The Tennessee Department of Education has announced the school designations for the 2020-21 school year, which include the top five percent of schools for academic achievement and the top five percent for student growth, including 188 schools spanning 61 districts statewide. In Cumberland County, both Pine View Elementary and South Cumberland Elementary have earned the preliminary designation of Reward Schools.
In addition to recognizing Reward Schools, the department also named schools that have improved and earned their way off of the Priority list. Priority schools, federally known as Comprehensive Support and Improvement (CSI) schools, were identified for poor academic performance at the beginning of the 2018-19 school year. Focus schools, which are either Targeted Support and Improvement (TSI) or Additional Targeted Support and Improvement (ATSI), could also exit if they met the respective exit criteria.
For the 2020-21 school year, Tennessee had the largest number of schools exiting Priority, Focus, and Additonal Targeted Support and Improvement status in the state’s history, including:
7 of the 79 Priority schools from 5 of the 8 districts with Priority schools met the exit criteria
18 of the 37 ATSI schools from 12 of the 17 districts with ATSI school met ATSI exit criteria
108 of the 145 TSI schools from 57 of the 61 districts with TSI schools met TSI exit criteria
These preliminary designations are available on the department’s accountability page and will be presented to the State Board of Education for approval at the October 29th Board quarterly meeting.