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Report: Tennessee schools improving

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Alan Richard

Tennessee students have made academic progress lately, but the state still has plenty of work to do on both ends of the education spectrum, a new report says.

Elementary reading scores for low-income students and the state’s college graduation rate both are below regional and national averages, according to a report issued this week by the Southern Regional Education Board.

“It’s significant that fourth-grade reading achievement for low-income students is not on par, because more than half of children in Tennessee public schools come from low-income families,” said Alan Richard, spokesman for the Atlanta-based nonprofit organization, which advises state leaders on how to improve education.

The report, Challenge to Lead, is issued every two years, Mr. Richard said. Student data is based on scores from the National Assessment of Educational Progress, known as the nation’s report card, which tests students in grades four, eight and 12. No student completes the entire test, so scores are not traced back to individual students.

While the fourth-grade reading scores in Tennessee are not yet a crisis, Mr. Richard said it’s an issue state education leaders need to keep an eye on.

“If we’re not seeing reading hitting even the regional average, officials need to take action,” he said.

Eric Smith, a fifth-grade teacher at East Ridge Elementary School, said he was surprised that Tennessee’s scores were low but feels certain they will improve by the time the next SREB report is issued in two years. Reading has been a priority lately in Hamilton County, he said, as teachers try to integrate reading skills into all subject areas.

“Hamilton County is really having a big emphasis on a balanced literacy program,” he said. “We’re trying to make sure reading is not an isolated skill.”

The Challenge to Lead report also points to needed improvements in the education of older students, Mr. Richard said. It’s no secret that Tennessee’s high school graduation rate is low, he said, but few people realize that the college graduation rate is even lower, he said.

Fewer than half of students who enroll in a four-year program at a state public college graduate from those same institutions in six years or less, the report shows.

The numbers in Tennessee are typical of other states in the Southeast, Mr. Richard said. The regional education board soon will begin a partnership with its 16 member states to improve college readiness, he said.

“With higher education levels comes fewer health care costs, lower incarceration rates and fewer people dependent on the state,” Mr. Richard said.

Dan Challener, president of the Chattanooga-based Public Education Foundation, cautions people against getting discouraged about Tennessee’s college numbers because there is good news, he says.

First, the board’s report relies on numbers provided by individual institutions, which count students who transfer out of their school as dropouts, Mr. Challener said. Since 2005, the Public Education Foundation has been collecting data on individual students via Social Security numbers to get what it hopes is a more accurate number, Mr. Challener said.

In 2005, 75.7 percent of freshman college students were in school the next year, Mr. Challener said. Although numbers have not been calculated for 2007, he said he expects they will be higher.

“The bottom line is, it’s something now that is being tracked, and it’s important to raise the graduation rate,” Mr. Challener said. “We’re absolutely on the right track.”

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