Many of Tennessee’s schools and school districts did better than expected on the state’s report card. But officials are warning that next year could be a difficult one as it the state tightens its standards.

Every so often, the state has to reset the baseline used to compare school performance from year to year. This is one of those times.

The resetting can have the effect of seemingly shifting grades down. The same level of achievement that would have earned an A last year could result in a B or C this time.

Even so, state officials said a surprising number of schools and districts continued to earn fairly high marks this year. For example, Rutherford and Williamson County earned straight As for the number of elementary and middle school students who performed well.

Resetting the baseline only affect how schools and districts are graded. Starting next year, students themselves will be held to tougher standards. Education Commissioner Timothy Webb warns that will likely bring an even more dramatic shift.

“As we move forward with the new standard for next year, as we move into that new assessment window, we’re going to see some fairly substantial problems.”

Starting this spring, each student will have to master more skills in order to be considered “proficient” in a given subject. The changes are expected to have a particularly big impact on reading scores.

Reading scores already aren’t what they should be among Tennessee’s 4th through 9th graders.

State officials say the approach to early grades has grown stronger in recent years, with more kids going to preK and new ways of helping students who struggle early on. But older children missed out on those changes. Assistant Commissioner Connie Smith says the report card shows that too many of them are struggling to read.

“We stop teaching reading after the third grade and retention of reading skills and comprehension skills need to be retaught.”

The department of education recently established an Office of Reading Information and Proficiency. Its job is find ways of shoring up reading and literacy skills at every grade level.

Davidson County’s students are improving from year to year on what’s called value-added scores, but children in grades 3 through 8 still earned straight Ds in all areas but writing. High schoolers averaged a 19-point-0 on the ACT, a full point and a half below the state average.

In surrounding counties, the situation is generally reversed. Districts earned poor marks for year-to-year improvement, but their test scores are solid.

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