As expected, changes to the grading calculations and grading scale meant lowers scores for the two local school systems in some subjects when the Tennessee Department of Education released its annual Report Cards on Tuesday.

However, the Report Cards also gave proof of the many improvements made by local schools, including the high school graduation rate for the county's high schools.
Both the county and Sweetwater City school systems are in good standing overall when it comes to federal and state progress mandates.

The Report Cards come out each November. They grade schools and school systems on a number of criteria, including scores from standardized tests taken each spring. The Report Cards also examine schools' promotion, attendance and high school graduation rates and other data.

State education officials had said generally speaking, the new grading methods would mean schools would score at least one letter grade lower and possibly two letter grades lower on the Report Cards.
 "It's kind of what we expected," Director of Sweetwater City Schools Dr. Hickey said Tuesday, when he looked at a system report card that included all C's in math, reading/language, social studies and science when it came to achievement test grades and three D's and one F (in math) on the value-added grades.

Hickey points out some of the C scores in achievement were very close to being B's.
Hickey has long said given the socio-economic makeup of the city school system, it has one of the highest student poverty rates in the state, a grade of C is a good achievement score.
The city system has long prided itself on shooting for A's and B's in value-added scores even though Hickey believes a small school system, like Sweetwater City, will have more volatility in its scores. A grade of C means a student has made a year's worth of academic growth in a school year on value-added.

Something as simple as one teacher being out sick for an extended time at the junior high level can affect enough students to pull a small system's grades down, Hickey maintains.
Though bracing for lower value-added scores due to grading changes, Hickey was still disappointed with value-added scores.

"We knew value-added would dip, but that is lower than it ought to be," he said.
The city schools director said the school system had already implemented a number of initiatives to improve scores and recently added a math intervention teacher to work part time at Sweetwater Elementary and part time at Brown Intermediate.
Hickey said this Report Card with lower grades comes on the heels of some very good Report Cards for the city system in recent years.

The veteran city schools director said it's hard to get upset at teachers and administrators when they are the same ones who have brought in good scores in recent years.
Hickey said he expects the city school system's Report Cards will improve, however he admits that in addition to different grade scale, a tougher test beginning this spring will make it difficult to improve.
Hickey will go into more detail on the city school system's scores during Monday night's Sweetwater Board of Education meeting at 7 p.m. at City Hall.

When it comes to the Monroe County School System, strong improvement in the high school graduation rate is something to be very proud of, Director of Schools Mike Lowry said.
The Report Cards show a trend of steady improvement as the county's high schools when averaged together had a 72.5 percent graduation rate on the 2007 Report Card, followed by 78.6 percent in 2008 and 84.6 percent on the most recent Report Card.

The state target for the county school system's graduation rate was 82.5 percent.
Sweetwater High School's graduation rate was 66.4 percent on the 2007 Report Card, but stands at 84.8 percent on the 2009 report.
"The tide is turning," Lowry said of Sweetwater High School's progress to get of the state's list of "high priority" schools.

"We are seeing some really good things out of our smallest schools in the county," Lowry said.
Coker Creek Elementary had 94 percent of its students score proficient or advanced in math and Rural Vale Elementary had 92 percent of its students score proficient or advanced in math.
Madisonville Intermediate School also had 92 percent of its pupils score proficient or advanced in math.

Lowry said adequate yearly progress (AYP) toward federal No Child Left Behind Act performance goals was met in all subgroup of K-8 students except for Hispanic students.
AYP was met in math for all K-8 subgroups, Lowry said.
Like the city school system, the K-8 system-wide scores for the county school system were all C's in achievement in math, reading/language arts, socials studies and science.
On value-added, the county school system made a D in math along with C's in reading/ language, social studies and science.
The Monroe County School System will give a more detailed overview of its Report Card scores when the board meets at 7 p.m. at the central office on Nov. 12.

The Advocate & Democrat will list individual school scores for the local school systems in an upcoming edition.

tommy.millsaps@advocateanddemocrat.com | 337-7101