Five Cheatham County schools have much to celebrate as they achieved the highest composite score on the Tennessee Value-Added Assessment System (TVAAS) during the 2017-2018 academic year.
Ashland City Elementary School, Kingston Springs Elementary School, Pegram Elementary School, Cheatham County Central High School and Harpeth High School all achieved a Level 5 score.
Two of the schools went from a Level 1 to a Level 5 – PES and CCCHS.
ACES jumped from a Level 4 to Level 5, KSES went from a Level 3 to Level 5 and HHS rose from a Level 3 to a Level 5.
“The Cheatham County School District is showing signs of progress, but we still have a tremendous amount of work ahead of us,” said Director of Schools Dr. Cathy Beck. “There were several bright spots, and our students and teachers should be commended for their commitment to excellence.”
Beck said plans are already underway to improve future test results.
“We have met with every principal, and each school is developing its own improvement plan on how it will increase academic performance. Additionally, we are stretching students with academic content every day to help them reach their highest potential,” she said.
While analyzing the results, Beck said district leaders are keeping the state online testing issues in mind, particularly at the middle school and high school level.
The middle school results were disconcerting, but this was the first year that students in grades 5-8 completed online testing.
“We know there were persistent issues when our middle school and high school students took the state assessments in the spring. We believe those issues impacted the results in our middle and high schools, but we, as a district, did our best to manage the situation in which we had no control,” Beck said.
TVAAS measures student growth year over year, regardless of whether the student is proficient on the state assessment. In calculating a TVAAS score, a student’s performance is compared relative to the performance of his or her peers who have performed similarly on past assessments.
On Friday, August 17, Cheatham County High School hosted a celebration for the school-wide accomplishment. Up-and-coming country artist, Cherish Lee, performed and offered words of encouragement.
Lee is the daughter of entertainment icons, Johnny Lee (Urban Cowboy’s “Looking’ for Love”) and Charlene Tilton (Lucy Ewing on the hit TV show Dallas).
