Tennessee Announces 2009-10 School, District Annual Progress Report

NASHVILLE – The Tennessee Department of Education released today the list of schools and school districts that showed gains and those that did not show sufficient progress on performance standards under the federal No Child Left Behind guidelines for the 2008-09 school year.

Every Tennessee district that was on the high priority list showed progress and moved into “improving” status. Those school districts include: Bedford County, Davidson County, Madison County and Murfreesboro City. Robertson County Schools came off the high priority list entirely. Another 42 schools across the state came off the high priority list as well, a 50 percent increase over the number of schools that came off last year.

“I want to congratulate the Tennessee schools and systems that showed remarkable progress this year, but we still have a lot of work ahead of us,” Education Commissioner Timothy Webb said. “As we raise standards next year with the Tennessee Diploma Project, students, teachers and administrators will face new challenges and our goal remains the same – preparing our children for a better future after graduation.”

Tennessee measures whether schools and districts are making “adequate yearly progress” (AYP) toward the goal of 100 percent of students being proficient in Reading and Math with a 90 percent high school graduation rate by 2014. Individual schools not meeting benchmarks in the same subject area for two years are considered “high priority” and receive additional support and interventions from the state. A school system must fail benchmarks in the same subject for both elementary and high school students. However, systems may advance by failing a different subject area the next year – as long as both grade spans miss the same subject area benchmarks.

“We commend each school district on the high priority list for making progress and improving this year,” said Dr. Connie Smith, Director of Accountability, Teaching and Learning. “State interventions are beginning to show results, however, each one of these successes can only be attributed to the partnership between state and local administrators – each of us committed to student success.”

Schools and districts must meet performance standards in 37 categories at each grade span to be deemed in “good standing” under federally mandated No Child Left Behind. For more information, visit http://tn.gov/education/nclb/ayp/ or contact Rachel Woods at (615) 253-1960 or Rachel.Woods@tn.gov.             

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