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2013 Nation’s Report Card: Tennessee shows nation’s best education gains

Memphis Commercial Appeal, TN

November 8, 2013

Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam and state Commissioner of Education Kevin Huffman took a victory lap Thursday, dropping into John P. Freeman Optional School mid-afternoon to celebrate a glory day: Tennessee made the largest gains in the nation in fourth- and eight-grade reading and math, according to National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) report.

After years of work in the trenches, only to rank in the high 40s out of 50 states, fourth-graders bolted, going from 46th in math to 37 in the nation. In reading, they did even better, plowing their way up to 31 from No. 41.

“There couldn’t be better news for the state of Tennessee, to show the highest gains in the history of this national test,” Haslam told a circle of teachers and reporters in the library. “This test is an apples-to-apples comparison to other states and shows the significant progress the state of Tennessee is making.

“We know this, we couldn’t have made these gains without significant progress here in Memphis and Shelby County; it’s too big of a proportion of the population.”

Huffman, who continues to take heat from teacher groups around the state, gave the credit to them and their school leaders.

“I’m grateful for all the educators in the state,” he said. “We’ve asked people to do more and work harder. We’ve had more rigor in the classroom, and it’s paid off in better results. We are incredibly grateful.”

The minute the speeches were over, Haslam, wife Crissy and Huffman fanned out across John P. Freeman, dropping in classrooms and taking part in the day, which included an impromptu cheer from students in West Tennessee Teacher of the Year, Dr. Melissa Collins’ classroom.

Eighth-grade scores for Tennessee moved up more modestly, now ranking 43rd in math and 34th in reading. The data show Mississippi schools continuing to lag among the nation’s worst, its fourth-grade scores in math and reading ranking 50th and 49th, respectively, and its eighth-grade scores ranking 49th and 50th in math and reading.

NAEP, often called the Nation’s Report Card, is the only test that compares how students across states are performing in core subjects. The tests were given to a sample size group of students in all 50 states, plus the District of Columbia, last winter, and the report compares 2013 results to 2011 scores, the last time NAEP gathered data.

While Tennessee is making the fastest gains, its eighth-graders are significantly behind the national average in math. Only 28 percent of the public schoolchildren in the state are proficient in math, compared to 34 percent nationally.

Haslam used the NAEP results to trumpet the major changes in education policy and more rigorous academic standards that began under his predecessor, former Gov. Phil Bredesen.

He invited Bredesen to join him at a choreographed ceremony in a large auditorium at West Wilson Middle School in Mt. Juliet, near Nashville.

Bredesen, a Democrat, echoed his Republican successor in saying that Tennessee’s gains are resulting from a bipartisan “relay race.” Both men credited teachers for seeing the difficult process through.

“This to me is one of those sort of gates you get through, or milestones, that make you feel progress is being made,” Bredesen said after the ceremony.

He added: “The way this stuff gets done is two or three or four of five governors in a row keep plugging away at stuff. Everybody puts their own mark on it but you don’t just go careening off in some new direction every time there’s a change in control. Gov. Haslam has done a great job of that. His administration has put its own mark on stuff but the core stuff and the commitment to the standards, which I think is the key to all this, has been there and I really congratulate him for it.”

The scores

Key findings from the NAEP data, with scores that are based off 500-point tests:

–Tennessee fourth-graders are ranked 37th in the nation in math, scoring 240, a 3 percent increase over scores in 2011. Mississippi fourth-graders are ranked 50th in math, scoring 231, a 0.4 percent increase. Nationally, fourth-graders scored 241 in math, a 0.4 percent increase.

–Tennessee eighth-graders are ranked 43rd in math, scoring 278, a 1.3 percent increase. Mississippi eighth-graders are ranked 49th in math, scoring 271, a 0.7 percent increase. Nationally, eighth-graders scored 284 in math, a 0.4 percent increase.

–Tennessee fourth-graders are ranked 31st in reading, scoring 220, a 2.4 percent increase. Mississippi fourth-graders are ranked 49th in reading, scoring 209, a 0 percent increase. Nationally, fourth-graders scored 221, a 0.5 percent increase.

–Tennessee eighth-graders are ranked 34th in reading, scoring 265, a 2.4 percent increase. Mississippi eighth-graders are ranked 50th in reading, scoring 253, a 4.2 percent decrease. Nationally, eighth-graders scored 266, a 0.8 percent increase.

Officials were actively promoting the achievement on social media, including this from Shelby County Schools chairman Kevin Woods tweeted: “The REAL credit goes to the schools/communities. Teachers are delivering!”

Nationally, the gains were small. Overall, only about a third of children are doing schoolwork on grade level. “It’s a disgrace and truly incomprehensible that after decades of mediocrity, we celebrate today the fact that only 34 percent of our nation’s 8th graders can read at grade level and only 34 percent are proficient in math,” Kara Kerwin, president of The Center for Education Reform, said in a prepared statement.

Racial achievement gap persists

Tennessee also showed growth for African-American students, although it did not make the gains other states did in reducing the achievement gap between white and minority students.

African-American scores in Tennessee show about a half-year of additional academic growth and a corresponding decrease in the achievement gap, particularly in eighth-grade reading, where the distance between the groups dropped six points. In NAEP, 10 points is considered a year’s worth of growth.

But the gap between white and African-American fourth-graders in Tennessee widened three points in math and science. When the scores of the four tests are averaged together, African-American students showed a point more growth than white students here and a larger gain than the national average

Tennessee, which received a waiver from the No Child Behind legislation, must reduce the achievement gap in order to show it is making progress.

Impact on legislative agenda?

Both Haslam and Bredesen said the state legislature should resist efforts to roll back the controversial Common Core State Standards.

The upcoming legislative session will see further battles, including efforts to repeal parts of Common Core and to create a voucher program that allows parents to take taxpayer funding to pay private school tuition for their children.

A public campaign, funded by conservative out-of-state donors, for an expansive voucher program launched statewide in Tennessee last week, but Haslam said Wednesday and again Thursday that he wants only the limited, experimental voucher program he proposed early this year — in which only low-income children in low-performing schools would qualify.

Senate Democratic Leader Jim Kyle of Memphis issued a statement Thursday congratulating Tennessee teachers “for these extraordinary gains,” which he said bolster the opposition to private school vouchers.

“Public schools are winning without the help of vouchers, charters and for-profit schools. Taking money away from public schools will only undermine their success,” Kyle said.

But State Sen. Brian Kelsey, R-Germantown, rejected that premise: “This is a sign that the education reforms that we have been working on in Nashville are working and we need to push for more reforms, like opportunity scholarships, in Memphis, rather than less reform.”

Proficiency scores

Here is a look at the percentage of students scoring proficient or better in math:

–40 percent of Tennessee fourth-graders were proficient in math, up from 30 percent in 2011. 26 percent of Mississippi fourth-graders were proficient in math, up from 25 percent. Nationally, 41 percent of fourth-graders were proficient in math, up from 40 percent.

–28 percent of Tennessee eighth-graders were proficient in math, up from 24 percent in 2011. 21 percent of Mississippi eighth-graders were proficient in math, up from 19 percent. Nationally, 34 percent of eighth-graders were proficient in math, unchanged from 2011.

–34 percent of Tennessee fourth-graders were proficient in reading, up from 26 percent in 2011. 21 percent of Mississippi fourth-graders were proficient in reading, down from 22 percent. Nationally, 34 percent of fourth-graders were proficient in reading, up from 32 percent.

–33 percent of Tennessee eighth-graders were proficient in reading, up from 27 percent in 2011. 20 percent of Mississippi eighth-graders were proficient in reading, down from 21 percent. Nationally, 34 percent of eighth-graders were proficient in reading, up from 32 percent.