JCS test scores fall firmly in the ‘yellow’

Published 1:30 pm Tuesday, November 14, 2023

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On Nov. 1, the Kentucky Summative Assessment results for the 2022-2023 school year were released by the Kentucky Department of Education for the commonwealth and all 120 counties.

The Jessamine County School District released a news release including a score analysis, which was previously published in the Journal.

The district is required by law to publish a link to these test results, and can be found at www.kyschoolreportcard.com/organization/5592/accountability?year=2023.

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Last year, Kentucky launched a color-coded accountability system that provides an individual rating for each school, ranging from the lowest level signified by red to the highest level at blue. School ratings are combined for an overall district rating for the three levels of schools- elementary, middle, and high.

Student-level reports were made available to families as well. Individual rankings are also publicly available on the school report card website.

“Performance in the statewide accountability system is based on a combination of academic and school quality measures, known as ‘state indicators.’ The indicators are evaluated on ‘status,’ representing a school’s performance for the current year, and ‘change,’ representing the school’s performance for the current year compared with the previous year. The status and change scores are combined for an overall score. As the new system was implemented in 2022, this is the first year that ‘change’ will be measured and factored into the ratings,” said Patrice Jones, the Jessamine County Schools public relations director.

On average, Jessamine County Schools received a yellow across the board for elementary, middle, and high schools, much like last year’s score.

When comparing last year’s and this year’s results side by side, ratings stayed about the same with a few slight differences.

In the district’s elementary schools results for 2021-2022- students received yellow in four categories: reading and math; science, social studies, and combined writing; progress on English proficiency; and quality of school climate and safety (which is determined by a district-wide survey).

However, in the 2022-2023 results, elementary school students moved from yellow to green in science, social studies, and combined writing and progress in English proficiency.

In the district’s middle school results for 2021-2022- students received yellow in every category except quality of school climate and safety. That category was labeled as orange, one point under yellow.

For 2022-2023 middle school results, reading and mathematics, and science, social studies and combined reading moved up from yellow to green. Quality of school climate and safety stayed at orange and proficiency in English language moved from yellow to orange.

High school has the same four categories as postsecondary readiness and graduation rate. For the 2021-2022 high school results, every category was given a yellow rating except for quality of school climate and safety which was given an orange rating.

Most of the high school categories kept the same rating for the 2022-2023 results, except for science, social studies, and combined writing, which moved down from yellow to orange and postsecondary readiness, which moved up from yellow to green.

“I’m so very proud of the work that occurs each day in our schools. Our district does an incredible job of providing not only what our students need academically, but also for their overall well-being and what each individual student needs to flourish. As we use these and other data points to guide instruction, we’ll also continue an ongoing dialogue with our students and their families about how we’re doing and how we can improve. We have a continuous improvement mindset, and we’re up to the task, and so are our students,” said Superintendent Matt Moore.