Governor Lee talks test scores in Battle Academy visit

CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. (WDEF) – Summer school students at Battle Academy received a visit from Tennessee Governor Bill Lee on Tuesday.

The governor spent his afternoon emphasizing the importance of reading to students at Battle Academy’s Summer Outreach program.

This comes as recent test results show 41% of third graders and 46% of fourth graders passed their English and Language Arts TCAP exams.

The statewide test scores in Tennessee are the second batch to be released since the Third Grade Retention Law went into effect last year. 

This is a one and two percent rise respectively.

Most students who fail the exam are required to attend programs like Summer Outreach, which Hamilton County Schools told us last year at least 400 students had to attend to pass on to the next grade.

Governor Bill Lee talking with Summer Outreach students at Battle Academy.

The governor said he was encouraged by these results.

Gov. Lee said, “These are students that have been exposed to this expanded literacy program for the last two or three years, so we just have to keep looking at what we are doing.”

We have heard from education advocates about whether or not third grade should be the cutoff line for this kind of policy, and the governor says that could be a possibility.

Gov. Lee said, “These ideas are based on evidence, they’re based on best practices from across the country… We’ll look at any idea we believe has merit and that has some evidence of increasing outcomes for kids.”

He does, however, believe we will not know the true outcome of this policy for years.

Gov. Lee said, “You look for long term strategies that produce improvements in the right direction.”

Hamilton County Schools say they’re still expecting to be able to release county level results by the end of the month.