By GINA KINSLOW
Two of five schools in the Metcalfe County School District and one of three schools in the Caverna Independent School District met target goals of the Commonwealth Accountability Testing System (CATS), according to information released today by the Kentucky Department of Education.
Both North Metcalfe and Summer Shade Elementary schools met goals, while Edmonton Elementary, Metcalfe County middle and high schools were listed as progressing.
“Overall, we are making progress and moving forward. As a district, we need a common agenda and focus on rigor,” said Pat Hurt, Metcalfe County School superintendent. “Our district is progressing, but we aren’t moving at the pace we need to in order to reach our goals by 2014.”
Two school’s scores dropped from last year. Edmonton Elementary had an accountability index of 82.1, which was lower than the school’s 2006-07 score of 82.6.
Metcalfe County High School’s score also dropped. It went from 70.8 in 2007 to 70.0.
The high school was also listed as being in the novice category, which Hurt said means the school has too many novice learners.
“We must believe that all of our children can achieve more than they are currently achieving,” Hurt said. “We must continue to strive to stretch the learning for all. We have great teachers doing wonderful work in pockets in our district and what we need is each and every teacher doing wonderful work in each and every classroom across our district.”
The district had an accountability index of 77.1, which is higher than its 2006-07 accountability index of 76.5. The district’s combined index for the 2006-08 biennium is 76.8.
Two of the three schools in the Caverna district are rated as progressing based on the CATS scores.
“The CATS is what we spend most of our time preparing for and we’re very proud to say that for this year and actually the past couple of years we’ve seen great progress in the district,” said Dr. Sam Dick, superintendent.
Caverna Elementary met its target goal for the second year in a row. The school had an accountability index of 85.6, which is up from 84.5 last year.
Both Caverna middle and high schools were listed as progressing, which Dick said means they are on track to reach proficiency by 2014.
“The term progressing means we are above the assistance line and below the goal point, which means we are making our way,” he said. “So the overall district has really improved.”
The district has a combined index of 75.1, which is up from its combined index of 73 last year.
“We gained two academic points there. That’s quite an achievement because to get the average to go up is pretty difficult,” Dick said.
He attributes the district’s improvements on the CATS to the adjustments that have been made in the delivery of curriculum and the rigor in which it is delivered.
“In education it is very easy to get sidetracked by other issues, but we have made academic achievement the main reason why we’re here, which it should have been all along,” he said. “We’ve got a great instruction program with great instructors. We’ve put in place a lot of programs and we’ve changed the emphasis to where it’s all about instruction.”
