"We're making some improvement," Macon County Director of Schools Mike Prock stated regarding the county's annual school report card. "But we still have a ways to go."

The state of Tennessee issued report cards for all school systems last week.

This week, the Macon County Times will look at the systemwide results. Next week, plans are to begin looking at the results of individual schools.

The State Board of Education has established performance standards for schools and school systems. The State Department of Education has determined that the performance standards fall into two categories - minimum standards or expectations and those that are maximum goals to be attained.

On the report card, meeting minimum expectations is considered a "C" or "average" grade. Higher or lower performance is rated accordingly.

Performance areas that fall into the "minimum expectations" category include the following: value added gains, elementary achievement, and ACT/SAT scores.

Under value added gains, the minimum standard or expectation is that a student will gain a year's average growth (compared to the national average) for a year's instruction in each subject area. This is expressed as a 100% gain. Higher or lower performance is rated accordingly.

Improvement in the value added category was shown in the Grades 6 - 8 reading category. This grade went from a B in 2001 to an A in 2002.

Macon County K-5 grades were able to maintain A level value added performance in the categories of math and science.

Unfortunately, the system received an F in value added for language arts last year and the grade remained the same this year.

In grades 6-8, the value added reading score improved from a B to an A. The system also maintained an A level value added performance in the categories of language arts and science.

The minimum standard or expectation (average) under elementary achievement is that the average score for a school or school system will be the national average. Higher or lower performance is rated accordingly.

In Grades K-5, Macon County Schools improved in the subjects of language arts from a D(below average) in 2001 to a C ( average ) in 2002.

Also, in math for grades K-5, the grade went from a C (average) in 2001 to a B (above average) in 2002.

Grades in other subject areas remained the same from 2001 to 2002 in grades K-5.

An improvement was shown in grades 6-8 in science. The grade moved from a D (below average) in 2001 to a C (average) this year.

The minimum standard or expectation for ACT/SAT scores is that the average score for a school or system will be at the minimum level required for a student to enter a Tennessee public institution of higher education without having to take remedial work. Currently the ACT composite score that is considered average os 19 and the SAT score is 910. Higher or lower performance is rated accordingly.

As a whole, Macon County schools showed only a slight improvement in the ACT score. In 2001, the average ACT composite score was 19, this year the average ACT composite score was 19.2. The school system maintained their C grade this year.

Individually, RBS High School improved their ACT composite score from an 18.4 last year to a 19.7 this year.

Meeting standards identified as maximum goals to be attained is considered an "A" or "exemplary". Ratings lower than exemplary are based on how close schools and schools systems are to the goal.

Performance areas falling into the "goals to be attained" category include writing proficiency, high school competency, attendance, promotion, and drop-out rate.

The goal under writing proficiency is for overall performance to be at the "competent" level This is expressed as a 4.0 on a 6-point scale.

In grades K-5, Macon County schools improved their grade from a C (average) to a B (above average). In 2001, Macon County students received an average of 3.4 in this category. This year, that grade improved to an average of 3.5. The state average is 3.7.

In grades 6-8, the writing proficiency grade improved from a C (average) to a B (above average). Numerically, this age group improved from a 3.3 in 2001 to a 3.5 in 2002. The state average is 3.8.

At the 11th grade level, Macon County maintained their C grade from last year. This group of students maintained a 3.4 grade on their writing proficiency. The state average is 3.7.

The goal in attendance is that 95% of students in grades K-86 and 93% of students in grades 7-12.

Across the board, Macon County schools received a grade of A in attendance at all levels.

The goal in the promotion category is that 97% of students in grades K-8 will be promoted to the next grade during the next school year.

In this category, gains were shown at the K-5 level and the 6 - 8 level.

In grades K-5, the grade improved from a D (below average) to a B ( above average).

In grades 6 - 8, the grade improved from an F (deficient) to a B (above average).

The goal under drop-out rate is that no more than 10% of students entering as ninth graders will drop out before completing high school.

The most significant improvement was seen in the drop-out category. Systemwide, Macon County schools improved the F (deficient) they received in 2001 to an A (exemplary) in 2002.

Individual school scores will be reported in an upcoming edition.