The Macon County School System has received its report card from the State Department of Education.

“Obviously, we have areas to improve on,” Director of Schools Dan Hampton said. “But generally speaking, it was OK. It wasn’t great. We didn’t set the world on fire, but it’s not catastrophic, either.”

In Academic Achievement for grades 3-8, Macon County received an average score in Math, Reading/Language Arts and Social Studies, scoring just below the state average.

Red Boiling Springs Elementary School is currently in School improvement due to not making achievement levels in certain subgroups. That information had been previously reported to the public.

Writing Assessment Scores held firm again this year, with a slight increase in the 11th grade results.

ACT scores are a measure grade 9-12 achievement. Last year, the test was no longer an option for students. All 11th grade students were required to take the ACT exam. Macon County student’s composite grade (average of English, Math, Reading and Science/Reasoning) increased from a 20 in 2008 to a 20.4 in 2009.

Academic Growth (Value added Scores) measures improvement from one year to the next in each subject. The State Department of Education sets the growth rate for each grade and subject area. In Grades K-8, Macon County met or exceeded the prescribed growth rate for each grade and subject area. In Grades K-8, the system met or exceeded the prescribed growth rate in three academic areas: Reading/Language Arts, Social Studies and Science. Although the system did not make gains in Mathematics, the growth was barely below the state prescribed rate.

“If there is a crisis, I think you can tell my looking at it, is math,” Hampton said. “We’ve got some things to work on.”

Those math scores are likely to go down for the next couple years before showing signs of improvement.

“The reason for that is this,” Hampton said. “The state of Tennessee has issued new core standards. Core standards is what each kid has to know in each grade level. They went into effect this last year in math. We’re concerned about math. I’m not going to candy-coat it. That’s an area where we need to improve.”

Attendance, Promotion, and Dropout Rates all exceeded the state goal for 2008-09. Graduation rate has been an area of concern for the system in the past. Graduation rates listed on the report card reflect the 2007-08 school year. This is the same statewide and is due to the time frame in which the report card is released in relation to the end of summer school.

Last year, both high schools met the benchmarks set by the State Department of Education. Macon County High School was identified as being in School Improvement 2 due to not making the rate for consecutive years. In 2007-08, MCHS made the prescribed rate. This is reflected on the 2009 report card and has moved the school into School improvement 2 - improving status. Next year’s report card will reflect the 2008-09 graduation rate, which MCHS also met. This should move MCHS back into Good Standing when it is released next school year.

Hampton said that looking back two years, the two high schools have shown “remarkable progress.”

“They’ve gone from 77 to 86,” Hampton said. “Our goal is to get to 90. We’re going to have some bumps in the road as we go.”

Hampton said the 86.6 rate is “not acceptable.”

“That’s not where we want to be,” he said. “The state goal is 90 percent, and I think it’s obvious we need to be above 90. We need to have less than 10 percent of our kids dropping out of school. The bottom line is you’re not going to be successful out there if you don’t have a high school education.”