Bradley County Schools Director Johnny McDanielCLEVELAND, Tenn. – Bradley County education officials want to boost achievement scores of the system’s disabled and poor elementary school students.
At a recent special meeting, the Bradley County Board of Education met to dissect the state testing performance scores of students and review grant plans intended to improve future scores.
Bradley County Schools “earned a gold star” by most accounts, said Shannon Moody, a data analyst with the Tennessee Department of Education’s Southeast Center of Regional Excellence.
However, the school district failed to score “exemplary,” the highest state ranking, because it missed goals involving students with disabilities and those who are economically disadvantaged. The missed objectives revolved around the concept of “gap closure,” or closing the achievement score gaps of student subgroups — based on factors such as disabilities, ethnicities and/or economic situation — and the rest of the student population.
Five county elementary schools are seeking grants of up to $200,000 to improve the performance of their subgroup student populations: Charleston, Parkview, Prospect, Taylor and Waterville. The grant applications seek to focus funding on professional development of teaching staff.