CCPS officials talk success, where to improve in assessment data

The Kentucky Department of Education has officially released the state assessment data, and the Christian County Public Schools System data shows both things to celebrate and areas that will get more attention moving forward. 

Overall, there were no schools that decreased in the ranks—as a reminder, this accountability system through the state is color-coded, with rankings going from red, orange, yellow, green and blue, with red being the worst and blue being the best. Those rankings are determined from six indicators including assessment results in reading and mathematics, results in science, social studies and writing, English learning progress, quality of school climate and safety, postsecondary readiness for high schools and graduation rate.

Last year, CCPS had six schools in the yellow, five in the orange and one in the read—this year, Superintendent Chris Bentzel announced there are four schools that are green, four in the yellow, four in the orange, and none in the red category. 

Freedom Elementary School, which had been designated a Comprehensive Support and Improvement school last year, has improved its assessment score so much that is has been removed from the CSI designation, and saw an index rating increase from 27.8 to 50.8.  Indian Hills had the district’s highest overall index at 75.4.

In a big win, CCPS saw every school exit the Targeted Support and Improvement designation for African American students, which Assistant Superintendent Jessica Addison says is a sign of just how hard every staff member, and student, is working.

The high schools also achieved a blue ranking in the postsecondary readiness indicator. One place that will have renewed focus moving forward are the middle schools—those two schools both saw small decreases in their index, with both Hopkinsville Middle and Christian County Middle in the orange.  Addison says they fully expect the middle schools to show improvement next year, as they move their focus from safety and school culture to those content standards.

One factor of this accountability system this year is the ‘change’ metric, meaning that how much schools change from one year to the next is also factored into the scoring system, for both the positive and the negative. 

Freedom Elementary School Principal Leslie Lancaster says she couldn’t be prouder of their students, and she’s excited to see how much they’ll grow and improve in the coming months.

Bentzel says in a few years, he fully expects Christian County Schools to be one of the top-performing districts in western Kentucky. You can view the report card for the district as a whole or individual schools on the Kentucky School Report Card website.