By MICHAEL CRIMMINS
Glasgow News 1
The Kentucky Department of Education released the 2022-23 school report cards on Nov. 1 providing scores both for individual schools and districts based on the Kentucky State Assessment results. Caverna Independent Schools, representing three schools and nearly 600 students, scored at the lower end of the scale.
Due to Senate Bill 158, which was passed in 2020, this is the first batch of school report cards that utilize both “status” and “change” to evaluate the assessments’ indicators. According to the department, change represents “improvement from the prior year to current year” while status represents the current year’s performance.
The report card’s accountability indicators provide scores for State Assessment Results in Reading and Math, for Science, Social Studies, and Writing, English Language Performance and Quality of School Climate and Safety. For high school and district levels the results also include postsecondary readiness and the graduation rate.
According to Kentucky Revised Statute 158.6455, status and change “shall receive equal weight in determining overall performance,” which is then translated to a color with red representing the lowest performance, orange representing low, yellow representing medium, green being high and blue being very high.
According to the report card Caverna Elementary School was given a red indicator rating with a red score in reading and mathematics. It should also be noted on the change the elementary “Declined” in reading and math compared to last year’s assessments, with 21 percent of students scoring proficient or distinguished in the reading and 10 percent of students scoring the same on the math portion. In the science, social studies and combined writing the school “maintained” its scores in the orange rating. Regarding the “Quality of School Climate and Safety Survey” the school maintained its yellow rating with 94 percent of students agreeing, to some extent, with the question “All my teachers make me feel welcome in their class.”
For the middle school, which overall scored an orange rating, they scored a yellow in reading and math, a red in science, social studies and writing, and an orange in the quality and safety survey. Caverna High School scored orange in reading and math, green in science, social studies and writing, and orange on the survey.
On the two extra metrics that are only for high schools, graduation rate and postsecondary readiness, the high school scored red and orange, respectively. The school’s 4-year graduation rate is 81.4 percent, which is lower than Kentucky’s average of 91.4 percent. Postsecondary readiness, which declined significantly, had a postsecondary rate of 80.0.
Whitney Paul, Caverna’s district assessment coordinator, said these state assessments are but one “snapshot” of the schools and “cannot fully demonstrate the amazing capabilities of the students.”
“These scores are just one snapshot of our schools and district,”Paul said. “However, we do recognize the importance of student achievement, so we have implemented some specific strategies throughout all of our schools. It’s very important to remember that seeing the positive effects of those strategies will take time.”
She said one area that she is seeing good progress is the high school’s science, social studies and writing scores. She attributes the increase to “science and social studies classes prioritized the importance of reading comprehension as it relates to the specific contents,” and establishing high expectations for writing students and “collaborat[ion] with colleagues in other content areas to make sure that writing is happening in those classrooms as well.”
“The ‘significantly increased’ change rating is proof that the work to prioritize reading in science and social studies as well as our rigorous writing instruction has proven to be effective,” Paul said.
In the end, Paul said, the report card provides valuable data, but it is only one snapshot of the district and its student, and positive change happens slowly.
“Caverna Independent Schools is committed to student growth and improvement,” she said. “We have done a deep dive into our data to determine what instructional changes we need to make across the district. We are urgently and intentionally making the changes necessary that promote student learning and student performance. Those changes won’t give us our desired results overnight. They take time… so we are going to be consistent throughout the process and support our students and staff in whatever they need to be successful.”
To view the district’s full report card click here.
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