Third grade was a good example,” Hardy said. “We had a lot of success we felt this year, and I know there has been a lot of talk and a lot of pressure in that grade so we were very happy with our results.”

Hardy said the scores help the teachers understand where a student stands. Hardy said the scores exceeded expectations, but there is more room for improvement.

“We have a couple of pockets there in the three through eight that we still need to work on,” Hardy said. “But yeah that has been a targeted thing that the state has put out and a lot of emphasis on that.”