WASHINGTON COUNTY, TN (WJHL) – For several years now schools in Washington County Tennessee have been using standardized testing data to help better guide student instruction in the classroom and it seems to be paying off.

Four schools recently achieved all 5’s, that’s the highest level in the state which is the highest distinction given by the state to measure student academic growth year to year.

For nearly a decade 3rd grade sulpher springs elementary school teacher Heather Jeffers has been doing what she loves.

“We love working with the kids,” Heather Jeffers said.

So it comes as no surprise our cameras caught her this morning teaching students in a specialized reading group. That group is made up of students in her classroom but the lessons taught are made to fit those students’ specific needs.

Those needs are figured up from data given to teachers and administrators from the results of the tn ready standardized state test and other formative assessments.

“We use it to make groupings for students, to push them towards goals that we have individual goals and classroom goals,”

Jeffers said.

“That data has to be analyzed, we have to look at every child, we have to see what every child needs, the weaknesses in children,” Sulpher Springs Principal Cathy Humphries said.

From that point tasks or lesson plans for the school year are prepared.Sulpher springs is one of four schools in Washington County, TN that achieved all 5’s, which is the highest distinction given by the state to measure student academic growth year to year.

“Oh we are very proud,” Kimber Halliburton said.

Washington County, Tennessee Director of schools Kimber Halliburton says principals and teachers across the school system work relentlessly to ensure that the data from those test results help shape the learning process for students.

“They are being very perscriptive about what to assign in terms of for students to be successful,” Halliburton said.

That success is what Heather Jeffers is aiming for.

“Our kids, they have gone above and beyond and its been a team effort and they are really shining because of that rigor that we are pushing so hard,” Jeffers said.

Making sure that each student in her classroom can be propelled forward. Other schools in the Washington County School system that also received all 5’s include  West View, Gray, and Ridgeview elementary schools. The school system as a whole received a 5 composite score.