Madisonville Messenger, Oct. 20, 2011
Central named as persistently
low-achieving school
By Erin Schmitt
MORTONS GAP — The Kentucky Department of Education has identified Hopkins County Central High School as one of 19 persistently low-achieving schools in the state.
A state law enacted in 2010 requires the state Department of Education to look at each school’s combined proficiency levels in reading and math and determine which are in the bottom five percent.
Schools that are persistently low-achieving have failed to meet all their goals under the federal No Child Left Behind Act for at least three years.
“It’s disappointing to be on the list,” said Central Principal Tommy Burrough, “but I know we have done a lot of good things over the course of this past year, and we’re on the right track this year for this new accountability system.”
Students will no longer take Kentucky Core Content Testing, which was used to measure state and federal guidelines for No Child Left Behind. Instead, students will be measured by ACT-administered exams.
Professional learning committees for each subject to be tested met in the summer on their own time to plan units based on the new standards, Burrough said.
Freshman and sophomore students are in the middle of taking MAP tests, or Measures of Academic Progress, which will be scored and supply the school with data on how students are faring and what needs to be improved before year-end testing. Juniors also took an ACT practice test before fall break, which will also be used for evaluation, he said.
The ACT-administered tests will provide a new baseline, so judging it against the old KCCT testing scores will be like comparing apples to oranges, Burrough said.
Central students improved in math, science and in writing on-demand for the 2011 testing period, but despite the gains, it still failed to meet all No Child Left Behind requirements. The federal law is a pass/fail system that requires a school meet 100 percent of its goals.
ACT scores for juniors in 2011 also improved over the previous year, but the federal guidelines doesn’t measure certain gains, Burrough said. For instance, last year 61 percent of juniors raised their ACT scores over the PLAN scores, a prep ACT exam.
Approximately 1/3 of each of Central’s subpopulation groups were marked novices in 2010, so the school worked hard to improve scores, he said.
“Our philosophy was we have to move those kids up,” Burrough said. “Our gains from novice to apprentice has jumped, but they only score on proficient and distinguished and college-readiness.”
Jason Clark, director of secondary instruction for Hopkins County Schools, said the district has been pleased with the improvement it saw in Central’s 2011 test scores. He said it seems Central is taking the right steps to improve.
“I believe the school has a plan in place that’s going to get them to where they need to be,” Clark said.
Since he arrived at the school last year, Burrough said he’s been applying what he learned as a principal at McLean County High School and assistant principal at Apollo High School in Daviess County to help Central and its students succeed.
Improving discipline and hiring faculty and putting staff in optimum positions to teach to the best of their abilities has been a priority for the past year, he said.
Burrough also noted that improving Central should be a community goal, not just an effort in the school.
“The importance of education in this area, in this community, needs to be a major priority,” he said.
Since it’s been identified as a persistently low-achieving school, Central will be the subject of a leadership audit that will evaluate Burrough and the school administration.
The school will also be eligible for federal School Improvement Grant funding in the 2012 -2013 year to enable them to improve student achievement.
An Educational Recovery Specialist will also work with the English/Language Arts and Math departments and administration to help the school work toward its goals.
The district will eventually select one of four turnaround models. The first is restaffing, which would mean the removal of the principal and 50 percent of the staff. Federal law requires a principal who has been in the building for three years to be removed.
The second option would be transformation, which would require a plan to meet achievement goals and tie student achievement to teacher evaluations. The third choice would be for an independent organization to take over the school. The last possibility is to close the school.
Clark said there is a stigma attached to being named a persistently low achieving school, but this also gives Central the opportunity to make its faculty experts in school turnaround.
“We’re going to receive the resources that we need to be able to become the school that we know this can be,” he said. “That’s what we have to look forward to, not look back in the past.”