A new report from the Tennessee Charter School Center found public charter schools are outperforming traditional public schools on state measurements for student growth.

Members of the School Letter Grades Working Group have spent more than 13 hours this month discussing the right way to provide each public school in Tennessee with a grade.  If there’s one takeaway from that time spent in virtual meetings, it’s that the diverse group of parents, legislators, state education leaders want the grading system to include a variety of factors.When it launches next month, the School Letter Grades system is expected to evaluate student achievement, student growth, and other factors like graduation rates to provide each school with an A through F grade.

Metro Nashville Public Schools unveiled the names of 33 schools achieving the highest level of academic growth on the Tennessee Value Added Assessment System (TVAAS) at Tuesday’s school board meeting.Those schools include 19 elementary schools, 8 middle schools, 5 high schools, and Stratford STEM Magnet Lower School.The district itself also achieved a Level 5 TVAAS score for the second time in a row. The last time MNPS experienced two consecutive years of growth was in 2014 and 2015.“We have been seeing tremendous outcomes in the TVAAS numbers we’ve gotten back from the state this year with the biggest headline of course being that we achieved Level 5 status as a district for the second year in a row,” said Dr. Adrienne Battle, MNPS Director of Schools. “That accomplishment in back-to-back school years is a beautiful reflection of the amazing work that our students, teachers, building leaderships, support staff, parents, community partners, the support of staff with excellent guidance from our board members. A first-rate team effort all around.”

Three of Tennessee’s largest school districts are touting their academic growth on the Tennessee Value-Added Assessment System (TVAAS).Metro Nashville Public Schools (MNPS), Memphis-Shelby County Schools (MSCS) and Hamilton County Schools (HCS) all put out press releases to celebrate their status as TVAAS Level 5 school districts, the highest distinction available.

This year’s Tennessee Comprehensive Assessment Program (TCAP) results were rightfully cheered for the gains Tennessee students made, but it’s important to keep in mind achievement gaps still persist.This is especially true for students who are English Language Learners (ELL). These students scored 15 points lower than the state average in English Language Arts and 10 points lower in Math.As our state looks for solutions to the inequities that create these achievement gaps, we can learn much from the model that’s currently serving Memphis students at Compass Community Schools.