No Child Left Behind Waiver Request

Published December 1, 2011

Seventeen Williamson County schools were recently commended by the State for their high performance on standardized tests.  The schools were classified as Reward Schools according to the Tennessee Department of Education's new accountability report.  The report is part of the State's request for a waiver from the No Child Left Behind law.  If a waiver is granted, the new accountability report would classify individual schools as reward schools, priority schools or focus schools.

Reward Schools

Reward schools would be the five percent of schools with the highest performance or making the fastest progress based on Tennessee Value-Added Assessment System scores.  A total of 17 Williamson County schools were named Reward Schools - more than any other district in the state.  They are listed below:

Priority Schools

Priority schools would be those among the five percent of schools with lowest overall proficiency in the state.  Williamson County did not have any priority schools.

Focus Schools

Focus schools would be identified in three ways:  high schools with graduation rates below 60 percent, schools with subgroups that have less than five percent composite performance on standardized tests and schools with the largest achievement gaps between subgroups defined by race, economic status, disability and English proficiency.  Williamson County did not have any focus schools.

Meanwhile, the State Report Card for schools and school districts is expected to be released Friday, December 2.