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Tallassee test scores improve

By Michael Butler

Tallassee City Schools superintendent Wade Shipman recently stated that he wanted to see improvement each year with state testing scores. The 2018-19 numbers are out and they are better.

The system improved from an overall 76 last year to an 81 this year. Each of the three schools showed improvement.

"We've done a better job with certain areas like attendance and growth," Shipman said. "We're still working on the achievement side of things. We've put several things in place. We can still make some gains."

Tallassee Elementary had the best overall score with an 84. Southside Middle School had a 78. Tallassee High School's score was 75. The TES average was up by four points from last year. SMS and THS improved by two points each.

"We've made a few things a priority," Shipman noted. "We thought the absenteeism issues that we had were very easily correctable. They just needed some attention. That's one area where we've made improvements across the board."

Although some of the focus has been on individual factors, Shipman added that all areas important. Tallassee's scores today are higher in reading, math and science proficiency than they were five years ago.

"You don't usually make improvement because you made improvement in one area. You get improvement by strides in every area."

Strategies for continued strides in the future include intervention strategies to assist students in reaching their goals.

"Are we teaching what needs to be taught at the level it needs to be taught? We've worked on our own teacher effectiveness model, so we can target the areas that we need to improve on in our system and do a better job with that.

"Our goal is to keep making progress every year. I think we're going to continue to see growth with an upward trend in all of our schools."

2018-19 School Year

Tallassee Elementary
Southside Middle
Tallassee High
Overall Score
84
78
75
Academic Achievement
73.49%
63.42%
43.45%
Academic Growth
93.54%
89.22%
81.41%
Chronic Absenteeism
18.2%
16.32%
15.43%

 
2014-15
2015-16
2016-17
2017-18
2018-19
Reading Proficiency
38.94%
33.09%
31.71%
43.93%
41%
Mathematics Proficiency
37.55%
42.95%
42.6%
44.76%
44.69%
Science Proficiency
28.64%
32.56%
28.77%
28.83%
35.75%
Graduation Rate
90%
88.64%
NA
82%
89.93%
College & Career Readiness
69.63%
65.81%
NA
58.7%
63.31%