Metcalfe Schools Receive Report Card

By PJ Martin

Editor

The Herald-News

 

The Kentucky Department of Education (KDE) released its 2023-2024 Assessment and Accountability Results in a 64-page report on October 1, 2024. This is the third year this specific assessment has been done.

The ‘Every Student Succeeds Act’ (ESSA) and Senate Bill 158, which was amended in 2020, hold Kentucky’s schools accountable for students’ assessment levels in core subjects such as reading, mathematics, science, social studies, and writing. Also added to those are the school climate and safety levels.

There are many acronyms used throughout the assessment and charts which we will explain further.

Kentucky Summative Assessment (KSA) is the yearly assessment test that public school students in grades 3 – 8 and grades 10 – 11 take each year. KSA assesses the level of skill in reading and mathematics at all grade levels. Assessments for science, social studies, writing, editing, and mechanics are taken once in elementary, middle, and high school. High School seniors also take assessment tests to determine their college readiness and graduation rate.

Schools are also assigned a classification as part of ESSA, based on their performance.

• These federal classifications are Comprehensive Support and Improvement (CSI).
  • CSI I: The lowest-performing 5% of all schools by level based on the school’s

performance in the state accountability system;

• CSI II: High schools with a 4-year cohort graduation rate that is less than 80%; and
• CSI III: Schools identified for ATSI for at least 3 years that fail to exit that status

• Targeted Support and Improvement (TSI).
• Additional Targeted Support and Improvement (ATSI).

Metcalfe County Elementary School is classified as TSI-Disability which means the school needs targeted support and improvement, but also has a group of disabled students that qualify for special education services.

Metcalfe County Middle School is classified as TSI-Economically Disadvantages which means the school needs targeted support and improvement, but also has a group of students who classify as low income and qualify for free or reduced services.

We reached out to Metcalfe County School Superintendent Josh Hurt to get his thoughts on the recent test result. Mr. Hurt shared the following:

“As usual, we have some data to celebrate and some data that should cause us to reflect and improve. All three of our schools continue to score better in year three of this newest accountability system than we did in year one. Our elementary school continues to improve in Reading/Math with the cumulative increase now at 10.3 points (48.2 – 58.5). In the 5-color system, blue is the best and red is the worst with green, yellow, and orange in between. MCES was rated Yellow overall and had green ratings in Reading/Math and Quality of Climate and Safety while receiving a Yellow rating in Science/Social Studies/Writing. I am excited by the work of our elementary school staff and students that is reflected in these results.

MCMS has shown growth in every measured area from year one to now. Its overall score has grown 11.1 points (37.0 – 48.1). From the initial 21-22 data to now the school has improved in every area.

MCHS also continues its upward trend. Its overall score has gone up both last year and this year and currently sits 3.8 points higher than in year one of the system (52.0 – 55.8). A source of particular pride is the MCHS score in Post-Secondary Readiness which grew exponentially. This year MCHS scored 104.8 and received the state’s highest color rating of Blue.

When looking at the results overall, we also recognize areas of needed growth and are currently working at the school level to address those needs. We continue to rebound from the pandemic era and one of the struggles we have had (along with most districts) is attendance. This year, however, we are already seeing a tremendous uptick in our average daily attendance at each school and are beginning to head toward pre-covid norms. I do want to thank our parents, students, bus drivers, and community for supporting us by getting our kids to school.

Our hope is that with improved attendance and continued work on curriculum and instruction, we will continue to see gains in basic academic areas. Also, we believe that the positive trend data at our elementary will eventually produce results across the district.

As always, these results are merely one set of numbers that we use to try to gauge our progress in making sure Learning, Student Experience, and Safety are at the forefront of our work. We are in constant appraisal of our internal data and strive each day to provide a high-quality educational experience for each Hornet.”

 

The Numbers

As you can see on the charts shared with us, overall, the Metcalfe County School system has improved between the beginning evaluation in 2021-22 and the latest 2023-24 data. The red is the lowest level moving up to orange, then yellow which represents average, followed by green, then blue which is the exceptional level.

The school rating can be viewed at www.metcalfe.kyschools.us/ click tabs About and School Report Card. Reviews are available for years 2017-18 through 2022-23.