Below is the message MCPS Superintendent Chris Brady emailed to families regarding state testing results.
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MCPS families,
The results from last year’s state academic testing are now available and to put it plainly, there’s plenty to celebrate in Marion County Public Schools.
Overall, we saw significant improvement and I credit that to the hard work of our teachers, principals, support staff, and most importantly our students. As always, there are areas that need more work -- and we’ve already started addressing those concerns -- but when we look at the district as a whole, we can clearly see positive changes.
The overall score each school receives represents a combination of factors, but what I prefer to focus on is the amount of improvement you can see from one year to the next. In many areas, across all of our schools, it’s obvious staff members bought into a culture of academic excellence, and it shows what can happen when we stay focused on priorities.
There are reasons to celebrate at all of our schools:
Marion County High School saw double-digit gains in its writing scores
Marion County Knight Academy improved significantly in math and writing which led to an overall improvement of over 16 points
Marion County Middle School made gain in all areas and saw an incredible improvement in its overall score of nearly 23 points
Calvary Elementary improved by double-digits in science and writing
Glasscock Elementary made a huge jump raising its overall score by more than 16 points
Lebanon Elementary improved in every single category resulting in a nearly 18-point improvement on its overall score
West Marion Elementary rose in nearly every category after an already strong performance the previous year
Since I’ve been your superintendent, I’ve often said that we’ll see slow and steady progress in our district whether it’s with our facilities or our academic performance. But to be honest, these testing results show a more rapid improvement than I expected.
There are areas that still need to be addressed, and we won’t dismiss those concerns. Instead, we’ll make sure that all of our schools are embracing the strategies and approaches that led to the improvement in so many areas.
I invite our families to look over all of the released information regarding our district’s academic performance. You can view school and district data at the link below. Perhaps more importantly though, I would encourage families to review the individual student reports they have received or will receive soon. Understanding your child’s performance on these assessments is an important step in being a strong partner with your child’s school.
Again, I’m very pleased with these results, and I hope our families recognize that improvement as well.