LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) – The Kentucky Department of Education has determined that six principals at low-performing schools in Jefferson County don’t have the capacity to lead turnaround efforts, Jefferson County Public Schools announced late Thursday.
The state came to those conclusions after conducting diagnostic reviews at 15 JCPS schools identified for comprehensive support and improvement, or CSI, from Nov. 18 through Nov. 21 and Dec. 2 through Dec. 5. Seven of reviews were published by KDE on Thursday, and the rest were released by JCPS later that evening.
KDE recommended that King Elementary Principal Stephanie White, Roosevelt-Perry Elementary Principal Kimberly Marshall, Wheatley Elementary Principal William Bunton, J.B. Atkinson Academy Principal Stephanie Nutter, Doss High School Principal Todd Stockwell and Mill Creek Elementary Principal Michelle Pennix be replaced as leaders at their schools, JCPS said in a news release.
Last year, JCPS Superintendent Marty Pollio replaced three of four principals who were similarly deemed unfit to lead their schools’ turnaround efforts. One of those principals, Johnsontown Road Elementary Principal Malinda Dutkowski, chose to retire.
JCPS Communications Director Renee Murphy said Pollio is taking time to review the state’s recommendations and will make determinations at a later date.
Wheatley and Roosevelt-Perry are slated to merge once a new school is built in west Louisville as part of the district’s new facilities plan.
This year’s reviews found myriad issues at some of the district’s low-performing schools.
At King Elementary, the state’s review team lauded staff for being committed to and caring deeply for their students and White for developing goal-oriented systems at the school. Reviewers noted that the school had implemented trauma-informed care to help its most vulnerable students.
However, they found that some of those systems, such as guided reading teaching methods and positive behavior interventions and supports, were implemented inconsistently.
They also questioned King Elementary’s lack of “an effective, results-driven instructional process” and found that student misbehavior was a frequent problem during classroom observations.
“Classroom observations revealed that students were off-task and behavior in many classes impeded the learning process,” the KDE review team wrote in its report. “All stakeholder groups cited student behavior as impeding instruction.”
The state also praised Roosevelt-Perry Elementary’s dedication to social and emotional learning at the school, which serves a high-need population of students.
The review team also highlighted the schools’ opening of a reading intervention program for first- through third-grade students and transition to a professional learning community model for its teachers, although there were not enough fourth- and fifth-grade teachers to fully implement it.
But reviewers for KDE were “concerned with the lack of a sense of urgency for improvement for student learning outcomes by the administration,” according to the report.
“There was a Comprehensive Improvement Plan, but there was no record of implementation nor monitoring of the implementation,” the diagnostic review says. “No data on the results of implementation were found. According to the principal, the two previous Diagnostic Reviews of 2016 and 2018 had vague statements regarding steps to take and, therefore, the improvement priorities were not directly addressed, although findings of both reviews were consistent.”
The review team also found lacking processes for teaching, learning and leading during its time at Roosevelt-Perry Elementary.
“While there were numerous initiatives, they were not clearly delineated nor communicated to all internal stakeholders, resulting in initiative fatigue,” the report says. “A noted example was lack of alignment of similar services, such as those for student emotional and social learning, provided by the school district, school-based resources, and outside entities. Neither teachers nor those on the leadership team were able to articulate the differences among these various support services.”
At Wheatley Elementary, the review team noted the school’s efforts to provide mental health services to its students and partner with community groups in hopes of fostering positive relationships with kids there.
Reviewers also found that school staff embraced JCPS improvement initiatives, such as the district’s racial equity plan, and that students and families expressed love and appreciation for the school.
But Bunton and his team were criticized for inconsistently implementing improvement strategies. Teacher turnover and absenteeism, student misbehavior, and lacking understanding of the community and students’ home lives were cited as major reasons that improvement plans didn’t take hold.
“While academic improvement efforts are needed, findings from classroom observation, stakeholder interview, and stakeholder survey data suggested that disruptive behaviors in classrooms and hallways was contributing to significant losses of instructional time, lengthy and disorderly transitions in classrooms and hallways, and teacher frustration, which was observed in multiple episodes of adults shouting at students to comply with teacher directives,” the report says.
The KDE review team found strong internal support at Doss, noting that teacher retention had grown by 20% over the past five years and that a number of parents chose to send their children to Doss instead of other high schools in the district.
The school's leaders sought to meet the emotional, physical and social needs of Doss students through counselors, deans and external partnerships, according to the report. Reviewers also praised the Academies of Louisville program at Doss.
However, the state also urged Doss leaders to be more intentional in its improvement efforts, such as providing more consistent professional development opportunities for their teachers and making academic intervention programs more readily available for students who need them.
Stakeholders also expressed concern about administrative turnover at Doss and that Stockwell, the school's principal, had largely delegated instructional leadership to his assistant principals.
"It will be necessary for him to function in this capacity in order to lead turnaround efforts," the diagnostic review says. "... By providing intentional and consistent leadership coaching and support to the executive school principal, along with regular monitoring and feedback on his role as an instructional leader, Doss High can begin to see gains in student academic performance."
The KDE review team found that while Mill Creek Elementary had developed a sense of trust within the school and Pennix, the principal, had been on the job for 21 years, 86% of the school's certified teaching staff had fewer than five years of experience and could use greater professional development opportunities.
The state found that resources at Mill Creek were distributed based more on priorities than improving student outcomes.
"The team suggests that the school should be strategic in resource use and prioritize improving student learning outcomes, including formal and systematic intervention for less than proficient students and acceleration for higher performing students," the report says.
At Atkinson Academy, the positive culture developed there was overshadowed by inconsistent implementation of improvement strategies and a lack of differentiated instruction, among other issues identified at the school.
"School leadership should consistently implement systematic processes that ensure the efficacy of implementing initiatives, monitoring instruction, evaluating programs, coaching, mentoring, and supporting all staff members," the diagnostic review says.
Other schools fared better in their diagnostic reviews.
KDE saw “evidence of some exemplary teaching practices and observed teachers and school leaders who were committed to making improvements necessary to achieve the academic success of all students” while visiting Byck Elementary.
“Staff members were committed to the fair and equitable treatment of all students, and they daily work to meet the diverse and ever-changing needs,” the report says.
“The administrative, certified, and classified staff members were committed to the emotional, physical, and academic needs of all students as evidenced by their investment of time, energy, and daily effort to create a learning environment that will raise the level of success for students and the community.”
In a statement, Pollio said the KDE review team repeatedly "recognized the positive culture and supportive learning environments within our school communities."
"The reports point out a consistent theme: safe, inviting facilities and school staff who genuinely care about their students and focus on meeting their social, emotional, and academic needs," he said.
"These assessments offer a fresh perspective on our strengths and challenges as we strive to improve student engagement and achievement across the district."
JCPS says that six additional diagnostic reviews of CSI schools will be complete later this school year.
The 15 diagnostic reviews can be accessed here.
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