Education Department Unveils Redesigned Report Card

Education Commissioner Candice McQueen has announced the launch of a new district and school report card, which has a redesigned layout to help educators and families better access and understand information about their schools. The new site also includes results from the 2015-16 TNReady End of Course exams, which are coupled with the release of redesigned student reports that are available today for high school families to learn how their child performed on TNReady.

The report card highlights a number of data points that capture the academic success of our districts and schools, and it also includes updated data from the 2015-16 year. One of those updated pieces is a new public school ACT composite average for the class of 2016: 19.9. This is higher than previously reported because the earlier number was limited to the last score a student received on the ACT, not necessarily their highest score, which is included in the new figure.

“We want all our families to have clear information on how their students and schools are doing, and today’s announcement moves us closer to that goal,” McQueen said. “This new report card is easier to use and has better information about whether our students are academically on track, both of which will help parents, educators, district leaders, and advocates support our students’ success.”

The department has provided a report card annually since the early 1990s, and it provides an overview of state, district, and school-level performance. The report card has expanded over time to include a variety of data points, including: enrollment statistics and demographic information; an academic snapshot about students’ achievement and growth on state assessments, graduation rates, and ACT performance; feedback about the performance of student groups; and additional context about school climates, which includes attendance and discipline data. The redesigned report card highlights figures that reflect a fuller picture of how students and schools are performing. It also includes additional resources to help district and school leaders more easily download and share the data with their communities.

Today’s release is the first phase for the report card redesign project, which began after education stakeholders and community members shared that they desired information that is easier to understand and that the previous layout may be difficult for some to navigate. The department plans to integrate additional data points and information into the new layout over the coming years.

The new report card also shares school and district-level results from the first year of TNReady. The department released state-level TNReady scores in November, which set a baseline for future growth based on new, educator-developed expectations that will better ensure all students are on track to graduate prepared for college and careers. Overall, students’ performance on TNReady reflects the performance and readiness they show on national tests like the ACT. Results are available for End of Course exams only, since testing was suspended in grades 3-8. The department is releasing new information for families to understand their student’s score report via TNReady.gov.

To view the new report card, please visit the department’s website. To learn more about the state’s TNReady results, click here. For media inquiries, please contact Sara Gast at 615-532-6260 or [email protected].