LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- About half of Jefferson County Public Schools students are meeting growth benchmarks in reading and math and suspensions are down so far this year, according to data presented during a school board work session Tuesday.
But achievement gaps between black and white students continue to persist early in the current school year as both groups show similar improvement in both categories.
JCPS Superintendent Marty Pollio and other officials presented their first quarterly update on progress in the district’s Vision 2020 plan to the Jefferson County Board of Education, sharing results from the first round of growth assessments and data on disciplinary referrals, attendance and other areas in the first 49 days of the 2018-19 school year.
The early data show promising trends in the current school year as well as continued racial disparities in achievement and disciplinary referrals despite improvements by both black and white students in those areas, JCPS officials said.
Ensuring that every JCPS school has systems in place to promote effective instruction “has been very hard,” Pollio said during Tuesday’s work session.
“I can’t underscore enough how hard that our folks are working right now here and at schools to make this happen,” he told board members.
Assessment data from the first 49 days of the school year show that 45 percent of elementary school students, 49 percent of middle school students and 51 percent of high school students are reading at grade level. In math, 43 percent of elementary school students, 39 percent of middle school students and 41 percent of high school students are performing at grade level.
Scores in reading ranged from 46 percent of elementary students to 50 percent of middle school students hitting growth benchmarks, and 50 percent of middle and high school students and 48 percent of elementary school students reached math growth benchmarks so far this year.
While growth scores for white and black students hovered near 50 percent, grade-level scores yielded double-digit gaps as black students lagged their white peers. In reading, achievement gaps averaged 30.3 percentage points at the elementary, middle and high school levels, and in math, achievement gaps averaged 32.3 percentage points across those levels.
Diane Porter, chairwoman of the school board, said many of her constituents have asked her when black students will catch up academically with their white peers.
“The question that I continue to be asked and that I’m held accountable for is, ‘When will this happen?’ because it’s great to have a plan, but does the plan say that they will catch up in grade four, they will catch up in grade eight?” Porter asked.
Chief Academic Officer Carmen Coleman said in order to lessen achievement gaps, black students will need to be placed on accelerated learning paths that can be developed through growth assessment results.
“We’re going to have to really be intentional about that catch-up plan, and the catch-up plan is not continuing to do the same thing in the same way,” Coleman said. “But this is a really new way of thinking for many.”
“What’s different is that we are looking to see where are they supposed to be and making a plan to get there,” she added.
JCPS has seen its suspensions drop through the first 49 days of school compared to the same timeframe last year, totaling 4,425 so far this year compared to 5,283 a year ago. That’s down 16.2 percent overall, with elementary schools showing the steepest decline at 41.3 percent.
Pollio said better academic and behavioral interventions at JCPS schools have helped reduce the number of suspensions so far this year.
“That’s challenging work that isn’t easy, but we’ve seen schools do very intentional work around that to provide the supports for kids,” he told reporters after the work session.
“And so it’s hard to say right now if that’s exactly the reason, but we think we’re seeing real improvements around both suspensions and behavioral referrals because of the work of our principals and our assistant superintendents.”
Total disciplinary referrals dropped by about 6 percent compared to the first 49 days of the 2017-18 school year, JCPS data show.
However, black students make up the lion’s share of disciplinary cases and suspensions. Data presented Tuesday show nearly three times as many black students have been suspended in the first 49 days of the current school year as white students.
It’s an issue that the district hopes to address through its racial equity policy and an increased emphasis on restorative practices in schools.
“That is really where the equity plan at every school is really going to have to come into play,” Pollio said. “That is long-term, foundational work. We need to see that data trend continue and then clearly see this disproportionality change.”
Reach reporter Kevin Wheatley at 502-585-0838 and kwheatley@wdrb.com. Follow him on Twitter @KevinWheatleyKY.
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