Campbell Co. school leaders see test scores soar in pandemic school year

JACKSBORO, Tenn. (WVLT) - In a time when learning loss was high, a few Campbell County schools made the grade and then some.

On the five point scale that the state uses to measure academic growth in math and literacy at Jacksboro Elementary, LaFollette Elementary and Wynn Habersham Elementary showed a level five growth on TCAP tests.

WVLT News sat in on a class at Jacksboro Elementary where Melissa Davis’s fourth-grade students did not have a dull moment.

“Some teachers that I had in the past that would just tell me stuff, but Mrs. Davis went through the roof on that. She’d say something and then she made us say it. And it felt like we were doing the work,” Kingsten Evans said, a fifth-grader who had Davis as a teacher last school year.

Her teaching style is interactive. She said it helps visual and auditory learners grasp concepts to ace those end of year state testing exams.

“Her class was very interesting. It was fun. It’s not like most fourth grade teachers who throw you a worksheet and you just do it. It’s more active,” Jacksboro Elementary fifth-grader Jack Sexton said. “It just melted right into your brain, where you can do it. Or just remember it for TCAP.”

Sexton was in Davis’s class last year. He said repeating vocabulary words aloud helped him to better understand concepts.

“When they’re accountable and they understand that it means something, they’re willing to work harder,” Davis said.

What worked for them included keeping students in schools as much as possible, smaller classes helped students develop a relationship with teachers, virtual learners could also get more one-on-one help and masks were optional.

“I think it really helped our students to be here and to be able to work,” Davis said.

Teachers also worked before and after school to help students who were struggling. They also started a boot camp a couple of weeks before testing.

Davis also credited veteran teachers doing a great job and the students applying their best efforts.

“The best keep getting better, so that’s all we can do is try to get better each day,” said Davis.

Davis said there was not testing in the 2019-2020 school year due to the shutdown. The year before she recalled Jacksboro Elementary being a level five school as well.

Three other Campbell County schools: Caryville Elementary, Jacksboro Middle School, and Valley View Elementary all showed level four growth.

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