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