The Jackson County School System continues to trend up, as TCAP proficiency scores improved again last school year.
Director of Schools Jason Hardy said there was a three percent jump in English/Language Arts, two percent each in Math and Social Studies, and a seven percent jump in Science. Hardy said, at first glance, the district is pleased with this year’s results.
“I think we’ve improved in pretty much every grade and every subject level,” Hardy said. “Some more than others. But it’s more positive momentum that we’ve built on from the last couple years. You know, last year, we was an exemplary district. You know, we feel like we’re going to have some decent scores when accountability comes out. But, you know, our goal is to continue to improve every year.”
Hardy said third grade English/Language Arts proficiency improved by some 15 percent this year. Hardy said that subject was a target area across all grade levels, and has continued to improve over the last five years.
Hardy said third grade math and science have improved as well. Hardy said at the high school, Algebra II scores have been trending up.
Hardy said the district has been working hard on improving math scores across all levels. Although there were improvements this year, Hardy said there is still work to be done.
“We’ve done a little bit better this year, but we’re nowhere near where we want,” Hardy said. “We’re not satisfied. We got a couple of areas where we had some teacher transitions that we’re a little disappointed in some of the numbers.”
Hardy said improving math scores can be especially challenging because it builds on itself each year. He said a big challenge is the snowball effect that students may feel when they fall behind in math.
“The struggle is always trying to teach grade level standards, but knowing these kids have some gaps,” Hardy said. “You can’t just do all remediation or else you’re going to get really far behind. You’ve really got to work on the grade level standards, along with in that same limited amount of time, being able to strengthen and remediate some of the places that some of the students have missed along the way.”
Hardy said students, parents, and teachers have continued to work towards improvement despite the challenges.
Hardy said the district will spend some time taking a deeper look at the TCAP results in the near future.
