Star Staff Reports

The teachers and administrators of Millington Municipal Schools are pleased that the district achieved eight of the 11 annual measurable student achievement objectives on the Tennessee Comprehensive Assessment Program (TCAP).

Millington has met the annual measurable objectives in grades 3-8 mathematics and third and seventh grade reading and language arts.

The district also met all of the English objectives at the high school and the objective for Algebra II. In addition, the first grade students took the Stanford Achievement Test. The Stanford Test is a nationally normed achievement test that is administered in some districts in Tennessee and in schools across many states in the U.S.

These first grade students at the end of the year scored the median grade equivalent of 2.0.

The district is already taking definitive steps to address the two objectives that were missed: Algebra I and 3-8 reading and language arts. The district has made staff changes and hired instructional facilitators with strong literacy backgrounds. The district has also purchased updated textbooks for high school math and employed two new math teachers with strong coursework in mathematics.

An online diagnostic assessment tool aligned with the new 2016 TN Ready test is being purchased and training for that program will begin in the next few weeks.

This new assessment tool will allow our students to become familiar with the TN Ready online format and provide useful progress feedback to teachers and parents prior to the TN Ready assessment. The only additional missed objective is the 9 through 12 graduation rate that reflects a grad rate for the previous year (2013-14), before the beginning of the Millington Municipal School District. In addition to the above-mentioned categories, the high school graduation rate is one of the major areas of focus for the district.

The only student subgroup category identified as needing improvement is students with disabilities. A proportion of students in Millington Municipal Schools (14 percent) receives special education services. Due to a recent Federal guideline change, most students with disabilities were required to take an unmodified TCAP test.

In previous years, about 53 percent of students with disabilities in Millington Municipal Schools took a modified test. As a result of this change, test data demonstrates that such students struggled to maintain test scores within the proficient or advanced ranges. The district is initiating steps to provide after school tutoring and has added or adjusted special education support at each of the schools.

At the end of the first year of operation for the Millington Municipal Schools, some student test results are quite encouraging, while others clearly show a need for improvement. Strategies have already been implemented both to reinforce areas of strength and to target specific efforts toward those areas that need the most improvement.

“We are confident that such efforts will help to bring about the results that we all are seeking.”