LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) – The Kentucky Department of Education’s annual school report card lacks key academic measurements with the suspension of K-PREP testing in the spring, but other metrics provide some insight into how schools performed a school year upended by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Public and private school systems throughout Kentucky shuttered their classrooms in March at the onset of the coronavirus outbreak, prompting the U.S. Department of Education to grant testing waivers for year-end assessments like K-PREP.
Without test scores for the 2019-20 school year, the report card does not include state accountability scores in areas like proficiency, growth and transition readiness; identification of significant achievement gaps; and star ratings assigned to districts and schools based on performance.
The report card also lacks attendance rates and chronic absenteeism for the 2019-20 school year because of reporting inconsistencies from school districts, according to KDE.
Schools will retain their federal classifications for targeted or comprehensive support and improvement based on 2018-19 data, according to a Wednesday KDE release.
“Though there is limited data available, we hope this information will be useful to start conversations between schools, families and community members about how to ensure all of our students are receiving a high-quality education,” Education Commissioner Jason Glass said in a statement.
“We know there still is a lot of work to be done. The Kentucky Department of Education is here to work alongside our districts to provide the supports they need as they continue focusing on student achievement.”
While the school report card does not include as much academic data, the database provides some indicators of how schools and districts are performing.
The state’s four-year graduation rate of 90.9% in 2020 is slightly higher than the previous two school years, up from 90.6% in 2019 and 90.3% in 2018.
The five-year graduation rate has also climbed, hitting 92% in 2020 compared to 91.6% in 2019 and 91.3% in 2018.
However, Black students lag their white peers by nearly double digits in both categories across Kentucky.
The four-year graduation rate for Black students in 2020 was 83.2% compared to 92.7% for white students. Black students had a five-year graduation rate of 85.7% compared to 93.3% for white students.
English learners and special needs students also posted low four- and five-year graduation rates in 2020, according to state data. Students with disabilities had a four-year rate of 77.9% and a five-year rate of 79.2% while students learning English graduated in four years at a rate of 73.9% and in five years at a rate of 78.2%, state data show.
Jefferson County Public Schools trailed the state’s average graduation rates last school year. The four-year graduation rate at Kentucky’s largest school district in 2020 was 83.5%, and its five-year graduation rate was 84.8%.
Both rates are improvements over 2019 and 2018, according to state data.
Although gaps between Black and white graduation rates at JCPS exist, they’re slightly closer than the statewide averages in 2020.
However, students with disabilities and those learning English had lower graduation rates at JCPS compared to other Kentucky schools in 2020. The four-year graduation rates for special needs students and English learners were 68.5% and 71.4%, respectively, while the five-year rates for both student groups were higher at 70.3% and 76.2%.
The state’s report card shows that half of Kentucky’s 2019 graduating class are attending college, 21% are working, 8.1% are doing a combination of work and school, 4.7% are getting technical training and 2.9% are enlisted in the military.
More than 13% of the 2019 class of graduates is categorized as “other” in the state’s transition to adult life measurement.
For JCPS, two-thirds of its 2019 graduating glass is enrolled in college while 8.9% are working and 9.4% are doing a combination of both. Nearly 5% have enlisted in the military, 1.5% are getting technical training and 8.8% have been categorized as “other.”
For the first time, Kentucky’s school report card also includes a look at how many inexperienced or out-of-field teachers work in disadvantaged schools.
KDE found that 55.6% of students eligible for Title I benefits were taught by inexperienced educators compared to 44.3% for others.
That gap widened for non-white students, those from low-income homes, special needs students and those learning English. In fact, English learners eligible for Title I were most likely to have inexperienced teachers in their classrooms, 61.2% per state data, than any other student subgroup.
The state found far fewer students taught by out-of-field teachers, though Title I students were more likely to have them with 1.4% of disadvantaged students taught by out-of-field educators compared to 0.5% for others.
While the rate of disadvantaged JCPS students taught by inexperienced teachers is better than the state average, the gap between those eligible for Title I and other students was considerably higher.
KDE found that 49.9% of students eligible for Title I services were in classrooms with inexperienced teachers compared to 29% of their more affluent peers at JCPS.
Those rates and gaps were highest for students who were nonwhite, poor, learning English or disabled, state data show.
More than 56% of nonwhite Title I students were taught by inexperienced teachers at JCPS in 2020, 30 percentage points higher than students from more affluent backgrounds.
English learners nearly matched that gap with 58.4% of Title I students in that category learning from inexperienced educators compared to 29.8% for others learning English.
Nearly 58% of economically disadvantaged Title I students had inexperienced teachers leading their classrooms compared to 30.8% for low-income students who did not receive Title I services in 2020.
Half of all students with disabilities who were eligible for Title I services in 2020 were taught by inexperienced educators at JCPS compared to 28.3% for others.
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