Students in the six schools that make up Tennessee’s Achievement School District scored at the 16th percentile in the nation, on average, on the Measured Academic Progress test, reports the Memphis Commercial Appeal. The computerized formative assessment is intended to help gauge student progress.
Currently in its second school year, the district was created to oversee the state’s lowest-performing schools—or, as its website says, to “catapult the bottom 5 percent of schools into the top 25 percent in the state.”
The Commercial Appeal reported that the special district’s superintendent, Chris Barbic, was “stunned” by the low results. He is the founder of the YES Prep charter network. Tennessee’s plan is to add schools slowly but steadily. District officials announced this summer that seven charter networks will open nine new schools in the state in the 2013-14 school year.
