The academic achievement of students in the Knox County Public Schools continues to grow as the school district prepares for a new accountability system.
Unbridled Learning accountability results were released on Thursday by the Kentucky Department of Education. This is the last year that Unbridled Learning results will be reported as Kentucky transitions to a new system created under the federal Every Student Succeeds Act.
Missing from this year’s data release are overall accountability scores, classifications, and rankings for schools and districts. However, as superintendent Kelly Sprinkles points out, the data still provides a glimpse at how well schools and students are performing.
“Achievement, gap, growth, CCR, and graduation rate data which were all part of the old system are still being reported and can be used as a measurement of growth and for improvement planning,” explained Sprinkles.
The reported areas are known as Next-Generation Learner Component Scores, and when compared to the two prior years, shows increases for Knox County in most areas. KDE cautions, however, that in some cases there can not be an accurate comparison between the data reported for each year.
Proficiency / Gap
Combined Reading and Mathematics – Percentage Proficient/Distinguished
| 2014-2015 | 2015-2016 | 2016-2017 | |
| Elementary | 36.6 | 41.9 | 44.9 |
| Middle | 39.9 | 45.3 | 48.9 |
| High | 38.2 | 47.7 | 38.3 |
College and Career Readiness
| 2014-2015 | 2015-2016 | 2016-2017 | |
| District | 67.4 | 69.6 | 75.7 |
Graduation Rate
| 2013-2014 Baseline | 2015-2016 | 2016-2017 | |
| District | 91.0 | 88.7 | 93.2 |
“While the reporting is different, the results still show that Knox County schools are making continued progress on graduating more students ready to transition into post-secondary education or the workforce.”
“Our students, families, and community is used to seeing labels such as high performing, distinguished, and distinction, however they are not part of the release this year by KDE as the state moves to the new system,” said Sprinkles.
Sprinkles stated that the district will be using Wednesday, October 4, a teacher equivalent work day, to perform individual school level analysis. A full report will be presented to the Board of Education at the October 26 meeting.
For more details about Knox County’s performance on Unbridled Learning visit the School Report Card on the Kentucky Department of Education website at www.education.ky.gov. The site also provides a glimpse at what a future data dashboard will look like for the new accountability system.