Kentucky Department of Education released Glasgow Independent Schools 2022-23 report card

By MICHAEL CRIMMINS
Glasgow News 1

The Kentucky Department of Education recently released the 2022-23 school report cards providing scores both for individual schools and districts based on the Kentucky State Assessment results. Glasgow Independent Schools, with its six schools and 2,283 students, received mid-range scores. Chad Muhlenkamp, superintendent of the district, along with Tara Martin, supervisor of instruction, said the report card is one snapshot of the district that, while providing valuable data, does not show all the other things they are doing throughout the schools.

“There have been things we put in place and seen some gains that are not necessarily reflected…on this [year’s report],” Muhlenkamp said. “We’re moving in the right direction it’s just that change takes time.”

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.

Due to this new addition, Muhlenkamp said, it is difficult to compare this year’s numbers with last year’s as change is a “new beast.”

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.

Glasgow Independent had an elementary score in the yellow category.

Highland Elementary — which itself scored in the yellow category — showed an increase in reading, mathematics, science, social studies and combined writing and a decline in “progress on English language proficiency.” The report card also showed that 51 percent of students at Highland were distinguished or proficient in reading, 44 percent in mathematics, 35 percent in science, 43 percent in social studies and 30 percent in combined writing.

South Green Elementary scored in the green category individually and it showed an increase in reading and mathematics with 55 and 43 percent being distinguished or proficient in reading and math, respectively. Science, social studies and combine writing remained constant, according to the report.

Glasgow Middle School, which scored in the yellow category despite the overall middle school rating was green, showed an increase in reading and math scores and a significant increase on science, social studies and writing.

Glasgow High School scored in the orange with reading and mathematic maintained and science, social studies and combine writing declining significantly. However, in the graduation rate and the postsecondary readiness GHS scored in the blue category representing the highest performance.

“That graduation rate means a whole lot to us to make sure that we do have a qualified workforce,” Muhlenkamp said.

The “Quality of School Climate and Safety Survey” which, according to Martin, is roughly 20 questions that the students take before their first assessment was maintained at Highland and GMS, increased at South Green Elementary and declined at GHS.

One thing Muhlenkamp said was a “bright spot” that is shown on the report is that they no longer have any school in the district identified as Targeted Support and Improvement School.

“Through their hard work they were able to remove that identification so this year we’re glad that none of our schools have the identification of TSI or [Comprehensive Support Improvement] schools,” Muhlenkamp said. “We’re fortunate in that. The students and staff have worked really hard in meeting that need of our students in that avenue.”

Martin said in the coming weeks and months the school administration is going to meet with their respective staffs to go over the data and identify areas of improvement and areas where they are seeing a positive change. Overall, Muhlenkamp said, he is pleased with the district.

“I’m happy with the dedication and the hard work the staff has put forth for the students on a daily basis,” Muhlenkamp said. “Do we have areas for growth? Absolutely. I think that’s in everything. No matter where our scores were, it’s about going one step forward in improvement and that’s what the administration is doing at the school level.”

To view Glasgow Independent School’s full report click here.

Check back for similar articles concerning the other school districts within Barren County, Caverna Independent Schools.