Centralized Website Allows Communities to Easily View Data and Achievement of Schools, Districts
NASHVILLE—Tennessee Education Commissioner Candice McQueen has unveiled the latest version of the state Report Card, which is now available on the department’s website. This annual snapshot of school, district, and state performance offers users the ability to view multiple achievement and growth measures – in addition to metrics such as student enrollment, HOPE scholarship eligibility, school climate, and many others – in one central location. The update includes data from the 2016-17 school year.
The Report Card is a resource designed to help educators and families more easily access and better understand information about their schools and district. It also helps local education leaders to make informed decisions to support their students and educators moving forward.
“We have much to be proud of from this past year, and the Report Card allows us to once again celebrate the successes of our schools, like graduation rate and ACT scores, while seeing where we can grow and improve,” McQueen said. “The state Report Card provides a clear picture for parents, educators, and communities to see how our schools are performing, locally and across the state.”
The report card provides transparency on various areas of achievement and provides annual updates for data points and metrics. One of those updated pieces is a new public school ACT composite average of 20.1 for the class of 2017. Tennessee public high school students improved from the 2016 average of 19.9, with more than 3,500 additional students taking the exam this year.
The interactive website for the Report Card also highlights Tennessee’s 2016-17 graduation rate of 89.1 percent, which is the highest on record for Tennessee. Overall, the statewide graduation rate has increased 3.6 percentage points since the 2010-11 school year when the state transitioned to a more rigorous calculation for graduation rates.
Also new this year, the Report Card shows the full set of TNReady state assessment results for students in grades 2-12. TNReady replaces the old TCAP assessment and is fully aligned to Tennessee’s academic standards, with a particular focus on students’ problem-solving and critical-thinking abilities. High school students showed across-the-board growth on their end-of-course exams, and students in grades 3-8 set a new baseline in the first year. The report card also includes the first year, baseline-setting results from the new optional grade 2 assessment, which was administered in 100 districts.
Previous years of the Report Card are available by selecting the appropriate year on the classic version of the Report Card. State Report Cards from 2012 and earlier can be viewed under the Report Card Archives tab on the same page. Additionally, the department also provides a display of key metrics on the redesigned report card that debuted last year.
