Owensboro Ind. sees "tremendous gains" in schools with "hard to serve" population; Daviess Co. sees drop in reading scores; Ohio Co. sees more college- and career-ready students; Muhlenberg Co. has identified strengths, areas of focus; Hancock Co. strong

Messenger-Inquirer, Owensboro, Sept. 28, 2017

Kentucky assessment in flux
Schools report growth and reductions
By Bobbie Hayse

Kentucky schools won’t see traditional grades or summative numbers as they have in past years with the Thursday, Sept. 28, release of the 2016-17 assessment scores, because of the state’s transition to the new state accountability system, the Every Student Succeeds Act.

However, while districts aren’t able to compare numbers to last year’s under the Unbridled Learning assessment system, they can still see a glimpse into what areas students are performing well, or can judge what content needs more focus. At the state level, graduation rates, advanced placement and ACT scores have all risen, and the same can be said for local districts.

Owensboro Public Schools Superintendent Nick Brake said he is particularly proud of Estes and Foust elementary schools because both have shown “tremendous gains” in the percentage of students scoring proficient or higher in reading and math.

He said this is difficult to do at those schools because those are what he termed “hard to serve” populations, with a large percentage of gap students. Both schools have 100 percent of students on free and reduced lunch, and they serve a large population of English-learners.

Students receive ratings in Kentucky as distinguished, proficient, apprentice or novice, with novice students performing low and not scoring high on college- and career-readiness tests, according to the Kentucky Department of Education.

A big push this year in education is in novice reduction, or bringing those novice-scoring students up into higher categories of performance, Brake said.

Both Estes and Foust students have hit those education targets, he said.

“That means we are really paying attention to those gap populations,” he said. “That’s some really good news.”

At the high school level, he said the college- and career-ready rate is down a bit, but some of that is because of a placement test that was measured last year and not this year. Last year, the high school was at 60 percent, and this year it’s 58 percent.

The graduation rate is at 94 percent, which is also a slight decrease, “but it’s ahead of the state rate by a long shot,” he said. The state average is 89.8 percent.

“The high school is in good shape,” he said, with students improving in three-fourths of content areas. “Math is still an area of concern at the high school, but I know they are spending time looking at it.”

The numbers are positive for the district, Brake said.

“The overall trend is consistent improvement and gains in instructional improvement,” he said.

Jana Beth Francis, Daviess County Public Schools’ assistant superintendent for teaching and learning, said these scores are always helpful in gauging the outputs of the hard efforts of students and staff, and also provide a roadmap for continued growth. The district’s emphasis moving forward will be looking at the percentage of students who are performing proficient or higher. The district is already above the state average at all levels in reading, math, social studies, science and language mechanics, but there is still room for growth as the ultimate goal is to get every student at that level, she said.

As with most districts, DCPS is continuing its focus on achievement gaps. Educators are taking a look at all the district’s sub-populations -- students on free and reduced lunch, minority students, or English-learners -- and comparing their core content scores to last year.

“Reading took a drop at the elementary level,” she said. “It also took a slight drop at the middle school level when we compare straight from last year to this year.”

Even so, 56.2 percent of Daviess County elementary students scoring at proficient or distinguished in reading is higher than the state’s 54.3 percent at that level. The same can be said for middle school students in reading, with 60.9 percent of Daviess County middle-schoolers scoring a proficient or higher, and 56.9 percent scoring at the state level.

“We are really proud of the fact that students continue to grow throughout all levels of the district,” Francis said. “If you look at our scores, we create a strong foundation at the elementary level, and those scores either improve or remain stable all the way through high school. Our reading, writing and social studies scores all grow from the elementary to high school level, and while math drops a bit, it’s still very consistent. That’s shows that students are authentically learning the content, which we hope enables them to succeed when they graduate.”

Because districts and schools aren’t given summative scores, they are able to focus on individual student achievement. Those numbers can be measured no matter what accountability system the state has, she said.

“It comes down to ... are the students successful?” she said. “Are individual students being successful?”

The high school has been placing an emphasis on college- and career-readiness for some time, and this year they have CCR coaches in place at each high school full-time. Last year the district had 71.6 percent of students at college- and career-ready; this year 74.7 percent are.

Graduation rates at both high schools were above the state average. Apollo graduated 91.4 percent of students, while Daviess County’s graduation rate was 98.1 percent. Those numbers are indicative of how important K-12 education is for the community, Francis said.

“We have families that want their children to graduate,” she said. “We have alternative programs to meet student needs when they are struggling with high school.”

Ohio County

Superintendent Scott Lewis says overall school K-PREP scores haven’t changed much from last year at the district level, but one thing is evident: High school students are becoming more college- and career-ready.

Last year, the district scored a distinguished, and the year before it was labeled as proficient and progressing. If anything, Lewis said, the district is still on that upward trend, but all schools have areas on which they need to work.

“What we try to do is we strive to have as many proficient students as possible,” he said.

He said the end result for all students is that they are college- or career-ready by the time they end their high school careers. And if anything, the K-PREP scores are showing success in that regard.

Ohio County High School students scored higher on their ACTs than ever in the school’s history last year, and the graduation rates are also showing an upward trend.

“Those indicators show that we are doing a good job in elementary schools to prepare those kids to reach those (post-high school) goals,” Lewis said.

In preschool, kindergarten and other early education areas, the district is focusing on getting students “on level” with their reading and writing, he said.

“We have great students and teachers and I’m excited to see how things turn out for this (2017-18) year,” he said.

Muhlenberg County

As with most districts, Muhlenberg Public Schools Superintendent Robby Davis says it’s difficult to compare scores and determine how students are performing because the state assessment and accountability systems are in a flux phase.

However, he said, district administrators have been “digging into the numbers” and have determined some obvious strengths as well as areas that need more focus.

Muhlenberg elementary and middle school students are scoring better than state averages in reading and math, with 60.1 percent of elementary students scoring proficient or distinguished in reading, compared to the 54.3 percent at the state level. The elementary math scores at the state level indicate 49.1 percent of students scored proficient and distinguished, while 54.9 percent of Muhlenberg elementary students scored proficient and distinguished in math.

This is something Davis is proud of.

Across the district, he said, educators will target gap and novice reduction during this transitional year. He also said the district will focus more on what he called “soft skills,” or ways students can be more productive socially, or with communication and other levels of emotional reasoning.

“I appreciate each every member of our school system, and we are committed to providing every opportunity for our kids to be successful,” he said.

Hancock County

Assistant Superintendent Gina Biver said Hancock County Schools are strong as a district, but when administrators zoom in on the data, there are clearly areas that need more focus.

For instance, South Hancock Elementary School shows a decrease in reducing its novice students.

Math is a districtwide issue, Biver said, and educators are trying to bring interventions for all students, not just those who are particularly struggling. She is pleased with the day-to-day math instruction, but it’s a subject that doesn’t have an easy fix.

Like most districts, Hancock has room to grow with gap achievement.

The district is holding consistent, however, and during this time of assessment transition, Biver said, people will get a better reflection on how students are doing as they come into a classroom.

She said the district is using these numbers as a baseline moving forward.

“We consider this an important piece of data, but it’s just one piece of data we track on our students as we look at them as individuals,” she said.

McLean County

Terry Hayes, McLean County Schools superintendent, said the district has been focusing on individualized learning because not every student learns at the same rate.

He said McLean County High School made some improvements across the board.

The high school focused on on-demand writing last year, and the increase in scores is an indicator that effort paid off, with 62.2 percent of students scoring proficient or higher compared to the state’s 58.5 percent of students scoring at that level.

“We are quite proud of that,” he said.

Even if the stick from which you measure school and student performance is in a transitional phase “if you have good instruction, effective teaching, you have effective student learning, regardless of assessment,” he said.

Education is always a moving target, he said, but the district has some goals.

It is focusing on early childhood learning because when a student begins school at level, they tend to perform better down the line. They also want to focus on making sure students in the gap groups are performing as well as students who aren’t.

“We as educators, we have to perfect our craft,” he said.