News Talk 94.1/AM 1600 Where The Upper Cumberland Talks
A level 1 Tennessee Value-Added Assessment System score has left Putnam County School officials feeling unsatisfied.
That according to Director of Schools Jerry Boyd.
“It is certainly not something that we are satisfied within any stretch of the imagination, but as far as what it means to us,” Boyd said. “It is just an indication of a point in time last spring based on the state assessments. I don’t believe it reflects the work that our teachers or students did through the school year or any year.”
Tennessee Value-Added Assessment System measures a district’s expected growth on a 1 to 5 scale.
For the past several years, Putnam County has scored a 5 on the TVAAS, indicating that they have exceeded state expected growth for one year, Boyd said. This year Putnam County received a 1 and did not meet state growth expectations.
Boyd said he did not know why the school system scored a 1.
“There is a lot of speculation both for our district and I am sure other districts that have experienced the same change. There are several across the state,” Boyd said. “We certainly are looking and it would be nice to find an easy answer but those answers don’t exist.”
Boyd said that if the score specified one grade-span, the school system could pinpoint a distinct problem area.
The school system will begin breaking down the data to better understand the strengths and weaknesses, Boyd said.
“We want to identify at each grade level and subject area, any of the standards that our students did very well on,” Boyd said. “Also, anything that sticks out that our students didn’t do well on, so that we can look at our practices in our schools and classrooms and what kinds of supports we need to provide.”
Boyd said the school system will continue to work by observing other local data trends as well.
“We certainly take this very seriously that our district has been designated as a level 1. But we want to peel that back and really highlight the areas that are positive,” Boyd said. “We are going to certainly make no excuses for what the outcomes look like from the previous year. But we know it doesn’t reflect our years and years of success.”
Among the Upper Cumberland Overton, Dekalb, Pickett and Jackson County scored the highest possible level. Cumberland, Fentress and Van Buren County reported a score of 3. Clay and White County also scored a 1.
