LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) – Three principals at Jefferson County Public Schools have been deemed unfit to lead their struggling schools’ turnaround efforts following diagnostic audits by the Kentucky Department of Education.
That means the state has recommended that nine JCPS principals at schools identified for comprehensive support and improvement shouldn’t be retained in their positions. JCPS Superintendent Marty Pollio will decide whether to retain those principals.
One, former Mill Creek Elementary Principal Michelle Pennix, has already accepted a voluntary reassignment.
In the latest batch of diagnostic reviews released Monday, the state recommended that Engelhard Elementary Principal Ryan McCoy, Trunnell Elementary Principal Stephanie Smith and Young Elementary Principal Erica Lawrence be removed from their schools and reassigned to comparable positions.
Lawrence is a Democratic candidate for Indiana's House of Representatives, challenging Republican Rep. Ed Clere for his seat representing the New Albany area.
"It is quite disheartening and disappointing. I'm crushed," Lawrence said. "Our report identifies the growth data from our school being better than the state average. Growth precedes achievement. We will get there. We are accelerating growth. We need time and support."
She compared the report to a "game of hot potato."
"The music was turned off during my leadership," she said. "Unfortunately, this is not a game, learner growth and achievement are serious business."
JCPS Communications Director Renee Murphy said Pollio will meet with the affected principals and determine next steps at a later date.
The state's audit team that reviewed Engelhard from Jan. 13 through Jan. 16 found that while the school had taken steps to improve student behavior by pursuing initiatives like restorative practices and positive behavioral interventions and supports, school leaders did not convey that same sense of urgency toward improving student achievement to their staff.
The Engelhard staff, which has experienced "significant" turnover in recent school years, need better professional development opportunities, and school leaders can do more to ensure teachers with less experience have mentors.
"The school needs to create a culture of accountability and high expectations among all of its stakeholders," the audit says. "It is the hope of the Diagnostic Review Team that the school will foster an environment whereby faculty and students become collaborators and co-producers of learning."
At Young, auditors observed students behaving well in class and shrinking numbers of behavior referrals and suspensions. They also found that teachers had multiple professional development opportunities.
The school's focus on recognizing the underlying traumas that some students bring with them to school was also a highlight in Young's audit.
However, auditors determined that not everyone on staff was fully committed to such efforts. They also questioned the communications strategy of the school's administration, with some employees complaining that ineffective communication often left them "confused and misinformed."
"Not only had this led to difficult implementation of the desired initiative, but it also created a negative climate," the report says.
The diagnostic review team also critiqued Young for its "sporadic" use of classroom technology and for having frequent professional development and planning sessions that pull teachers from classrooms, at times leaving students without a certified instructor to lead lessons.
"School leaders need to prioritize the protection of instructional time so that students have licensed, qualified teachers in their classrooms as much as possible," auditors wrote.
The diagnostic review team at Trunnell observed "positive and respectful" relationships between students and teachers. School leaders were also credited for developing a positive relationship with Trunnell's new education recovery leader and for providing two additional English as a Second Language teachers.
But auditors worried that school administrators weren't doing enough to improve student performance in the fact of declining scores and changing demographics. Three-quarters of the 425 enrolled students come from poor families.
Midyear performance data was not analyzed for weeks at Trunnell, potentially delaying needed academic interventions, and teaching assignments weren't finalized until after the spring 2019 deadline, stymying the flexibility to make staffing decision to best meet the needs of students, according to the audit.
The diagnostic review team also worried about lacking supervision of teachers and other staffing decisions, including three classes that did not have permanent teachers. Auditors found that one fourth-grade class at Trunnell was absorbed by other fourth-grade classes as well as one third- and one fifth-grade class.
"The team was concerned that many stakeholders indicated that science was not taught, yet there was a (science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics) lab that could be leveraged to teach standards-based science, technology, and math," the report says. "Stakeholders also noted the need for textbooks and other resources for teaching reading, mathematics, science, and social studies."
Audits for eight CSI schools in JCPS were released Monday, including reviews of Breckinridge-Franklin Elementary, Coleridge-Taylor Elementary, Greenwood Elementary, Jacob Elementary and Kennedy Elementary.
The state's latest recommendation that three more JCPS principals should be reassigned from their jobs comes amid criticism of the auditing process, which Pollio has said is not "necessarily fair."
Pennix, the former Mill Creek Elementary principal, also questioned how auditors determine which principals should remain at their schools and which should be replaced, saying there's no clear method at reaching such decisions.
The state bases its assessments of principals at CSI schools on areas like whether they are committed to high expectations in learning, have leadership styles that promote student performance, ensure effective instruction and adequately allocate resources needed by students, according to KDE.
Associate Commissioner Kelly Foster has defended the state's work in reviewing low-performing schools, saying the reviews are "designed to energize and equip the leader ship and stakeholders of an institution to achieve higher levels of performance and address areas that may be hindering efforts to reach those desired performance levels."
Legislation filed in the General Assembly would have prohibited KDE from conducting diagnostic reviews of CSI schools and from recommending principal removals was amended Thursday in the Senate Education Committee. As passed, Senate Bill 158 would not strip KDE of those responsibilities.
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