By Charles Romans
Carter County Times
Carter County Schools Superintendent Dr. Paul Green said that it is of utmost importance for the parents of students to be informed about all aspects of their children’s educational journey. Some things, he said, are fairly straight forward; some things, however, can be quite confusing if a parent doesn’t have some background information to interpret them. One of those things is the current school accountability model.
“The accountability model is based on how well you do at the end of the year,” Green explained.
That answer would seem to be an obvious recognition of what has been accomplished, and it is initially. But Dr. Green explained how it can quickly become a convoluted and confusing rating system.
“Each year you take the test, and how well you do is going to be a big part of your accountability. What is complicating though, and I’ll use generic numbers to illustrate it, is we’ll say we score a 60 on this year’s test. That’s not a great score, but it is a good score,” Green said. “Now let’s say the following year we score a 65.”
This, he said, is where it becomes tricky.
“That’s a good, five-point growth. Then the state says since you did such a good job and had a five-point growth, we are going to give you another five bonus points. This now makes your Accountability a 70. Keep in mind your actual score was a 65; but your published score becomes a 70.”
“Now let’s say we score a 65 again next year,” Green said. “Our score then, since we did not get the bonus points, drops back to a 65. Even though we scored the exact same, our score would go backward.”
If they actually drop, instead of holding steady, the score is one again impacted.
“If we should drop from a 65 one year to a 62,” Green pointed out, “the state takes three points away – and now we are at a 59. Even though a school can score relatively close each year, your fluctuations in what is your posted score can appear drastic.”
“If you have a year where you show good growth you will get bonuses, however, those points only last for one year. And if you don’t continue to grow at a high level it causes you to go backwards. That impacted us in a couple of our schools this year, and it looked like they had regression. But that wasn’t an accurate representation.”
“They are amplifying either your gains or decreases,” Green explained. “So, its very important that each school gains across all indicators.”
Another frustrating thing for educators, Green said, is that the accountability model compares different groups of children. A fourth-grade class this year tests and scores at one level, and then next year’s fourth grade class of all different students must improve on the scores of the previous class or be penalized for it. A more accurate model, he said, would be to look at the current class scores and compare them to what the same class scores the following year.
Green said that the board of education has all of the raw data on test scores, and they know where the schools are with their scores, but that it can result in a very confusing public perception of the schools progress.
“We have grown in the years that I have been here,” he said. “But it can be very frustrating from a public perception standpoint when it appears as though we might have went backwards when we actually haven’t.”
Green said that if parents need further clarification about the scores, they can feel free to contact the Board of Education. He also said that the state is considering revamping the entire accountability model. There will be an open forum on February 27, and it will be attended by the Commissioner of Education. The forum will allow people to voice their concerns and offer their opinions on what they would like to see in the new model.
”I think they have realized that the system is not working, and it is not measuring the right things,” Green said. “It measures academic progress, but it does very little to measure things like critical thinking, leadership, perseverance, and communication.”
The town hall style meeting will be held on February 27, from 5 to 7 p.m. Eastern Time at 904 West Rose Road in Ashland, and involves the Commissioner of Education and the Kentucky United We Learn Council.
Green also discussed the process for selecting the new mascot and new school colors for the school currently under construction. Green said that many Carter County residents have wondered why there was a need to choose a new mascot and colors so far in advance of the school being completed.
“People have asked why we are doing the branding right now,” Dr. Green said. “Our architects are doing their construction documents, and that is when they need to start picking out even the colors. So, in order to get to those final documents, we have to give them a color scheme. Flooring, paint choices, trim choices, exterior door choices, because all of those things will be complimentary to what your school choices are.”
Dr. Green said they encouraged community outreach and invited submissions for the new mascot and colors. The submissions were all grouped into categories such as animals, which included canines, cats, and birds, and people (commanders, rangers, etc.). There were 25 people on the committee, which broke down into subcommittees, with 6 to 8 people on each subcommittee. Each subcommittee picked a category and narrowed the choices down to one or two.
This process began with certain restraints as well, with some clear criteria set from the beginning. They did not want duplications of existing mascots in the region, nor did they want gender specific mascots such as ‘Cowboys’, and they did not want to use any combination of the mascots of the schools that would be joining together. Eventually the choices were narrowed down to Ravens, Bats, Snakes, Copperheads, Aces, and Coyotes. After further elimination, the two remaining choices were the Aces and the Coyotes.
The group tasked with this process was made up of eight students, teachers, parents, administrators, coaches, athletic directors, cheer coaches, and band leaders. All students and staff were eligible to vote, and then there was a vote open to the public.
“Students could actually vote in the public vote, so they could vote twice,” Green said.
The final voting took place on Friday, February 7, and The Carter County Board of Education posted the following on their Facebook page;
“Carter County Schools is pleased to announce that public and school voting for the mascot, colors, and name of the new Carter County High School is complete. The votes have been tallied with the Coyotes coming out on top. The branding colors of the new high school will be blue, black, silver, and white. It was important to complete branding decisions at this time in order for the architects to include school specific elements in the construction documents for the new Carter County High School. These selections will be presented to the Carter County Board of Education for final approval.”
Contact the writer at charles@cartercountytimes.com
