Parents and community members whose Hamilton County public schools received an F on their initial school letter grades, as assigned recently by the state, may be wondering how they got there.
In other words, what happened? What went wrong?
While the state offers more information on school letter grades, including resources for parents and educators, by visiting https://www.tn.gov/education/schoollettergrades.html, we believe some readily available data might give those who are interested a clue as to how the grades were determined.
The three schools which received F’s were Calvin Donaldson Environmental Science Academy, Harrison Elementary and Tyner Middle Academy.
Half the weight in determining a school’s letter grades comes from its academic achievement, which, in this case, means how well the students in a school know the skills required for their particular grade level as measured by the Tennessee Comprehensive Assessment Program (TCAP) test. Forty percent of the grade comes from growth of all students in the school as compared to their peers across the state, and 10% comes from growth of students who rank in the school’s bottom 25% of students based on achievement.