Rutherford County Schools has one of the highest graduation rates in Tennessee at nearly 94%, according to information released by the Tennessee Department of Education Thursday.

The Department of Education released its annual Report Card Thursday morning that details various performance indicators for every school district and school in Tennessee. Those indicators include achievement data, graduation rates, ACT scores, demographics and other comparison information.

County Schools Director Don Odom told WGNS in a past interview that Rutherford County Schools are very competitive...

Performance highlights for Rutherford County Schools include:

• The district's graduation rate has increased by 1.4% to 93.91%
• For the fifth consecutive year, the district earned all A's in achievement in grades 3-8
• The district earned an overall "5" for value-added learning gains, which is the highest rating available.

The state of Rutherford County Schools is strong and improving, and our results show we remain among the best school districts in Tennessee," Director of Schools Don Odom said. "It's not the buildings or other things that make our schools strong. It's the people who teach for us and are in contact with the students."

Rutherford County Schools uses the Report Card each year as a tool to identify strengths and areas that need to be improved.

Areas needing improvement include:

• ACT scores in Rutherford County dropped two-tenths of a percent in 2014-2015
• Improvement is needed in gap closures for student subgroups. Although the district showed growth in some academic gap closures for those subgroups, it did not hit all the targets set by the Tennessee Department of Education.
• Per pupil funding in Rutherford County Schools remains more than $1,000 below the state average. The report shows per pupil funding is $1,176 below the state average.

"The biggest challenge we have is enrollment growth," Director Odom said. "It affects everything we do including instruction, finances and facilities."

See the Results:

The results are available for parents and the community athttp://www.tn.gov/education/topic/report-card.