Trigg County’s Board of Education and site base decision making councils gathered in joint session last Thursday, in order to crack the code on the annual Kentucky Summative Assessment.
Schools are assigned colors based on weighted scores of metrics, with red being the worst, orange being below average, yellow being average, green being above average and blue excellent.
And the district received some relatively good news.
Behind significant increases in reading, math and quality school climate/safety scores, as well as a 93.7% graduation rate and strong postsecondary readiness marks, Trigg County High School maintained its yellow status with a 66.37.
The biggest concerns, according to new principal Kristee Barnes, include a significant decline in science/social studies/writing scores from a year ago, African American students not reaching proficient and distinguished levels, as well as last year’s sophomores and juniors not testing exceptionally well for proficient and distinguished results.
Trigg County Middle School and its principal, Amy Breckel, celebrated moving from their 2023 orange status to yellow this year, with a 51.24. Reading and math scores, she said, slightly declined, but science/social studies/writing scores were maintained in yellow, while quality of school climate/safety stayed orange.
Behind standards, assessments, lesson planning, instruction, data analysis, intervention and enrichment, Breckel noted that teachers have an opportunity for feedback from administration and instructional coaches about their lessons, and that they are using data to identify intervention needs within the classrooms.
Their biggest question, she said, is “How are they providing all students an opportunity to learn and thrive in the classroom?”
Trigg County Intermediate’s new principal, Lisa Bush, noted that their school remained in the yellow with a 57.1, courtesy of maintained yellow grades for reading, mathematics, science, social studies and writing, as well as a slight increase in quality of school climate/safety in the green.
Bush also said that a “Teachers’ Voice” discussion among staff revealed several suggestions for their continued classroom success, including:
+ Relationships
+ A fidelity to school programs
+ Protected instructional time
+ Engagement and motivation with student choice, that makes learning fun and educational
+ A growing need for response to intervention and gifted programs
+ RTI programs that meet specific student needs
+ A desire for communication and collaboration
+ Intentional planning for all five senses, not just visual and audible
+ A push for vocabulary instruction
+ Formative assessment that drives instruction
+ Six-minute solutions, which help as a reading fluency program
+ Research-based resources
+ Celebrating achievements of learning
+ And the embedding of science and social studies content in resources
Though not part of annual assessments, new CTE principal, Erin Eagleson, noted more than half of this year’s senior class is part of work-based learning — either through a co-op or paid internship. The renovated building now offers almost 20 different career pathways on which to focus, and that there is a “strong desire” to offer other pathways, particularly through local industry, and for the programs to become more “self-sufficient” and “student-run.”
Two weeks ago, in a full address on social media, Superintendent Rex Booth noted several concerns with the data, urging that science scores in fourth, seventh and 11th grade all trended toward more novice in 2023-24, as did eighth and 11th grade social studies and writing scores in fifth and 11th grade.
However, third grade was 64% proficient/distinguished in reading and 45% P/D in math, while fifth grade was 41% P/D in reading and 48% P/D in editing/mechanics.
All of this data, he said, will get put to use.
Questions and concerns can be directed to the school board, as well as https://www.education.ky.gov/Open-House/data/Pages/Assessment_Accountability_Datasets_2023-2024.aspx.
