DAYTON, Tenn. – Improving Rhea County students’ standardized test scores will be a high priority for the school system in the coming months as officials seek to meet new state standards.
Director of Schools Jerry Levengood told school board members Thursday that 2010 high school Algebra I and English II scores, which the county just received, exceed standards for the 2011 year, but improvement is needed in scores for grades three through eight.
“These summaries of test scores give us good information about where we are and goals for where we’re going,” Levengood said. “We have a program that has been in place for the past two years that I think is going to help raise scores. We will be updating you every month.”
He told board members that he plans to meet in the coming month with administrators, principals, teachers and parents to come up with a plan to address the situation.
And board member Johnny Mincy stressed that “we need to get the parents on board” to make this effort successful.
In other matters, Levengood distributed a timeline from the Hewlett-Spencer construction management firm showing steps that need to be taken to complete construction of a high school by the beginning of school in 2013. The timeline assumes construction will start this summer.
Steve Hewlett told board members that he will ask the county finance committee Wednesday to approve money for a topographical survey of the proposed site adjacent to the existing high school to determine whether the site is usable.
Board members also authorized Levengood to modify the school calendar should bad weather force schools to close again before the end of the year.
The director said the school system has used all but one of its snow days. If more than one more is needed, professional development days will be used as instructional days before spring break days are used as a last resort.
Contact Tom Davis at tsdavis@volstate.net