Story Published:
Nov 9, 2009 at 2:00 PM CST
Story Updated:
Nov 10, 2009 at 11:01 PM CST
Mae Fowler, Putnam County Schools Supervisor of Curriculum and Instruction, conveyed the attitude of, "Bring it on!" when she described how Tennessee has raised the standards for the performance levels of schools, teachers, and students.
To illustrate the significance of what the state is doing, Fowler painted the picture of the Titan's kicker, Rob Baronis. If the NFL suddenly lessened the width of the goal posts, the results would show up in Baronis' performance, because he was used to operating on the official measurements, and narrowing the posts would probably make it more difficult.
(Well maybe not so much for Rob, but it would for the rest of the NFL kickers).
In the same way, the State of Tennessee raised the educational standards.
This means that what used to count for an "A," now merely earns a "C," which also means that former "B's" and "C's" now turn into "D's" and "F's."
Fowler says that this will cause the schools across the entire state to drop in their marks for a while, but then, as students and schools get tougher and rise to the challenge, those grades will come back up.
Here are some of the current data:
Putnam County School System (PCSS) earned District Accreditation through AdvancED
All schools have earned Safe School Status
Per pupil expenditure is $7,762.00 (State average is $8,518.00)
Old Standards:
2009 Putnam 2009 State
Score Grade Score Grade
Math 52 B 50 B
Reading/Language 54 B 50 B
Social Studies 54 B 50 B
Science 56 A 50 B
New Standards (aka "Value Added")
2009 2009 State
Math -1.2 D 0
Reading/Language 0.1 C 0
Social Studies -0.7 D 0
Science -0.2 C 0
Perhaps the reason that the Tennessee State Board of Education is being so tough is that throughout the nation, Tennessee schools apparently don't rank too highly.
On the U.S. News and World Report website, Tennessee High Schools rank 33rd in the nation: http://www.usnews.com/articles/education/high-schools/2008/12/04/best-high-schools-state-by-state-statistics.html
