The Greene County School System's Report Card letter grades received Tuesday from the Tennessee Department of Education were lower this year.

The decrease had been expected due to changes in the baseline and grade scale used by the state department of education officials.

Dr. Joe Parkins, director of Greene County Schools, said, "Across the state, there had been so much improvement made, that the state Department of Education felt they needed to set a new baseline, or average, and compare students to the average scores rather than those in 1998 as had been the case before.

"By doing that, he said, "It dropped everyone's scores."

The county school system's 2008 Report Card had been its "best ever," Parkins said, with three "A's" and a "B" in academic achievement.

A letter from Dr. Timothy K. Webb, Tennessee's education commissioner, cautioned that because of changes adopted this year, the 2009 Report Card "cannot be used as a valid basis of comparison to scores from any previous year."

The letter suggests that the "best way to measure the progress of your child's school is to compare that score to the state average [scores] for 2008-09.

The Greene County School System Report Card, Parkins said, shows "Academic Achievement" letter grades in grades 3-8 of:

* "B" in mathematics, compared to a state average letter grade of "B";

* "C" in reading/language arts, compared to a state average letter grade of "B";

* "B" in social studies, compared to a state average letter grade of "B";

* "B" in science, compared to a state average letter grade of "B."

The report card also shows Greene County Achievement letter grades of "B" in fifth-grade writing, "A" in eighth-grade writing and "A" in 11th-grade writing.

The state average score in writing for all three grades was an "A," state education officials said.

Dr. Parkins said local school officials continue to work to improve fifth-grade writing scores, which have been at the "B" letter grade level for several years.

Also in terms of Achievement scores, the 2009 Greene County School System report card, shows a 2009 ACT college entrance exam composite score of 20.3, as compared with a state average ACT composite score of 20.6.

The Achievement grades are based on student performance on state standardized tests that students across the state took last spring.

The 2009 report cards released on Tuesday also show so-called "Value-Added" scores.

Value-Added, according to the state Department of Education Web site, "measures student progress within a grade and subject, which demonstrates the influence the school has on the students' performance."

The Web site also notes that Value-Added "provides diagnostic information for improving educational opportunities for students at all achievement levels."

Dr. Parkins noted that changes made by the state Department of Education this year resulted in almost universally lower Value-Added scores across the state.

The Greene County School System's Value-Added letter grades, as shown on the 2009 Report Card, are:

* "D" in mathematics;

* "C" in reading/language arts;

* "C" in social studies; and

* "C" in science.

Greene County's Dr. Parkins, who is retiring next June, said he expects that his successor will be committed to ensuring that the county school system's Report Card scores improve in future years for both Achievement and Value-Added.

But that may be more difficult in the future, state education officials said during a conference call about the new Report Cards, that was conducted with reporters from across the state on Tuesday.

New educational standards for measuring student performance on the 2010 state Report Cards are now in effect and new tests that require students to demonstrate mastery of subjects will be administered next spring, state officials said on Tuesday.

The 2009 Greene County School System state Report Card also shows that the system, and its schools, achieved so-called "Adequate Yearly Progress" (AYP) against federal "No Child Left Behind" benchmarks.

The Report Card shows the Greene County School System to be in "good standing" in terms of AYP standards.

The system met the AYP benchmarks for all students, white students, economically disadvantaged students and students with disabilities, according to the Report Card.

But the county school system did not have to meet the federal benchmarks for African-American students, Asian-Pacific Islanders, Hispanic students or Native American students because it has fewer than 45 students in each of those sub-groups.

The 2009 state Report Card for the Greene County School System reports the school system had 7,203 students, 468 teachers and 26 administrators during the previous school year.

The system also had 4,552 economically disadvantaged students.

In terms of spending last year, according to the system profile on the 2009 Report Card, the Greene County School System spent $7,111 per pupil, compared with the state average of $8,518 per pupil.

Sources of funding for the county school system's operation last year included:

* 25.3 percent from local sources;

* 23.5 percent from federal, and

* 61.3 percent from state sources.

In comparison, according to the 2009 Report Card, funding sources statewide averaged 40.2 percent local, 11.3 percent federal and 48.5 percent state.

Greene County elementary school students surpassed the state goals of 93 percent for attendance and 97 percent for promotion. The county students' attendance rate was 94.7 percent and their promotion rate was 98.3 percent.

The county school system's high school students, surpassed the state attendance-rate and graduation-rate goals of 93 percent and 90 percent, respectively, with an attendance rate of 95 percent and graduation rate of 93.4 percent.

During the conference call with reporters, the state Department of Education's Dr. Connie Smith said a recent study had shown that Tennessee is now tops in the South in reducing the drop-out rate and increasing the graduation rate.