On Wednesday, September 26, the Kentucky Department of Education released test scores for each district and public school in the state from the 2017-2018 school year.
As we communicated last year, this year’s test scores will look different than previously released results. A new dashboard system, promised last year, is not yet implemented, therefore it may be confusing for families to interpret and understand the data.
First, it is important to understand that this year’s accountability scores will look different even from last year. Kentucky’s new accountability model is made up of seven indicators: proficiency (reading and math), separate indicator (science, social studies and writing), growth, graduation rate, transition readiness, achievement gap closure, and opportunity and access.
Due to several changes at both the federal and state levels, schools and districts will receive one of three designations: Comprehensive Support & Improvement (CSI), Targeted Sup-port & Improvement (TSI), or Other for the 2017-2018 school year.
Knox County, as you will see in the data, had schools labeled as TSI. TSI focuses on sub-groups of the student population of the school such as students receiving free/reduced price meals, students with disabilities, and English Language Learners (ELL). There are two types of TSI: • Tier I (identified annually for support, beginning in 2020-2021) looks at one or more sub-groups performing in the bot-tom 10% of Title I and non-Title I schools for two consecutive years. • Tier II (identified annually for support, beginning in 2018-19) looks at one or more sub-groups performing in the bottom 5% of Title I and non-Title I schools.
Schools that are not classified as CSI or TSI, in other words, not identified to receive support, will be classified as “Other”. For this new accountability model, for the 2017-2018 school year, schools and school districts want to be labeled “Other.”
“Other” is new and replaces a variety of labels from proficient to high performing to reward school that Kentuckians may re-member from previous accountability systems in recent years.