NASHVILLE — The State Collaborative on Reforming Education (SCORE) has issued this statement from President and CEO David Mansouri regarding today’s release of 2021-22 Tennessee Comprehensive Assessment Program (TCAP) state-level results.
Today’s release of statewide TCAP results from the 2021-2022 school year shows important improvements for Tennessee students. We are thrilled to see increases in student achievement from last year, and we applaud the hard work of teachers, parents, as well as school, district, and state leaders who invested in and supported students to accelerate learning and implement recovery efforts.
Across multiple subject areas, many students are close to recovering from the impacts of the pandemic on learning. Some highlights from the data:
- Grade 3 ELA performance has rebounded from 32.1 percent of students scoring proficient in 2021 to 35.7 percent in 2022 — only about one point below the 36.9 percent proficiency rate in 2019 prior to the pandemic.
- Grade 7 math performance increased from 22.9 percent of students scoring proficient in 2021 to 30.2 percent in 2022. Moving from close to 1 in 5 to about 1 in 3 students proficient in math in seventh grade.
- ELA proficiency increased across all grades, with more students scoring in the “Met” and “Exceeded” categories than in 2019.
- Entry high school math (Algebra I/Integrated Math I) and high school math performance overall have not rebounded as significantly as results in earlier grades. Proficiency dropped from 27 percent in 2019 to 18 percent in 2021 and has increased to 21 percent in 2022.
Overall, these results are early evidence that the targeted interventions and recovery strategies that Tennessee has put in place — early literacy supports, high-dosage tutoring, summer learning, and high-quality instructional materials — are working. We have a lot to be proud of and to build on.
We also know there is still much work to do. Historically underserved students need additional supports and targeted strategies. Across math and ELA, White and non-economically disadvantaged students saw greater increases in proficiency compared to students from historically disadvantaged backgrounds. In ELA, economically disadvantaged students and students of color are at least twice as likely to score in the lowest performance category compared to White and non-economically disadvantaged students. Closing achievement and opportunity gaps must continue to be a priority for our state and in district strategies and investments.
SCORE looks forward to continuing our work to help accelerate and support the progress we are seeing today so that all Tennessee students receive an excellent K-12 public education and can achieve success in college, career, and life.