TCAP Tests
Each Spring, students in grades 3-8 participate in the Tennessee Comprehensive Assessment Program standardized tests. These tests are aligned to the state content standards and assess how students are performing in fore core areas:
- Reading
- Math
- Social Studies
- Science
Schools and students receive scores that measure proficiency against state-determined benchmarks. In years past, students have been labeled as proficient or advanced. However, in 2008, the Tennessee State Board of Education raised the standards in the state to be more comparable to national benchmarks. In the 2009-2010 school year, instruction was based on these new, more rigorous state standards. These standards have raised the bar for all Tennessee public schools and hold students to a higher standard of learning each year.
The easiest way to look at the new standards is to say that what students typically learned in third grade in 2008-2009, they learned in second grade in 2009-2010. In spring 2010, students participated in a new TCAP test aligned to the more rigorous standards. The scores from these tests are not expected to be ready for review until fall 2010.
TCAP scores are reported on the Tennessee State Report Card for each school. Scores are reported with letter grades (A-F) for two measurements:
- Achievement - measures how a student performed on the test.
- TVAAS - measures how much progress a student made from one grade to the next. A typical year's growth is measured by a C grade.
Schools can have high achievement and low TVAAS. What that means is that the students in that school are performing at a high level, but are not making significant growth from year to year. Schools can also have low achievement and high TVAAS scores. What this means is that students are not performing at the level desired, but are making significant gains from one year to the next. You cannot have increased achievement without good TVAAS scores.
2009 Hamilton County Report Card
2009 Test Score Summary
2009 Report Card Presentation .pdf