By Tabitha Evans Moore | EDITOR & PUBLISHER

LYNCHBURG — It’s not only the students at Moore County schools that receive report cards. The state also issues a yearly report card detailing both proficiency and growth rankings for the local school systems. Overall both Moore County High School and Lynchburg Elementary received a “B” on their state report card.

There were some areas of both bragging rights and growth for each school.

“We have a lot to celebrate in our student scores and we also have some areas that definitely need some attention that we’ll be focusing on,” Director Chad Moorehead told the Board during Monday’s meeting. “We have a lot of good work that is going on in our school buildings, a lot of teachers that are really putting in the effort, and students and parents as well.”

{EDITOR’S NOTE: Public meeting coverage is crucial to the health of any community. This article remains free to all readers thanks to our community partners at Barrel House Barbecue. Please support the local small businesses that support your community newspaper.}

Moore ranks second in South Central District in proficiency

Overall Moore County schools ranked second in the South Central District and 49^th in the state in proficiency rankings.

Lynchburg Elementary ranked number one in the South Central District for fifth grade science, sixth grade math, sixth grade science, and sixth grade social studies. They also ranked second in sixth grade language arts, and third in third grade language arts and third grade science.

Moore County High School ranked number one in the South Central District for eighth grade math, eighth grade science, and eighth grade social studies as well as high school biology and Algebra II. They also ranked second in seventh grade science, social studies, and language arts as well as second in overall ACT scores with a state ranking of 24th. The only school district in the South Central District with a higher composite ACT score was Lincoln County. Their composite score was .3 higher than Moore County’s. MCHS also ranked third in English II, and Geometry.

“There’s a little bit of a catch with our ACT scores. Those scores are from the class of 2023 because that data lags a year,” Director Moorehead explained.

Moore ranks seventh in South Central District in growth

In growth rankings, local schools made their biggest strides in fifth grade science, sixth grade math, eighth grade math, high school Algebra II, and high school Biology. All were number one in the South Central District. Moore County Schools also ranked third in sixth grade science, seventh grade science, and eighth grade social studies.

“When you pull all of that together and include our state average proficiency rank, our ACT rank, and average all of that together, if you only look at the districts that have a high school in our region, our average rank was the highest in the region.” Director Moorehead told the Board.

According to Director Moorehead, Manchester now is the only district in our region that doesn’t have a high school.

“If you take out the high school scores, then Manchester City actually would have been ahead of Moore County,” he explained to the Board.

Raising both proficiency and growth rankings is no easy feat.

“I think it’s also worth saying that several of our rankings in growth, which are different from proficiency, are also in the first, second, third level there,” added Board Chair Tanya Vann. “That’s difficult to get both of those things to happen at the same time. Sometimes if you’re high in growth, you don’t get that achievement or that proficiency ranking up there. And it’s just, it’s good to see both.” •

{The Lynchburg Times is a locally-owned and locally-operated community newspaper in Lynchburg, Tennessee and one of the few women-owned newspapers in the state. It’s owned by a Tulane University-educated journalist with over 20 years of experience. We’re supported by both readers and community partners who believe in independent journalism for the common good. You can support us by clicking here. }