Tagged: The Next Louisville

Jefferson County Public Schools officials say there’s more to the report released last week showing a majority of the district’s lowest performing schools have not made adequate progress.

JCPS officials acknowledged at Monday’s board meeting more needs to be done to turn around the status of its lowest performing schools, but they say there have been some gains in student test scores.

A majority of Kentucky’s priority schools—formerly known as persistently low-achieving—have not made adequate progress for turning around student achievement, according to a report presented to the Kentucky Board of Education this week. And Jefferson County is being singled out.

Of the 41 schools that have been deemed priority schools only 18 have made acceptable progress, said the education department's Susan Allred.

Students and parents are often concerned with bad grades. Grades say a lot to colleges and universities and high scores on college entrance exams such as the ACT and SAT are important for getting into certain schools.

Depending on the teacher, points can be earned for class participation, going the extra mile to make visual presentations or through extra credit, among other measures.

That’s the way grading has been done the past century; educators including Brown School Principal Tim Healy say it should change.

Officials with the Jefferson County Teachers Association say if the school board proceeds with the preliminary budget adopted this week it could challenge the district in court.

The issue is over the elimination of some of the district’s school resource teachers. RTs help certain JCPS schools and teachers with curriculum or student academics. While some RTs work in specific schools, others are located in district offices like Gheens Academy.