Metro Nashville school board lauds state test results
The Metro Nashville Public Schools (MNPS) Board of Education celebrated gains made across grade levels and subjects in this year’s Tennessee Comprehensive Assessment Program (TCAP) tests at Tuesday’s board meeting.
According to school board officials, data from the Tennessee Department of Education released this week shows that the district has exceeded its participation rate goals across all subjects and grades, and that every grade level has shown improvements in all subjects on TCAP tests.
MNPS Director Adrienne Battle said in an emailed news release about the test data that the score improvements are the result of the “dedication and commitment our teachers and staff have shown to support the academic growth of our students.”
“We saw growth between 2.2 percent and 3.8 percent for the four tested TCAP categories,” Battle said during her recap at Tuesday’s meeting. “That is tremendous, given that we’ve seen significant achievement gains, particularly over the last three years.”
The district’s TCAP results noted that fifth grade math and English language arts scores showed the biggest gains. District officials also noted that the number of students scoring below proficient in math, ELA and social studies has decreased, indicating fewer students are behind state expectations. In addition, the data indicated that MNPS exceeded the state’s growth over 2023 data in all four TCAP and 2 out of 4 end-of-course (EOC) exam categories, as well as 17 out of 21 grade-level TCAP categories (math, ELA, science, and social studies).
According to a news release this week from the district, high school students’ proficiency levels in biology, English and U.S. history were up nearly 3 percentage points in EOC exams.
“You will see when you look at the 2024 TCAP state results versus MNPS growth around achievement in math, ELA, science and social studies that we did outpace the state and overall growth in regard to achievement,” Battle noted of the TCAP results, adding that the district also outpaced the rest of the state in terms of EOC proficiency gains.
