State education officials say Tennessee schools performed better overall this year under the No Child Left Behind benchmark known as AYP, or Adequate Yearly Progress. AYP measures a school’s performance based on its reading, writing and math scores, as well as graduation and attendance rates.
Schools that don’t achieve AYP are placed on a high priority list. This year, 96 schools in Tennessee were placed on that list – that’s down from last year’s 159.
In Metro Nashville, Antioch High, Cora Howe Elementary, and Bellevue Middle, were among the 12 schools that came off the high priority list this year, but twelve new ones took their place for a total of 32.
Maplewood High, which has not been able to improve its low graduation rates, faces the most severe action of any Metro school this year – a reconstitution plan. That means the state intervenes and evaluates the school’s entire program.
Dr. Connie Smith is the state’s Executive Director in the Office of Innovation, Improvement and Accountability. She says the plan will be a collaboration between the state and Metro.
“We’re going to look at the curriculum, we’re going to look at the content, we’re going to look at the leadership of the school. We make decisions about the people in the school, what’s being taught, the schedule and everything about that school this year.”
Maplewood High is the first Metro Nashville school to be placed in reconstitution status.
Overall, Metro Davidson County is considered to be a high priority school system as are Cumberland, DeKalb, Maury, and Roberston county school systems in Middle Tennessee.
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