White Co Schools Evaluating Actions Steps After Some Low Benchmark Tests

White County Schools mid-year benchmark testing showing dips in language arts and math for students.

School systems take three tests each year to judge where students stand leading up to state standardized exams. Director of Schools Kurt Dronebarger said there were a lot of good scores, but data such as 4th grade math caused concern.

“What we were particularly interested in are those double digit swings,” Dronebarger said. “Where we saw students drop 10,20 or even 30 percentage points. That is really what we are looking at, and we wanted to make sure that our principals are invested into that data.”

Dronebarger said he has met with administrators to identify factors possibly impacting students. Dronebarger said educators will review action steps to ensure numbers go in the right direction heading into the spring.

“I asked principals to meet with their teachers and talk to them about that individual data,” Dronebarger said. “Really to get our teachers to dig in to see where they are. That is where we are in the process. Principals have been doing that and getting that feedback to me.”

Dronebarger said the second benchmark tests are taken around Christmas, which sometimes impact scores for some students. Dronebarger said situations outside of the classroom could have also affected some students.

“We wanted to make sure our teachers are having those conversations with students, reporting to principals, owning that data and finding out what those answers are,” Dronebarger said. “We just weren’t willing to roll the dice at spring benchmarks and see if it corrected itself. We wanted to take tangible steps.”