By Abigail Warren, Daily Memphian
The Tennessee Department of Education released district-level data for the Tennessee Comprehensive Assessment Program on Wednesday morning, July 6.
TCAP, once known as TNReady, is the statewide assessment for public schools. Students took tests in the spring of 2022. While statewide data was released earlier this summer, the results released Wednesday showed the results by school system.
The below statistics are for students scoring on or above grade level in grades 3-8:
English Language Arts | Math | |
Arlington | 60.3% | 64.9% |
Bartlett | 44.2% | 46.9% |
Collierville | 64.4% | 64.1% |
Germantown | 64.1% | 63.3% |
Lakeland | 58.4% | 61.5% |
Millington | 28.8% | 22.1% |
Third grade retention
Superintendents across Tennessee are concerned about reading scores due to the third-grade retention law, which will affect students entering third grade in August.
Any third grade student who does not score proficiently on the English language arts portion of their TCAP test in the 2022-23 academic year will be required to attend a mandatory summer camp. The camps will focus on reading. At the end of the camp, students will be retested. If they don’t pass their tests, they will be held back.
Third graders proficient in ELA 2021-22 | Third graders proficient in ELA 2020-21 | |
Arlington | 66.4% | 67.6% |
Bartlett | 44.6% | 39.2% |
Collierville | 69.1% | 60.1% |
Germantown | 74.1% | 72.5% |
Lakeland | 58.3% | 59.1% |
Millington | 32.3% | 17.1% |
Many express concern it’s one data point and doesn’t take into account other assessments throughout the year. Legislators introduced a bill that looked at other data points, like benchmark testing throughout the year, but that measure did not pass.
Abigail Warren is a lifelong resident of Shelby County and a graduate of the University of Memphis. She has worked for several local publications and covers the suburbs for The Daily Memphian.