Holliday visits Metcalfe schools

By GINA KINSLOW Glasgow Daily Times

EDMONTON — State education commissioner Terry Holliday visited the Metcalfe County School District Wednesday to apologize for the inadvertent release of a list of schools that were identified as persistently low-performing schools.

The list was made public during a state House of Representatives’ Education Committee meeting without Holliday first being able to notify school superintendents their schools were on the list.

During a press conference at Metcalfe County High School, Holliday apologized to the school’s staff and explained how the list was created.

“What happened is the federal guidelines on Race to the Top stimulus funds, they changed a little bit [in] how we identify persistently low-performing schools this year. Never before has a high school that’s not a Title I served school been on that list,” he said. “We all know just putting a school on a list isn’t going to help anything. So, what happened, we had to, in order to get about $400 million, we had to define the persistently low performing schools.”

In addition to producing the list, the state House of Representatives and Senate had to approve legislation.

Holliday told Metcalfe County High School teachers Wednesday that he was in a House of Represen-tatives Education Commit-tee meeting when he announced the list had been created.

“Several of the House members said, ‘Well who is on the list?’ I was about to speak up and say, I can’t tell you who is on the list because I hadn’t told the superintendents yet, but somebody read the list. I apologize for you not knowing that you are on the list,” he said.

Holliday pointed out that Metcalfe County High School has a math proficiency of 25 percent and a reading proficiency of 40 percent, which averages out to be in the 30th percentile.

“That’s not unusual, because students, they’ve got very little stake in your high school tests. You guys have to bribe them to take the tests, don’t you? That’s a problem in Kentucky and we’re going to try to fix that,” he said. “We’re going to move to end-of-course tests. So the kids have a little [stake] in the game. It will be part of their final exam grade and that type of thing.”

He wasn’t sure how soon the state’s schools would be implementing course-end exams.

“We’re working on that, trying to get some money to do that. Hopefully, we will have in place by 2012,” he said.

Holliday said the district already has a lot of the “right things going on.”

“I saw a lot of great instruction here,” he said.

The one thing that impressed him the most was the interventions that are taking place, especially in the Algebra classes.

Holiday said he saw a lot of typical high school students who were apathetic about learning.

“We’ve got to raise their expectations. We’ve got to raise community expectations. We’ve got to give you some support,” he said.

One way to raise student expectations, he said, is getting the local community and parents more involved. He pointed out that 85 percent of jobs in the future will require a two-year degree or more.

“Only 29 percent of Kentuckians have a two-year degree or more,” he said. “There’s a big mismatch in the jobs that are going to be available.”

Another way to cure student apathy is with programs like dual credit.

Metcalfe County High School will undergo an academic audit. According to Lisa Gross, spokesperson for the Kentucky Department of Education, under House Bill 176 the academic audits determine the functioning of the school and the school council, a determination of the school council and principal’s ability to lead, the intervention in the persistently low-achieving school, the interaction and relationship between the superintendent and central office personnel and the council. The audit will also include recommendations on whether the school council can retain its authority, if it should be replaced and if the current principal should remain at the school.

Metcalfe County High School’s principal, David Nole, recently stepped down from the principal’s position to take a job as district math coach. Dorothy McCubbin is serving as the school’s interim principal until the position can be filled.

Steve Thompson, chairman of the Metcalfe County Board of Education, said he understood why Holliday had to do what he did.

“As I shared with him earlier, this is not a new problem for our high school. It’s something we’ve dealt with over the course of years and that’s not getting over the hump. When the standards changed with HB 176, we fell through the crack,” he said. “It’s gotten our public’s attention. Hopefully, our community will understand we need their support in whatever capacity they can offer. These teachers can’t do it alone.”

Superintendent Pat Hurt said if the school can view the situation as an opportunity to turn things around with the additional resources that can soon be attained, and get the right leader for the school, then progress can be made.

“For the past four years, we have been moving, but we just couldn’t keep pace with the target moving outward,” Hurt said.

During his tour of the district, Hurt said she and Holliday talked about the use of instructional coaches, the development of professional learning communities with neighboring school districts and the possible development of an early college, which is similar to a dual-credit program except it encompasses middle schools as well as high schools.

“There are some other districts around us that have started early colleges. In a community like ours where maybe only 6 percent of our population our adult population has a college education, we need to start some early interventions into changing the culture and the thinking that every child needs a college education,” she said.

Hurt said the school has already been working the past four years to turn its scores around and they will probably need the next four to make it happen.

“I feel very confident with the sense of urgency this has created, with the additional resources that we’re going to have the privilege of using and if we can garner some community support with all of this I just think success is on it’s way,” she said.

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