Bradley schools score better than expected

After the frenzy of springtime test prep, school administrators usually spend late summer and first semester digesting test scores and diagnosing what went right or wrong.

It’s no different in Bradley County and, though test scores took a slight dip this year, Director of Schools Johnny McDaniel said he’d been bracing for the worst.

But what he got was straight B’s on the Tennessee Comprehensive Assessment Program test.

“I was a little prepared to have even ended up with C’s,” Mr. McDaniel said. “(The scores) seem to be a little higher than what I expected them to be.”

Bradley’s achievement scores are on par with the state average, both of which dropped slightly from A’s and B’s the year before. But thanks to a new way of calculating test scores this year — the baseline, which was set with actual students’ test scores in 1998, was reset with scores from last year’s test results — the letter grades cannot be compared.

Essentially, it was harder for schools and school districts to earn a B this year than it was last year, state education officials have said.

Even so, Bradley schools, much like those in neighboring Hamilton County, took a slight dip in the percentage of students scoring proficient and advanced in both math and reading.

The definition of “proficiency” has not changed, so those numbers can be compared year to year, said Rachel Woods, spokeswoman for the Tennessee Department of Education.

The percentage of students scoring proficient or advanced in elementary and middle school math and reading in Bradley County both went from 92 percent in 2008 to 91 percent in 2009, according to the 2009 state report card.

High school reading went from 93 percent of students proficient and advanced in 2008, to 92 percent in 2009. In 2008, 87 percent of high schoolers were considered proficient or advanced in math, and in 2009, that number dropped to 85 percent.

Room for improvement

While Mr. McDaniel was pleased that his district’s scores weren’t any lower, he said he is “not satisfied with the grades.”

To help, he recently hired a former Bradley County principal as a systemwide data analyst to evaluate test scores and use numbers to show how to better teach students.

He’s also used federal stimulus money to purchase technology such as smart boards and projectors for his classrooms, which he said are important tools for teachers to improve instruction.

And at the core of all the district’s efforts to boost achievement is an emphasis on reading, Mr. McDaniel said.

“We still fundamentally believe you can’t leave reading,” he said.

While a focus on reading is partly what allowed Michigan Avenue Elementary to earn straight A’s in achievement this year, the school’s results on this year’s report card also show a slight decrease in math scores.

“We’d focused so much on reading, we needed to branch out into math,” said Principal Sheena Newman.

Now every classroom at her school starts the day with a math word problem. It’s part of their preparation for the standardized tests they’ll take in the spring, she said.

The TCAP tests have gotten more rigorous and next year will include more higher-level math problems, education officials say.

Dana Yost, an instructional coach at the Michigan Avenue school, said she has been helping the teachers learn how to apply what they know of teaching reading to subjects such as math.

“Vocabulary is huge in math,” she said.

Even physical education teacher Sherry Miller has been getting in on the action, integrating math concepts into her PE games.

She’ll place numbers on various items around the gym and tell students to “find me a factor of 15,” and students can run to a 3, a 5 or a 15, she said.

“PE is easy to incorporate any subject,” she said. “You have their attention. They want to be there.”

As Michigan Avenue moves forward, Mrs. Newman said her biggest concern will be reaching out toward higher-performing students, especially in math. The No Child Left Behind law forces schools to work closely with struggling students, she said, sometimes to the detriment of those who excel.

“We have an advanced math class that meets after school,” she said. “We’re trying to challenge that upper level.”

ACHIEVEMENT SCORES

Bradley County

Math: B

Reading: B

Social Studies: B

Science: B

Michigan Avenue Elementary

Math: A

Reading: A

Social Studies: A

Science: A

Source: 2009 Report Card