Published: October 28, 2009 07:00 am      

Schools brace for report card changes

The annual state report card for the Cumberland County School System is due out soon, and administrators are warning the Cumberland County Board of Education and community there may be some surprises in store for the system.

The annual report from the Tennessee Department of Education will use a new method to calculate system scores and the scale used to determine letter grades has been revised, as well. These changes could cause the school system to show falling scores in areas of student achievement and annual yearly progress.

"We have brand new standards and a brand new test coming this year," said Rebecca Wood, instruction facilitator. "We know the standards are tougher and the test is going to be more difficult. Every official at the state department has cautioned us over and over the scales are going to drop this year and next year before we start to climb back up."

The changes in the annual report come ahead of a new test and new standards, which are being implemented this year to assess not just knowledge and comprehension, but also critical thinking and knowledge application.

In 2007, an assessment of students across the state was completed using the National Assessment of Educational Progress test, which showed while Tennessee students were meeting the state standards, they were falling short of national standards.

"Our test was too easy and our standards were too low," Wood said. "They have made it more rigorous to achieve A grades."

A press release from the Tennessee Department of Education warns those comparing scores from earlier years to the 2009 scores, due out early next month, "comparison of the 2009 Report Card data with previous years' scores will not be possible or valid."

That's because the state changed the baseline score it uses to determine student achievement. Previously, all students were compared to students who took state tests in 1998.

This year, the baseline year for comparing student achievement will be determined using the 2009 test scores.

Second, a new grade scale will be used to score school systems with grades of A through F.

In past years, each subject area had a different grade scale, so a 57 system score in reading and language would earn an A grade, but a score of 59 was needed to receive an A in science. Now, each subject area will need a 55 to receive an A. Value added scores to show growth during the academic year have also been revised. An A in reading and language did require growth of 1.2 Normal Curve Equivalent points. Under the new scale, 1.75 NCE points in growth will be needed.

"But it's not quite that easy to get an A any more," said Wood.

NCE is calculated by taking the student's scaled score and subtracting it from the baseline score, which had been based on 1998 testing. The score was then divided by a standard deviation and calculated into a NCE score.

"It's not like a zero to a 100 score anymore," Wood explained. "I don't know that a 99 NCE is impossible, but it would be very difficult."

Wood explained, using statewide reading and language scores, that using the old baseline, 91.60 percent of students were proficient. Using the new baseline, that drops to 23.66 percent.

"We have grown tremendously since 1998, but we were comparing ourselves to what students were doing in 1998," Director of Schools Aarona VanWinkle said. "But now we're comparing ourselves to 2009, and you see a huge difference.

"You know the straight A's we've been having, get ready."

Beginning this year, TCAP testing will also include four achievement levels: advanced, proficient, basic and below proficient. This will allow teachers and parents to determine where their students fall in achievement.

Dan Schlafer, 9th District representative, said, "We've been fooling ourselves when you talk about proficiency. A proficient score on a Gateway test is one out of three questions."

VanWinkle said, "And we've seen that. We knew that child wasn't proficient, but that's what the data was showing."

When released, the report card will be available online at www.tennessee.gov/education.