News Talk 94.1/AM 1600 Where The Upper Cumberland Talks
Putnam County third and fourth graders showed growth in TCAP Language Arts proficiency results during end-of-year testing.
Data released Thursday morning indicates a 3.1 percent increase from last year, with 46 percent of third graders showing Language Arts proficiency. The results show a 5.0 percent increase for fourth graders, with nearly half receiving proficient scores. Data and Testing Supervisor Jason Stickler said he is excited and encouraged by the results.
“These great numbers coming in today would not be possible without the dedication of our staff,” Stickler said. “And also our students and our parents as well. Everybody jumping in, you know, team effort to make this happen for us. So, just incredibly blessed to have the staff that we do.”
Stickler said the district has had extra support in place this year like tutors focused on helping students meet grade-level requirements. He said district leadership is moving into discussions about the best method to make another jump next school year.
“We just want to capitalize on what has worked well last year,” Stickler said. “We’re still going to bring in our tutors to work with our students, We know that works. That small group environment.”
He said that given the positive data, he expects the system to be in good shape as far as promotion and retention come July as summer school rolls on and some parents make appeals. He said constant communication with parents over the past two years has contributed to making this growth possible as well.
“What we’ve tried to do, is be extremely transparent,” Stickler said. “We know that a lot of the information that we get, we have to look through it and look through it first to make sure we have a good handle on it before we release it out to parents and the community, but that’s just a commitment that we’ve made here.”
Stickler said the district has seen incremental progress in its ELA proficiency scores over the past several years and he looks forward working toward another positive step next year.
