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. Barren County Schools, which represent 11 schools throughout the county and teaches roughly 4,803 students from preschool to twelfth grade, scored in the middle to upper-middle range in its elementary, middle and high school.
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.
Barren County Elementary score — an average representing all of the district’s elementary schools — was designated as yellow with an overall score, according to data compiled by Director of Instruction and Technology Scott Harper, of 65.1 compared to the Kentucky elementary average of 67. The middle school score was green, or high, with a district middle school average of 67.5 as compared to the commonwealth’s 56.
Barren County High School similarly scored in the green category, beating the Kentucky high school average by 9.8 points. In addition to its score, the high school scored blue — the highest performance score one can receive — on its postsecondary rate and green on the graduation rate.
Data, provided by Scott Harper, showing the individual school scores compared to the district and Kentucky average.
In addition to the individual and overall scores, the commonwealth also uses this data in comparison with “benchmark levels of performance” to identify which schools may need additional support. BCHS and Park City Elementary have a Targeted Support and Improvement designation for indicators with students with disabilities.
Bo Matthews, superintendent of the school district, said the results provide important feedback and shows areas that need improvement as well as areas where the district is doing well.
“The results from the 2023 State Accountability Release give us feedback and confirmation that what we have set as our goal – creating opportunities for success for all students – is paying off,” Matthews said in a press release. “The countless hours and efforts of our staff, students, and parents are creating a better future for our community. On behalf of the members of the Barren County Board of Education, I want to publically commend all of our staff and schools for the work they do every day to help students succeed.”
Check back for similar articles concerning the other two school districts within Barren County, Glasgow Independent Schools and Caverna Independent Schools.
