MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Data released by Tennessee on Thursday, June 13, shows third and fourth graders at Memphis-Shelby County Schools (MSCS) are improving on the English language arts portion of the TCAP.
According to MSCS, there was an approximately 3% increase for grade 3 ELA and 1.8% increase for grade 4 ELA.
"While we acknowledge progress, we will not be satisfied until all students are reading at or above grade level," the district said in a statement Thursday morning. "For 3rd graders, 26.6 percent met or exceeded proficiency on the test. For 4th graders, 28.5 percent reached that benchmark."
The district released the following key data points:
- The state grade 3 ELA proficiency went up by 0.5 percentage points. MSCS went up by 3.0 percentage points.
- The state grade 4 ELA proficiency went up by 2.9 percentage points. MSCS went up by 1.8 percentage points.
- The state expects to make student test results available to parents through the TCAP Family Portal in mid-July.
- Today's data release does not factor in the accountability measures that make adjustments for English language learners, special education students, and students who were enrolled in MSCS less than 50% of the year. Those adjustments usually improve MSCS scores.
"Literacy is the anchor to the success that our 110,000 students deserve to experience," said Superintendent Marie N. Feagins in the press release. "Thus, these data further support the need to direct more District resources directly to classrooms with a targeted emphasis on a comprehensive literacy approach at every grade level."
The Tennessee Department of Education also publicized statewide average third grade and fourth grade results for the TCAP's ELA portion. While third grade scores remained steady with a small increase to 40.9% proficient, the department said fourth graders showed significant improvement, seeing a 2.9% increase in their proficiency rate to 46.4% proficient.
The department attributed the improvement to "the nation-leading, comprehensive statewide literacy strategy for Tennessee public schools."
"Tennessee's strategic education investments have resulted in significant gains in reading for students across the state," Gov. Bill Lee said in the department's news release. "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."
Not everyone is thrilled about the 3rd and 4th TCAP results being released. Whitehaven parent Cheyenne Collins said they're still waiting for their child's test results.
"We're talking about 100 children roughly. They pick and choose the children that they were going to allow to retest. So, they did choose about 18 kids. Turned out those kids were sped kids," Collin said.
Collins said during testing in April, a major power outage happened to her daughter at Whitehaven High School.
"She's an honor student. This is her pre-AP class. This is important," she said. "This grade is 15 percent of her final grade. She needs this test in order to pass the class, period."
Nekishia Woods Dobbins with Memphis Education Fund, a school advocacy group said while these test results provide hope for the future, they want to make sure all children continue to make gains.
"Looking at the results being at 26 percent and 28 percent, I think we have a little ways to go, but like I said I think the district is well on its way of getting there," she said. "Now is a really good time to continue having those conversations about practical solutions."
Dobbins said in the coming weeks they plan to host a series of events for the public to take a deeper dive at the educational data they found from last year.
"That will look specifically at Memphis Public Schools data for children, math and English proficiency," Woods said.
ABC24 reached out to MSCS and the state for access to the raw data released by Tennessee and are waiting to hear back.