(Editor’s Note: Future editions of the Elizabethton Star will feature final results from the 2017-18 testing cycle for Elizabethton City Schools. As further results are made available, a look at each school will be included. This installment will feature a snapshot of Elizabethton High School’s End of Course exams)

As the 2018-19 academic calendar slowly creeps up on the area, Tennessee schools are already looking ahead to the upcoming testing cycle.

Tennessee Department of Education Candice McQueen recently announced that statewide and district level results are now available, with school level results anticipated to be released in the coming weeks. State officials indicated that results were encouraging, but also showed signs of areas that need improvement.

As more information becomes available on a school-by-school basis, the Elizabethton Star will feature looks at the scores for each school.

For Elizabethton High School, results provided during the first announcement were successful, and also fallen in line with high school districts.

At the high school level, officials noted different tendencies for the four different areas: English and language arts, math, science and U.S. History.

Across the state:

• 29.4% of students were on track or mastered in ELA, down from 34.6% in 2017

• 22.5% of students were on track or mastered in math, up from 21.5% in 2017

• 45.3% of students were on track or mastered in science, down from 51% in 2017

• 27.8% of students were on track or mastered in U.S. history, down from 30.8% in 2017

At Elizabethton High School, 11.4 percent of students tested below the average in ELA which is down from the previous year’s 12.2 mark. 55.2 percent tested average in the course, which is up from the previous year. EHS also tested 30.3 percent on track, which is down from 31.4 in 2017.

In math, EHS saw 40.7 percent score below average, which is up from 2018’s 34.6. EHS had a 30.6 score average, 22.6 score on track while 6.1 percent mastered the EOC. In the science category, 23.4 percent was below, up from 15.3 in 2017. The average score actually was raised in 2018 with 32.6 percent reaching that threshold. 30.1 percent of students were on track while 13.9 percent mastered the EOC.

According to the department, students across the board saw declines in science, which according to officials, “reinforces the need to support teachers as they transition to new science standards and a new science test in 2018-19.”

For the history EOC, EHS raised its percentage within the on-track spectrum to 33.1 percent.