From Fox 17: Statewide testing results released Thursday show promising outcomes for elementary school students amid a new retention law across Te
From Fox 17: Statewide testing results released Thursday show promising outcomes for elementary school students amid a new retention law across Tennessee.
The Tennessee Department of Education released results for the for the English Language Arts portion of the 2024 Tennessee Comprehensive Academic Program (TCAP) assessment which shows 3rd graders’ scores remained steady and 4th graders’ scores showed “significant improvement.”
“Tennessee’s strategic education investments have resulted in significant gains in reading for students across the state,” said Gov. Bill Lee. “As we continue our work to ensure that all Tennessee students can read at grade level, we remain committed to supporting teachers and empowering families with multiple pathways to achievement so every student can thrive in their academic journey.”
Third graders saw a slight increase to 40.9% proficient on the ELA portion while 4th grade students reached a 2.9 percentage point increase in their proficiency rate to 46.4% proficient.
The results also found the fewest number of 4th grade students scored “below expectations” for their proficiency performance level than ever before.
Executive Director of Professional Educators of Tennessee JC Bowman said the association looks forward to looking over data and numbers of schools and districts statewide to further help students’ improvement and academic achievement.
See his full statement on the TCAP result below:
We look forward to reviewing the data and numbers of schools and districts statewide to see where we can improve and focus future efforts. The fact that very few students were retained last year demonstrates that support strategies such as summer learning camps and tutoring programs benefit students. We strongly support identifying and assisting struggling readers in lower grades and the responsible use of data to support students before third grade. Tennessee’s public schools are making significant strides in literacy with the aid of data-driven insights, enabling the implementation of best practices and resource allocation to enhance student outcomes. Due to the hard work of students, teachers, districts, and families and the critical investments of time and resources by district and state leaders, we are seeing positive results.
