Tennessee school districts are touting their Tennessee Value-Added Assessment System (TVAAS) scores, even as the Tennessee Department of Education (TDOE) has yet to make those scores available for public inspection.
TVAAS measures student academic growth over a school year. Since it focuses on growth over proficiency, TVAAS allows administrators to see what strategies truly impact student performance.
The state’s three large urban districts – Hamilton County Schools, Metro Nashville Public Schools, and Memphis-Shelby County Schools – announced this week that they have achieved “level 5” growth based on results from spring’s TNready test. Despite these school districts providing this information, none of the releases include links to actual data. The TDOE has not made the supporting data available to the general public.
District leaders have been provided the data in spreadsheet form. Despite the embargo on scores being lifted last week, the information is unavailable to districts electronically.
The TDOE is communicating to superintendents that parents must wait until September 13 to review the scores.
MNPS School Board Member Erin O’Hara Block, herself a parent of an MNPS student, urged people to be patient, though she does admit to having some frustration with the process herself. She told The Tennessee Star, “While we have had times in the past where districts have been able to talk about results before the state issues a release, normally that has been accompanied by TDOE putting out data online as well. We are all eager to look at the data, so I understand it makes us impatient.”
She added, “But, I do share parents’ frustration at not being able to dive more deeply into the data. I hope it’s available soon.”
Block previously worked for the TDOE. The state department of education uploaded the 2022 TVAAS results to the state website on August 11.
TVAAS is a component in the calculation of the state’s accountability formula. Currently included in the formula are proficiency, growth, English Language Learner performance, chronic absenteeism, special education student performance, and graduation rates. The TDOE also incorporates Annual Measurable Objectives (AMO) into growth scores to give more weight to achievement.
State law requires the TDOE to assign schools a letter grade annually based on the state’s accountability formula. Past problems have prevented the TDOE from completing the assigned task. This year will purportedly be different. The TDOE has repeatedly promised that school letter grades will be released in November.
Last September, the Federal Department of Education questioned some of Tennessee’s accountability practices. In a letter dated September 27, 2022, the FDOE outlined several required adjustments and changes needed by Tennessee to be in compliance. The status of those modifications remains unclear, and the state is awaiting a response from the federal government.
Recently, under former Commissioner Penny Schwinn, Tennessee explored moving to an accountability model that assigns 40 percent to proficiency, 40 percent to growth, and the additional 20 percent derived from “additional factors.” Any of the current “additional factors” could be included in a future formula.
To gather opinions on what should be included, the TDOE has held a series of town halls across the state to gather input on the “A-F” grading system for schools. At the town hall in Memphis, new Commissioner of Education Lizzette Gonzalez Reynolds voiced support for a formula that heavily weighs “achievement” over “growth.”
In meetings with superintendents, she asked, “Should a school with 23% proficiency, be considered an ‘A’ school?” This week, in Hamilton County’s town hall, she informed attendees that the state will do away with the AMOs.
The Tennessee Star contacted the TDOE for a possible timeline for releasing TVAAS data, but the department did not respond.
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TC Weber is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network. He also writes the blog Dad Gone Wild. Follow TC on Twitter. Email tips to [email protected]. He’s the proud parent of two public school children and the spouse of a public school teacher.
