Confirmation of Elizabethton City Schools’ Tennessee Value-Added Assessment System (TVAAS) score means residents can say both school systems in Carter County are top notch.
Elizabethton City Schools Director Corey Gardenhour announced that the city school system achieved an overall level 5 TVAAS score as well.
“It just happens that both of us have been successful,” Gardenhour said. ““I think that this is a result of dedicated teachers and students who want to better themselves and have better opportunities.”
Gardenhour said the state and the school system have focused heavily on individual student needs.
“TVAAS measures the impact schools and teachers have on their students’ academic progress,” according to team-tn.org. “TVAAS is a powerful tool because it measures how much students grow in a year, and shines more light on student progress than solely considering their score on an end of year test.”
Gardenhour is proud, but doesn’t want teachers or students to think the hard work is over.
“Even though we are a 5 as a district overall, we still have areas we need to grow,” he said. “We will always, no matter how high scores are, have area of deficit and areas to work on.”
One way to improve and therefore maintain a level 5 status for next year is to focus and improve on reading skills, he said.
“We are really going to focus on our reading scores,” he said. “We are starting a new initiative within the city schools system.”
Although city schools perform better than average throughout the state on reading, Gardenhour said there’s room to grow.
“We still want to push our literacy initiative,” he said. “We feel we need to have more students reading on grade level.”
Gardenhour named two schools that had an individual TVAAS score of 5 — East Side Elementary and T.A. Dugger.
He also announced that Elizabethton City Schools are ranked 9th in the state for ACT scores.
“We are very impressed,” he said. “They do a fantastic job with the ACT.”
With all of these exciting announcements, Gardenhour is enthusiastic about starting a new school year so they can continue to reach for excellence.
“This is a good picture of the overall health of the system,” he said. “I’d love to continue to maintain a level 5 status.”