For immediate release: October 19, 2005

National Test Illustrates Tennessee’s Continued Progress

(NASHVILLE, Tenn.) - The Tennessee Department of Education today learned that the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) shows improvement in Tennessee students’ performance over two years ago. Results show a consistent or greater percentage of students scoring at the “basic” level or above in all categories: fourth and eighth grade reading and math.

“There are a number of tools that we use to determine how our students are performing and how academic achievement may be further improved. In Tennessee, we primarily rely on state assessments, but NAEP is another resource available to us,” said Tennessee NAEP Coordinator Jan Lineberger. “We are especially pleased to see that our reading scores statistically match national averages. It indicates that we’re moving in the right direction.”

NAEP is administered to fewer than 11,000 of the 150,000 fourth and eighth graders across Tennessee to serve as a representative sampling for the rest of the state. It is given during late January to early February and results are released once every two years. While NAEP is not aligned to any state’s specific curriculum, it is based on general frameworks. State officials are currently reviewing those frameworks to incorporate more applicable lessons into Tennessee classrooms. For these reasons, NAEP is not comparable to state assessments, which are given in the late spring each year and are used to demonstrate compliance under the federal No Child Left Behind Act.

“It’s important to remember the purpose of these assessments, which is improved student achievement,” adds Education Commissioner Lana Seivers. “While there is no magic formula, Tennessee is working toward this on many fronts, including Governor Bredesen’s efforts to provide pre-k for at-risk students and his investment of nearly half of a billion new dollars in K-12 education during his administration.”

To improve education across the state, the Department of Education has expanded its professional development initiatives in reading, math, English language learners, special education and children in poverty. In that spirit, nine regional Field Service Centers have been reestablished across the state to provide technical assistance. The department has also established an Urban Education Improvement Office and has hosted more than 1,100 educators in training, conferences and in-service to share resources and ideas on how to address the needs of students in urban areas.

For more information on Tennessee’s results, visit www.tennessee.gov/education.