It's all in the spin.
No matter the results, no matter the mitigating factors, public education officials quite naturally want to put the best face on annual testing data.
The recent release of testing scores under the Tennessee Comprehensive Assessment Program (TCAP) is no different.
A year ago, Hamilton County officials happily pointed out that the district outperformed the state in 24 of 28 tested areas. Earlier this week, school officials noted the district "stayed steady" in terms of proficiency this year while many districts in the state had dips in proficiency.
According to the Tennessee Department of Education, Hamilton County outperformed the state overall in 2022 TCAP scores across grades 3-12 in the four core areas of English language arts (by .3%), math (by 1.3%), science (by .2%) and social studies (by .7%).
However, a look at the same 28 areas - considering individual grades and high school - indicates the district only outperformed the state in 2022 in 14 tested areas. While that was worse than 2021, it was better than 2019, when Hamilton County students outperformed the state in only nine tested areas. (The COVID-19 pandemic prevented any testing in 2020.)
Most of the county's 2022 gains are in grades 3-5, for which district officials credit a new English language curriculum, while most of the biggest differences in proficiency from the state came in eighth grade and high school.
The biggest differences are in eighth-grade math (10% worse than the state), English Language Arts II (4% worse) and eighth-grade social studies (3% worse).
All three lowest county scores in tested areas are in high school math, with proficiencies only 27% in Geometry, 25% in Algebra II and 21% in Algebra I.
In 2021, the district saw expected drops in testing subject matter proficiency after students had to close out their 2019-2020 school year with remote learning and begin part of the 2020-2021 year with it.
So, Hamilton County students, not surprisingly, improved in 2022 in English language arts, math and social studies, but fell back in science.
The 2022 TCAP aggregated scores also continued to show Black students in the county being outperformed by white students, despite the district's emphasis on an equity plan that seeks to help students who have experienced barriers that prevent them from achieving at high levels. The disparity is especially keen in math, where more than half of all Black students in grades 3-8 are performing below grade level, and in Algebra I, where more than 75% of students perform below grade level.
The 2022 scores for individual schools are not yet available, but total per-pupil spending at majority Black schools continues to outpace all schools, leaving us to wonder why the extra spending is not making a difference in test scores.
Per-pupil spending in 2019-2020 (the most recent figures available), according to state Department of Education numbers, has climbed to more than $12,000 per student at 14 Hamilton County schools.
Of those, Tommie F. Brown Academy, Brainerd High, Calvin Donaldson Environmental Science Academy, Barger Academy, Howard Connect Academy, Hillcrest Elementary (now closed), Orchard Knob Elementary, Orchard Knob Middle, Woodmore Elementary, Chattanooga Girls Leadership Academy and Chattanooga Preparatory School are majority Black schools.
Improving public schools is a work in progress, and we acknowledge it is practically impossible to expect scores to improve in every tested area every year.
But when the school district says its students have posted some of its best scores in five years, as it did this year, the realist in us understands the district actually has not made progress in those specific areas. The trajectory now may be in the right direction, but going backward again - the COVID-19 pandemic aside - should never be acceptable.
We hope a year from now the TCAP scores from the 2022-2023 school year prove how serious the district is about improvement and that no spin will be needed to explain the results.