Cooper: Drop in TCAP test scores may have been 'expected,' but fixing them will require personal responsibility

Staff File Photo / TCAP test booklets from several years back are pictured in a fifth-grade classroom at George R. Stuart Elementary School in Cleveland.
Staff File Photo / TCAP test booklets from several years back are pictured in a fifth-grade classroom at George R. Stuart Elementary School in Cleveland.

The words "what we expected" for the drop in scores of Tennessee students on the Tennessee Comprehensive Assessment Program (TCAP) tests between the 2018-2019 and the 2020-2021 school years may be accurate, but they're far from comforting.

"This is the first time we've had full statewide data on students regarding their achievement since the pandemic began," Gov. Bill Lee said Monday upon release of the 2020-2021 scores, "and what we've seen is what we expected."

The drop in scores reflects the learning that did not take place during the locked-down last few months of the 2019-2020 school year and the 2020-2021 school year while many students were attending classes remotely.

It also heightens the critical importance of face-to-face learning, which, in turn, involves the "we're-tired-of-talking-about-them" subjects of vaccines and masks.

We know where there are more bodies with vaccines, there are fewer people with the COVID-19 virus. Where there are fewer bodies with vaccines, there are more people with the virus, especially the virulent, easily communicable delta strain. It's that simple.

Yes, children are far less likely to: a) get the virus, and b) get seriously sick with the virus, but the delta strain is increasing the number of those sick. And vaccines are available to children 12 and older, so the more they're vaccinated the less chance they'll ever get sick or pass along the virus to someone else.

But no, since the vaccines were developed under emergency use protocols, we wouldn't mandate that all students 12 and up be forced to get one to attend school. Nevertheless, we maintain that vaccines are the best way for all eligible people to protect themselves, their families and all those with whom they will come in contact and the soonest way for the pandemic to end.

Yes, we realize the guidance around masks coming from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, from government officials and from national media has been confusing. But we know without a doubt they help prevent the spread of the COVID-19 virus and other common illnesses.

But no, we wouldn't mandate them for every school child, which is similar to the Hamilton County Schools' current thinking of highly recommending them but not forcing students to wear them. If the cases from the delta variant don't improve soon, though, we would be tempted to require them for staff and students 12 and up.

The important factor is that in-class learning continue. The proof is in the TCAP scores.

Scores across the state dropped last year in all four main subject areas - English/language arts, math, science and social studies - but the most significant drops came in early literacy (the percentage of K-2 students who have mastered or are on track to grade-level work fell from 32% to 21%) and middle school math (the percentage of students who scored below proficiency climbed from 26% to 40%).

Experts regard reading on grade level by third grade as one of the most significant benchmarks for students. If they are not at grade level, their chances of further success in school, of graduating on time (or at all), of realizing their life-long earning potential, and of their ability to contribute to the nation's economy and security greatly lessen.

The scores also showed third-graders fell 6 points, from 38% to 32%, in English/language arts, between the 2019 and 2021 tests.

TCAP testing was suspended during the 2019-2020 school year.

The combined scores for students across all grade levels from 2019 to 2021 declined 5 points, from 36% to 31%, in the information released by the Tennessee Department of Education.

The few bright spots included a 4-point increase in proficiency by high school students in social studies and an increase in the percentage of all students who are either on track or who are approaching proficiency in science.

The state education department will release its district-level TCAP scores late next week.

Although there are no plans for remote learning for Hamilton County students this coming year, we feel parents must do their part to prevent a situation in which such a plan might be considered again. That includes getting vaccinated themselves, getting their eligible children vaccinated and strongly recommending their children over 12 wear their masks in school.

As we have seen with a pandemic that came with no rule book, no eventuality comes with a 100% guarantee. But we should do what we know will work, and in-school classes will produce more learned students and better test scores. And in-school classes can be practically guaranteed by a more vaccinated population and the judicious use of masks.

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