Clay County Schools officials previewed federal accountability results and told the school board on Dec. 11 that state letter grades remain embargoed until the Tennessee Department of Education releases them.

The district presentation, delivered to the board during the director's report, summarized the six-page federal accountability packet prepared by the U.S. Department of Education. "So you'll see a letter grade come January for each of our schools and the district as a whole," the district administrator said, noting the state release date and urging the board to await those official letter grades before drawing conclusions.

Why it matters: federal and state accountability measures use overlapping but not identical data and timelines. Officials stressed the federal calculation relies on multi-year indicators — ACT/TCAP/EOC results, attendance and graduation measures — and that local changes to staffing, class sizes or curriculum typically take a year or two to show up in those metrics.

District presenters told the board Clay County Schools as a whole received an "advancing" designation in the federal packet. They highlighted two subgroup results as particularly positive: economically disadvantaged students and students with disabilities were classified as "exemplary" for growth in the federal data, meaning those subgroups showed notable year-over-year progress.

The administrator described how the federal score is compiled and urged the board to consider trends rather than single-year movement. "We're not likely to see the outcome of a change for at least a year or two," the administrator said, noting the lag between local interventions and state/federal reporting.

Officials also invited board members to request a follow-up "data dive": the district will arrange for the state data analyst to break down results by school, grade and subject after the state posts letter grades in January.

Next steps: the Tennessee Department of Education is scheduled to release state accountability letter grades after Dec. 19; the board plans to discuss those state grades at its January meeting. The district emphasized the federal packet is informational and that final, public-facing state letter grades will be the basis for official district actions.