Fayette elementary schools rise to top of district ratings in Kentucky’s latest test scores

Fayette County Public Schools on Tuesday received the second highest rating — green — for its elementary schools and the medium rating — yellow — for middle and high schools in Kentucky’s K-12 school accountability system, which is based on 2022-2023 data.

In the color-coded system, school districts receive indicator ratings that correspond to red (the lowest), orange, yellow, green and blue (the highest) for each level of schools: elementary, middle and high.

The overall score is used to determine the state’s lowest-performing schools by grade level, as required federally.

Fayette had 12 schools in blue, 12 schools in green, 15 schools in yellow, 14 schools in orange, and 3 schools in red.

Athens-Chilesburg Elementary had the district’s highest overall ranking and Lexington Traditional Magnet School, a middle school, was the lowest.

Fayette County had three schools that received the lowest color, red: Russell Cave and Arlington Elementary schools, and Lexington Traditional.

Statewide in the indicator rating, Athens-Chilesburg came in at No. 22.

Superintendent Demetrus Liggins planned a Wednesday morning news conference to discuss the test scores.

On Tuesday afternoon he said in a statement, “Data is an important tool that helps us measure progress and evaluate the successes, as well as challenges that our students and schools may be facing, but it is important to remember that standardized tests are only a singular measure of student success.”

FCPS staffers have been closely reviewing the data and will release their review to the public Wednesday, said district spokesperson Dia Davidson-Smith.

“We look forward to celebrating victories with our staff, students and families, as well as look at new ways to reach every learner and create learning environments that support the entire child,” she said.

In areas of diversity and income, data for Fayette County shows achievement gaps. For example, in reading scores at the middle school level, 27% of Black students scored at the proficient and distinguished levels compared to 65% of white students.

At the high school level in math, 49% of economically disadvantaged students scored at the novice level compared to only 22% of the non-economically disadvantaged population.

The Kentucky School Report Card has new features for the 2022-2023 academic year results because of the continued implementation of a state law from 2020.

The 2020 legislation established “status” and “change” as ways to evaluate state indicators, and this will be the first year where change is reported.

“Status” represents a school’s performance for the current year, while “change” represents the school’s performance for the current year compared with the previous year. Status and change combine to provide a performance rating for each state indicator, state officials said.

With the introduction of change into the system, comparisons cannot be made to accountability data from 2022.

MATH SCORES

In addition to colors, student test scores on the Kentucky Summative Assessment were grouped according to the performance levels of novice, apprentice, proficient and distinguished.

A Herald-Leader analysis of the data from those statewide tests, taken last spring, showed:

Thirty-eight percent of Fayette schools had 50% or more students testing proficient and distinguished in math. Some of the top schools included Scapa At Bluegrass Middle School, Athens-Chilesburg Elementary, Scapa At Bluegrass Elementary and Rosa Parks and Cassidy elementary schools.

Fourteen percent of schools saw 50% or more students testing novice in math, including Coventry Oak Elementary, Winburn Middle School and Tates Creek High School.

In math, there were 16 elementary schools with 50% or more students scoring proficient or distinguished. Five elementary schools had 50% or more novice math students.

In math, four middle schools — SCAPA, EJ Hayes, Jessie Clark and Beaumont Middle — had 50% or more proficient or distinguished.

Two schools, Lexington Traditional Magnet and Winburn Middle School, were at 50% or more novice.

Among high schools, only one was 50% or more proficient and distinguished in math, Lafayette High School. Only Tates Creek High School had 50% or more novice.

READING SCORES

In reading, 47% of schools recorded half or more of their students testing proficient and distinguished.

One school — Booker T. Washington Elementary — had 50% or more students at the novice level.

There were four elementary schools where the majority of students — 75% or more — tested proficient or distinguished in reading: Scapa At Bluegrass, Athens-Chilesburg, Rosa Parks and Clays Mill.

In middle schools, there were five schools that had 50% or more proficient and distinguished student test scores: Scapa At Bluegrass, Edythe Jones Hayes, Jessie M Clark, Morton and Beaumont. No middle school had more than half of its students testing at the novice, or lowest, level.

For reading, there were two high schools that had 50% or more proficient and distinguished: Lafayette and Paul Laurence Dunbar.

There were no high schools with 50% or more students testing novice in reading.

RANKINGS

Here’s where Fayette County’s elementary, middle and high schools rank when sorted by the overall indicator rating given by the state.

TOP 10, ALL SCHOOLS

1. Athens-Chilesburg Elementary: Blue

2. Scapa at Bluegrass Middle: Blue

3. Scapa At Bluegrass Elementary: Blue

4. Rosa Parks Elementary School: Blue

5. Cassidy Elementary School: Blue

6. Clays Mill Elementary School: Blue

7. Wellington Elementary: Blue

8. Meadowthorpe Elementary School: Blue

9. Ashland Elementary School: Blue

10. Maxwell Spanish Immersion Elem School: Blue

HIGHEST ELEMENTARY RATINGS

1. Athens-Chilesburg Elementary: Blue

2. Scapa At Bluegrass: Blue

3. Rosa Parks Elementary School: Blue

4. Cassidy Elementary School: Blue

5. Clays Mill Elementary School: Blue

LOWEST ELEMENTARY RATINGS

1. Russell Cave Elementary School: Red

2. Arlington Elementary School: Red

3. Mary Todd Elementary School: Orange

4. Booker T Washington Elementary School: Orange

5. Cardinal Valley Elementary School: Orange

MIDDLE SCHOOL RATINGS

1. Scapa At Bluegrass: Blue

2. Edythe Jones Hayes Middle School: Green

3. Jessie M Clark Middle School: Green

4. Beaumont Middle School: Green

5. Morton Middle School: Green

6. Leestown Middle School: Yellow

7. Tates Creek Middle School: Yellow

8. Southern Middle School: Orange

9. Bryan Station Middle School: Orange

10. Crawford Middle School: Orange

11. Winburn Middle School: Orange

12. Lexington Trad Magnet School: Red

HIGH SCHOOL RATINGS

1. Lafayette: Green

2. Henry Clay: Yellow

3. Frederick Douglass: Yellow

4. Dunbar: Yellow

5. Bryan Station: Orange

6. Tates Creek: Orange

GRADUATION RATINGS

1. Frederick Douglass: Green

2. Lafayette: Green

3. Henry Clay: Green

4. Tates Creek: Yellow

5. Bryan Station: Yellow

6. Dunbar: Yellow