Clock ticking on test goals

By MIKE JAMES
The Independent

FRANKFORT September 09, 2008 11:16 pm

— With only six years left until the 2014 deadline, many school districts in Kentucky are still struggling to meet the goal of proficiency or better for every student.
That’s the downside gleaned from school accountability data released today by the Kentucky Department of Education.
On the positive side of the ledger, fewer schools need assistance in meeting their accountability goals, said KDE spokeswoman Lisa Gross.
FIVCO area schools reside somewhere between these two boundaries. Every school in the area either met its goal or was considered to be progressing toward the goal set under the Commonwealth Accountability Testing System.
The accountability scores are based on the Kentucky Core Content Test administered yearly to students in intermediate through high school grades.
The tests assess learning in reading, writing, mathematics, science, social studies, arts and humanities, practical living and vocational studies.
By 2014, every school in Kentucky is expected to reach a score of 100, indicating that all children are proficient in the core content areas.
Many educators, such as Greenup County curriculum coordinator Judy Meadows, believe it’s a job that will get mor edifficult as the deadline approaches.
However, Meadows remains optimistic. To keep up with the demand for improvement, Greenup is focusing on intervention programs, especially in math.
Also, teachers in all schools are working together to align their curricula, Meadows said. That way, students who transfer from one school to another in the district will remain in familiar academic territory.
Greenup’s elementaries are in good shape, three of them meeting goal and one making progress, she said. The two middle schools and the high school all are making progress.
Meeting goal means making enough improvement to meet the 2014 target; progressing means a school shows some improvement, but not enough.
Working across the district is also Ashland’s approach, with teachers at higher scoring schools sharing what has worked for them, said curriculum coordinator Myra Robertson.
Looking from 2000, the first year of CATS scores, to now, Ashland had gone from 70.9 to 82.2, she said. Perhaps more dramatic, the district has more than halved its novice rate, from 25.63 to 10.85, in that time, she said.
Four of the district’s elementaries met goals and two others, along with the middle and high school, are progressing. Hager Elementary already has reached the 100 mark, meaning all its students are proficient.
Boyd County showed gains across the district, Marilyn Mayo, assessment coordinator, said.
“We’ve made a lot of effort and we’re reaping the benefits,” she said.
Over the past five years the district has realized a gain of 12.6 in its accountabiliity index, Mayo said.
In Boyd, three elementaries met goals and one elementary, along with the middle and high schools, are progressing.
Also in the area, Carter County had four schools meeting goal and six progressing, all four of Elliott County’s schools are progressing, one Lawrence County elementary met goals and the rest of the district’s schools are progressing.
In Fairview, the elementary met goal and the high school is progressing; both Worthington Elementary and Raceland High in the Raceland district are progressing, and in Russell, the high school met goal and the middle and intermediate schools are progressing.
MIKE JAMES can be reached at mjames@dailyindependent.com or at (606) 326-2652.