Supporting Effective Teaching in Tennessee: Executive Summary | Page 39

Variations in Districts Across Tennessee
It should come as no surprise that some
school districts in Tennessee are producing
higher levels of student achievement than
others. An important part of any attempt to
reform education in Tennessee is identifying districts that are
excelling, understanding why they have been successful, and
finding ways to replicate their success. However, this must all
be done while keeping in mind the wide variations in student
demographics that exist across districts.
The top performing districts in the state can easily be identified
using TCAP and ACT scores. As Figure 4.1 shows, several
districts stand out as exceptionally high-performing systems,
including Franklin City, Greeneville City, Johnson City,
Maryville City, Oak Ridge City, and Williamson County.
However, there are noticeable differences in the student
demographics of these districts and the student demographics
of the entire state. For example, while these top six districts on
average have 11.5 percent minority students and 21.8 percent
Figure 4.1

economically disadvantaged students, the state on average has
29.4 percent minority students and 54.5 percent economically
disadvantaged students. These relationships between absolute
achievement and student demographic characteristics persist
across the entire state, as Figure 4.2 illustrates.
For these reasons, it is extremely useful to look at the progress
a district makes over time in addition to simply the district’s
absolute achievement level. Tennessee has two primary measures
of achievement progress. The first is TVAAS value-added scores,
which were discussed in detail on pages 18-19. The second is
“cohort progress,” a statistic which is calculated by the Tennessee
Department of Education. Cohort progress is defined as the
progress a district’s 2008 eighth grade cohort experienced over
the previous five years. This growth is calculated by taking how
a district’s eighth grade students performed relative to students
in the rest of the state in 2008 (as a percentile) and subtracting
from it how the district’s third grade students performed relative
to students in the rest of the state in 2003 (as a percentile).88 The
distributions of both TVAAS value-added
scores and cohort progress are shown in
Figure 4.3 on page 40.

Relationship Between Absolute Achievement and Achievement
Gains by District, 2007-08

Notes: Graph only includes districts with more than two schools. Normed absolute achievement gains is the
average of (1) normed average 3-8 TCAP reading scores and (2) normed average 3-8 TCAP math scores.
Normed achievement gains is the average of (1) normed average 3-8 grade TVAAS reading scores (2) normed
average 3-8 grade TVAAS math scores (3) normed progress of a district’s 2008 eighth grade cohort since third
grade in reading and (4) normed progress of a district’s 2008 eighth grade cohort since third grade in math.
Progress is measured by how a district’s eighth grade students performed on the TCAP relative to students
in the rest of the state in 2008 (as a percentile) and subtracting from it how a district’s third grade students
performed on the TCAP relative to students in the rest of the state in 2003 (as a percentile).
Source: Tennessee Department of Education
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T h e S t a t e o f E d u c a t i o n i n T e n n e ss e e

However, some would argue looking at
value-added scores and cohort progress
alone is not enough, as what it takes
to increase the achievement of highperforming students might be different
than what it takes to increase the
achievement of low-performing students.
These individuals would further argue that
what one really needs to do is examine a
combination of absolute achievement and
achievement progress. One way to do this
is to divide districts into quintiles based
on their absolute level of achievement
and then compare the achievement
progress of districts within each quintile.
Not only does this control for absolute
achievement, but it also partially controls
for socioeconomic characteristics, as
socioeconomic characteristics are highly
correlated with absolute achievement
levels. When districts are divided into
these quintiles, the districts that made the
most progress in each quintile for 2007-08
are Alcoa City (top quintile), Clinton City
(second quintile), Trenton Special School
District (third quintile), Jefferson County
(fourth quintile), and Claiborne County
(bottom quintile).