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Tennessee: Raising scores and questions

By: Beverly Carroll
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Mike Rich

Critics of the No Child Left Behind Act argue that the 6-year-old accountability law has set the bar impossibly high in many areas.

But some detractors and supporters alike agree that the complicated law has forced educators to pay attention to every student warming a seat in the classroom.

“It focused us as a faculty and a district to really look at (whether) we are helping all kids,” said Mike Rich, principal of Davis Elementary School in Dade County, Ga. “It’s really forced us to do a lot of soul-searching and redefine what we are all about.”

A new national study says students across the country are doing better in math and science since the measure became law.

The achievement gap between minorities and low-income students and their wealthier, white counterparts is shrinking, according to the report from the Center on Education Policy, a Washington, D.C.-based education research group.

But it’s unclear whether the law is responsible, said Jack Jennings, president and CEO of the center.

The report tried to define the impact of No Child Left Behind by analyzing standardized test score data for 2003 through 2007 from all 50 states. Researchers looked at scores in grades four, eight and one grade of high school.

“It would be very difficult, if not impossible, to say yes or no,” Dr. Jennings said. “There is too much going on in schools at the same time. There are local and state reforms, and in some schools NCLB is minor and in others it is major. It would be hard to separate out the facts.”

TENNESSEE’S GAP

Many North Georgia and Southeast Tennessee school systems reflected statewide trends identified in the report.

Overall, Georgia and Tennessee students are posting academic achievement. But Tennessee isn’t doing as well as some other states in closing the achievement gap between minority and low-income students and their white peers, the report found.

Still, area educators said the gap in some cases is beginning to shrink.

“We are seeing improvements but we want to see equity in all areas,” said Rachel Woods, spokeswoman for the Tennessee Department of Education.

“Part of that is looking at these test scores and at the resources being given to all groups. Are (white and economically advantaged students) being given additional resources? Why are they succeeding when others are not?”

Marion County Schools Superintendent Mark Griffith said much of the difference among the groups can be explained by what goes on outside of the classroom.

“When you look at the successful groups, you see a large degree of parental involvement,” he said. “When you look at the (less successful groups), you see less parental involvement.”

Mr. Griffith gave NCLB credit for helping administrators decide where to put the resources they have. But he said NCLB doesn’t address the problem of not having enough resources in the first place.

“It shows us where the discrepancies are. But I think it takes funding and being creative to the point where you start to make those gains,” Mr. Griffith said.

USING THE DATA

In Georgia schools NCLB drove the shift to data-based instruction and analysis of achievement by subgroups such as English language learners, poor and disabled students and by gender, said Nancy Lance, director of curriculum and instruction for Walker County Schools.

“Anytime something is closely monitored, it improves,” Ms. Lance said.

Walker County’s students with disabilities improved from 68.2 percent proficient or higher in reading in 2004 to 70.9 percent in 2007, according to school figures.

“It is important to have high expectations for students, and we believe that all students can learn,” she said.

The solution is to start as early as possible, said Sharen Hausmann, vice president of early learning for the United Way of Metro Atlanta.

“We work in communities with parents and schools and children to provide a support system, the resources for children and families so the child can be successful,” Ms. Hausmann said.

“We work with children birth through 5 years old to try and close the achievement gap before they enter school,” she said.

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