BY AMBER SMITH KENTUCKY
FRANKFORT, Ky. A new tool will help Kentucky parents see how their child’s school compares to others in the state. The Kentucky Department of Education is set to roll out the new, five-star school rating system next week.
Using data from the 2018-2019 school year, Kentucky’s new accountability system will provide an overall rating for each school, district and the state overall. The schools will then receive a rating between one to five stars. One is the worst rating. Five is the best.
Elementary and middle schools are ranked based on:
- Proficiency: Student performance on reading and math tests
- Separate Academic Indicator: Student performance on science, social studies and writing tests
- Growth: Comparison of student scores from one year to the next
High schools are ranked based on:
- Proficiency: Student performance on reading and math tests
- Separate Academic Indicator: Student performance on science and writing tests
- Graduation Rate: Percentage of students who graduate from high school in 4 or 5 years
- Transition Readiness: This indicator includes a few things, giving flexibility on how academic or career readiness is shown
Achievement gaps are not an indicator put into that overall star rating, but it does play a role. In this rating system, schools and districts are subject to a one-star penalty if a significant achievement gap exists between groups of students.
Starting next week, parents and students will be able to go to a website, search a school and see the rating. The website breaks down how the school or district performed on the various criteria.
Spectrum News 1 will continue to follow this story. We will post an update on air and online once that website is live.
