Overall, Hamilton County Schools received the lowest possible composite score on the Tennessee Value-Added Assessment Scores, the annual state assessment that measures student growth year over year in literacy, numeracy, science and social studies. But many schools in the North Hamilton County area did better than expected.
Student growth in each subject for the 2016-2017 school year was scored from one to five, with five being the highest. Hamilton County Schools received a one in every category with the exception of literacy, for which the district earned a five, showing improvement “significantly above expectation.”
Two North Hamilton County schools, Loftis Middle School and Ganns Middle Valley Elementary, received fives in all subject areas tested.
In North Hamilton County, along with Loftis and Ganns, Allen Elementary, Chattanooga High Center for Creative Arts, Normal Park Museum Magnet, Hixson Middle, Big Ridge Elementary and McConnell Elementary received the top composite score of five. However, several of those schools had low scores in one of the subjects tested: Normal Park and Center for Creative Arts both received a two in science, and Big Ridge received a one in literacy. This means that while students at those schools grew faster than their peers overall, they did not show as much growth as their peers in that particular subject.
“TVAAS measures student growth, regardless of whether a student is proficient on the state assessment,” said Chandler Hopper, deputy director of communications for the Tennessee Department of Education. “In a case like [Hamilton County’s] results, even though there was the exception in literacy, the overall composite is still a one, which means there was significant evidence that across all subject areas, students tended to not meet the growth standard that was expected.”
“If students tended to grow at about the same rate as their peers across the state – the expected amount of growth – the district would earn a three. If students grew faster than their peers, a student would earn a four or a five, depending on the amount of progress they showed. If they did not show as much growth as their peers, they would earn a one or a two.”
All of North Hamilton’s top-performing schools aside from Allen, Normal Park and Center for Creative Arts are in Hixson’s District 3, which Joe Smith represents on the Board of Education. He said the No. 1 reason Loftis and Ganns do so well is the great leadership demonstrated by their principals and teachers, adding that parental support the schools receive is perhaps just as or more important.
Hixson High is the only school in District 3 that received the lowest composite score of one. When asked why students at the high school weren’t growing as much as their peers despite its high-performing feeder schools, Smith explained that because of the No Child Left Behind law, many of the students at HHS do not come from schools in Hixson but are brought in from other areas.
“I think that our problem is not so much with education, teachers and principals; it’s at home,” Smith said, referring to the county as a whole. “Learning’s got to start at home.”
That’s why literacy, in which Hamilton County Schools has successfully improved, has been such a big push.
One of the most notable takeaways from the scores is the disparity among schools – even those in the same district. Four elementary schools in District 2 received the lowest composite score of one and one received a two, while the district’s other two elementary schools received the highest possible score. Red Bank High School received a composite score of four – higher than any non-magnet high school in the county – while the district’s other high school, Signal Mountain Middle/High, was among the schools that showed the least amount of growth in the county, according to TVAAS, with a composite of one.
Dr. Bryan Johnson, who took over the reins as Hamilton County Schools superintendent this summer, said the disparity among school performance is a problem.
“What’s concerning to me is the fact that we have so many schools performing on both ends of the spectrum,” he said. “You’ve got schools that are doing really well and some that are doing not so well.”
He said he will be working to bring schools’ performances in line with one another, reducing variability among schools and working with educators to break the cycle of underperformance.
“The goal is not to make everybody the same. You want to guarantee a high-quality education at every school. The number is just a single indicator of what happens in our school buildings every day,” he said.
“It’s one of many indicators, but it is an indicator.”
Kathy Lennon, who represents District 2 on the school board, said people need to understand that TVAAS measures the progress students make over the year, and they should instead be focusing on student achievement. The TVAAS does not indicate that Signal Mountain’s Thrasher Elementary, which scored a five in every area, has better teachers or smarter students than nearby Nolan Elementary, which had a one composite, she said.
“It just means that teachers at Thrasher were able to move kids at a faster clip,” Nolan explained. “We did not meet the standards we hoped to see, and we know we have to improve. We want all schools to be at a three, four or five.”
Staff writer Emmett Gienapp contributed to this story.