When the Kentucky Department of Education releases the 2013-14 state test results early Friday, education advocates, journalists and others will begin picking apart data from an accountability system that's complicated and has many layers.We'll have more on the Unbridled Learning results available on Friday morning. Here's where things stood last year. Certain pieces of information—like a school or district's ranking—are obvious places to start. Last year JCPS was ranked in the 32nd percentile, a jump from the previous year when it was in the 23rd percentile. This means last year, 68 percent of schools performed better on the state's assessment. Education department officials say there may be changes in previous year's data, so don't be surprised if certain data or numbers shift slightly. The important thing will be to consider the trends that can be pulled from the data, which is in most cases shows achievements over the last three years (that's when the state first released accountability data under the new system.) This year, there will be an added element. As we reported earlier this week, "program reviews" will be added and count for 23 percent of a school and district's score. We'll also be checking up on trends that came up during last year's accountability data release.
- Last year, 13 of 18 JCPS priority schools—that is, schools persistently low-performing schools—met their state goals.
- The JCPS graduation rate was 77 percent, and 51 percent of students were classified as college and/or career ready.
- JCPS scores in math were low, and middle schools performed poorly.
Also, we’ll check in on JCPS reading scores. Last year reading proficiency went up across the board, but less than half of elementary school students were reading at grade level. (Here's more on last year's data.) At the time, JCPS Superintendent Donna Hargens said the No. 1 focus going forward will be, “reading, reading, reading."
