Seven years later: Tennessee letter grades for public schools released Thursday

KINGSPORT — The long-awaited letter grades for individual public schools across Tennessee went public Thursday, with schools in four local systems showing grades ranging from "A" to "D."The D grades included a Kingsport middle school, a Hawkins County high school and a Hawkins County K-12 school. Hawkins County schools had the most D grades at eight, while Kingsport and Sullivan County each had one D.From another perspective, Kingsport had five A grades, Sullivan County two and Hawkins County one. Rogersville City School, a K-8 listed by the state as Rogersville Elementary, got a B and is a one-school district.The General Assembly in 2016 passed legislation mandating the letter grades, but they were delayed because of testing glitches and again during the COVID-19 pandemic that began in 2020. The data was released at noon central, which was 1 p.m. eastern time Thursday.By law, starting with the 2024-25 school year grades, schools with grades of D or F can face hearings before the state Board of Education. Ultimately, the law says administrators could be forced to submit a corrective action plan or undergo a state audit of spending and academic programming at the D or F schools.SCHOOL OFFICIALS RESPOND"I think overall we are satisfied," Sullivan County Director of Schools Chuck Carter said Thursday. "It would have been nice to know the rules before we played the game."He was referring to a late change in the grade calculation formation this fall, a change that weighted academic achievement higher than grade growth. The formula earlier had the two roughly equal, although other factors figure into the grade rankings, and elementary and middle schools have different criteria than high schools.Carter said that was, at least in his mind, a better formula since higher socio-economic areas tend to have better achievement scores but lower growth scores, while rural and lower socio-economic areas tend to have lower achievement scores but higher growth scores."Obviously we want to continue to grow," Carter said. "The battle is still on." The grades announced Thursday are final, with all appeals exhausted, Carter said. For next year, he said the system will work to raise lower scores and maintain the higher ones.Some public school officials across the state have speculated the change was to make public schools look worse and bolster Gov. Bill Lee's efforts to get the General Assembly to pass a universal school voucher program.That would allow religious and other private schools to get public funding for students who transfer to them.Carter, however, said the issues to him are that those private schools don't have to abide by many requirements public ones do or be subject to letter grades like the public ones are.Kingsport Assistant Superintendent of Administration Andy True said the system will use the scores to look at way to improve the schools but they are not the only measure of a school."While school letter grades provide one way to measure and analyze school data, there are certainly many ways to assess the quality of educational environments, all of which paint the full picture of what occurs in our schools," True said in a written statement Thursday afternoon."As we do with all assessment information, KCS is using this as a data point from which to learn and analyze for how we can celebrate where success is occurring, while also striving to provide even better educational opportunities for all our students."Hawkins County Director Matt Hixson could not be reached for comment. That school system has been dismissed for winter break since last week, as has Sullivan, while Kingsport got out after a half-day Thursday.Following is a rundown of local school system scores. More details of the methodology and specifics that went into the scores are available in a dashboard online at tdepublicschools.ondemand.sas.com from the Tennessee Department of Education, with more information available online at tn.gov.KINGSPORT CITY SCHOOLS• A-rated schools are Dobyns-Bennett High, Adams Elementary, Jefferson Elementary, Johnson Elementary and Washington elementary. Kennedy and Lincoln Elementary each earned a B, while Jackson and Roosevelt elementary schools and Robinson each got a C. Sevier Middle a D.SULLIVAN COUNTY SCHOOLS• Miller Perry and Rock Springs elementary schools each got an A, while a B-grade went to Ketron, Central Heights, Holston, Indian Springs — which Carter said was very close to an A — Emmett and Mary Hughes elementary schools each got a B, as did Sullivan Central and Sullivan East middle schools.Sullivan Heights Middle got a C, along with Sullivan Elementary, Sullivan East and West Ridge high schools. The lone D went to Bluff City Elementary.HAWKINS COUNTY SCHOOLS• Mount Carmel Elementary got the only A in Hawkins County. Schools that ranked a B were Church Hill Intermediate, Surgoinsville Elementary and Cherokee High.Earning C rankings were Carter's Valley and Church Hill elementary schools and Church Hill Middle. Those earning a D rating were Bulls Gap School, a K-8, Clinch School, a K-12 that had some insufficient data.Also earning D rankings were Hawkins, Mooresburg and St. Clair elementary schools, as well as Rogersville Middle, Surgoinsville Middle and Volunteer High.Joseph Rogersville Primary got no grade because it was ineligible because of too much insufficient data.