Are Sumner Schools High Performing?

The short answer is NO. 

Here's why it matters:  The General Assembly just passed legislation (The High Performing Flexibility Act) that would allow high performing school districts the same flexibility in running operations that is currently afforded to Charter Schools. 

These districts could use their own teacher evaluation system (rather than tying all teacher evaluations to student test scores), add days to the school year, or apply for waivers from other state rules and requirements so they can pursue what works best from an educator's point of view. 

Around 16 districts in the state qualify.  Sumner County is not one of them.

Yes, our schools meet the graduation requirement.  But we fall short in 3-year TCAP average (Sumner hits around a 52, required is 55) and we are a full point below the required ACT composite 3-year average (Sumner is at just over 20, the minimum for high-performing districts is 21). 

The added flexibility and freedom from onerous state requirements has many potential benefits. 

And the community should strive to have truly excellent and clearly high performing schools.  That we don't is a rebuttal to those on the County Commission who suggest that our schools are doing just fine and don't need any more investment. 

The good news is, we're not too far behind.  The bad news is, if we have annual budget battles instead of a commitment to funding excellence, our community will never benefit from having high-performing schools.

Imagine being an employer choosing where to locate in Tennessee.  Wouldn't you choose to locate your business in a high-performing school district?  And if Sumner is not in that category, we'll lose out on potential growth and investment.  Meanwhile, our students and teachers will miss out on the opportunity and flexibility afforded by this new law. 

Yes, there are 16 high performing school systems in Tennessee.  And no, Sumner County isn't one of them.  Yet.