Ashley Collingsworth

Staff Writer

The Claiborne County Board of Education didn’t give direct answers when they were questioned about four failing schools in the system.

State report cards were handed out to the schools on November 3, which included Academic Growth (Value Added) and Academic Achievement Grades.

During a presentation, Susan Essary told the board and those in attendance the county’s total percentage without including each individual school’s scores.

“What about individual schools in Claiborne County,” Dr. Roy Ellis asked, “Do you have those? I think the board needs to know about the schools and how these schools are doing and what they need to improve on, the county is fine.”

Essary stated to Ellis that she did not have the individual scores in front of her but they were available online for the public or if he or any other board member wanted, they could set up a meeting and go over them.

“I’m not picking on any one school but I think the board needs to know what each individual school is doing because we are the ones who are responsible for these schools,” Ellis said, “And if they are failing then we need to know it.”

Board member Dave Chesney then asked if any schools had failed this period.

“I don’t have that information in front of me,” Essary said, “And I would be afraid to use my memory to go back and dig it up.”

“Seems like you should know,” said Dr. Ellis, “You know how the county did.”

According to the public information available on the state’s education website, the following schools failed: Claiborne High School, Cumberland Gap High School, TNT Primary and Midway Elementary School. None of the board members or any audience member identified the schools during the meeting.

In the October meeting Dr. Janet Barnard presented the board with the information on how the new standards would change the report cards drastically since the state recalibrated the Tennessee Value Added Assessment.

The state recalibrated TVAS, which had been using 1998 as a baseline but are now using 2009 as a baseline.

Essary used three surrounding counties to show the board how the 2009 baseline has affected scores and that it is not just a problem in Claiborne County.

“We’re right in the middle,” Essary said, “We need to make improvements to get to a “B” but we can’t compare them to last year’s report cards.”

The following are the scores that the county received in Academic Achievement Grades that was presented before the board Thursday night:

CRT (3-Year Average) 2009 Score Grade 2009 State Score Grade

Math 47 C 50 B

Reading/Language 47 C 50 B

Social Studies 46 C 50 B

Science 47 C 50 B

“Each school and the school board must be a united force to do what is best for all schools in the county,” Essary said before she closed.

When the floor opened up to questions from the audience, LMU’s Sigmon Communications General Manager, Travis Moody, spoke up.

“We have four schools looks like that are failing,” Moody said, “And now we’ve got 2009 standards and we’ve got four schools failing. What is the school system going to do to make it so that all schools are passing?”

“What is your concern,” Chairman Sam Owens asked, “Do you have a kid in the school system? I don’t understand your question.”

“I mean, I don’t have a kid in school but if I had a kid here and it’s going to go to school it will impact everybody,” Moody said, “It’s going to affect everybody. So, if you’ve got some schools that are doing better than others and you’ve got some that are failing, what are you going to do to make the schools that are failing step it up a little?”

“Several things,” Owens said, “If you’ve got two hours, three hours come over to Central Office and find out what policy changes we’ve made.”

The Academic Achievement Grades for each individual school when compared to the state show some sitting above while some sit below the state average.

Math Reading S. Studies Science

State Score 50 – B 50 – B 50 – B 50 – B

TNT 44 – D 43 – D 38 – F 39 – F

Midway 40 – D 43 – D 41 – D 43 – D

Powell Valley 46 – C 46 – C 47 – C 48 – C

Forge Ridge 46 – C 47 – C 47 – C 46 – C

Clairfield 46 – C 48 – C 47 – C 48 – C

Ellen Myers 50 – B 50 – B 50 – B 54 – B

Springdale 51 – B 52 – B 51 – B 50 – B

H.Y. Livesay 55 – A 53 – B 52 – B 52 – B

SMMS 45 – C 47 – C 47 – C 48 – C

The Academic Growth with Value Added report cards were released to the public on November 3 as well. The value added shows the students progress over a three year period were also released to the public through the state website.

The Academic Growth (Value Added) follows:

Math Reading S. Studies Science

TNT F F F F

Ellen Myers B F F F

Midway C C D D

Forge Ridge C B C D

Powell Valley B C B D

Clairfield B B B F

Springdale A B D D

H.Y. Livesay B B C C

SMMS B A A A

To view the report cards in their entirety go to, www.state.tn.us/education then click on TDO Report Card.

“Should other schools or just the schools that are failing get grant money to help them,” Moody asked, “Will you implement programs so we are at the B level or above?”

Board member Bobby Drummonds spoke up, “With what we’ve got, without raising the taxes to do this, our staff and our teachers in this county, under the program she presented we’re doing fair.”

Drummonds also reiterated that along with Claiborne County’s drop in grades, other counties across the state would also drop.

Dr. Ellis also brought up the disbanding of committees within the school board.

“It came to my attention tonight and I didn’t know this,” he said, “It was my thoughts last September, we said we were going to continue the committees and now I find out we don’t have committees of any kind except the board has opposed to do whatever needs to be done.”

“There was confusion with the committees,” Chairman Owens said, “The board didn’t know, so we thought we would bring everything before the board during the work session.”

Dr. Ellis made a motion that the board continues to work with committees with Chesney seconding the motion. Chairman Owens presented the motion to the board but all other members did not raise their hand in approval.

Chairman Owens said that he would bring a list of committees to the next board meeting to present.

During the regular meeting, the board also approved Clairfield Elementary Surplus, Local Wellness Policy, Textbook Committee and Field Trip Policy.

They also approved the Springdale Field Trip and a leave of absence.

H.Y. Livesay teacher Rebecca Pearman was also recognized as the Tennessee Reading Association 2009 Teacher of the Year.

“It’s tremendous that we have teachers that can be recognized out of the whole state,” Chairman Owens said.