White County Schools missed several proficiency goals on this year’s TISA Accountability Report by less than one percentage point.
The district has already reached 53 percent in third-grade ELA proficiency, a goal set for 2028. Director of Schools Kurt Dronebarger said the report shows improvement in proficiency in fourth-grade English through English II, and third-grade math through Integrated Math III.
“Well, we are just super proud of our students, our teachers, our staff, our administrators, it’s really a team effort,” Dronebarger said. “Very proud to see that we are ahead of schedule, where we would like to be. Still a lot of room to grow, but it’s certainly good to see when you have an opportunity to meet or exceed a goal when you have already reached it early, it’s certainly very exciting.”
The school district narrowly missed its goals in 7th-grade ELA, English I, Integrated Math I, and Integrated Math II. Dronebarger said narrowly missing those goals will be motivation for the school district.
“I know one stood out with our math program at the high school, where our Integrated I and II, kind of our ninth and tenth grade students, that are struggling a little bit, but those are difficult subjects, making big adjustments coming from the middle school math world,” Dronebarger said. “But I am so proud to see where they finally wind up in Integrated III, where we have really blown the top off of that, so folks in all three levels are working really hard, but I know they will be motivated to get those results above par.”
One of the previous goals the school district had was improving the district’s ready-graduate rate. Supervisor of Federal Programs Shelia Felton said the goal was removed as the school district had met the goal three years early, and ready-graduate status will no longer be reported.
A new goal for the school district this year is improving ACT scores and having at least 71 percent of seniors achieve college and career readiness (CCR). Dronebarger said it will take a group effort to achieve those goals.
“Well, ACT is a real tough one,” Dronebarger said. “You know, if you move your score a whole point, that’s just really quite an achievement, and so it’s a well-rounded goal, though. It’s gonna take input from all four major disciplines in order for that to happen, and that will be a concerted effort. And then with CCR, it’s gonna be a lot of things like early post-secondary opportunities, those that are going into the military, and how they do on the ASVAB. A lot of different components in there, a lot of different parts.”
Dronebarger said White County will aim to continue to improve third-grade ELA proficiency by two percent over the next year. The school district will be submitting its updated report to the state in November.
White County residents can provide feedback on the TISA Accountability Report through the school district’s website.
Dronebarger said, so far, the big complaint he has heard from the community is the amount of testing that students go through. Dronebarger said he agrees, but the school district has to test students as much as the state requires them to.
