New education assessment standards enacted this year with passage of Senate Bill 1 by the General Assembly means there will be no banners at any Kentucky public school celebrating a distinguished or proficient label, but new data released today does show Christian County above the state average in a couple important areas.
The district’s 4-year graduation rate in 2017 was 91.4 percent, above the state average of 89.98 percent. The graduation rate for students who stay in high school for five years was 93.1 percent, ahead of the state average of 90.2 percent.
Christian County High School’s graduation rates were slightly ahead of Hopkinsville High School’s numbers.
Figures show that 84.5 percent of the district’s graduates were college and career ready, well above the state average of 77.8 percent. Christian County High boasted a 93.8 percent number and Hopkinsville High came in at 80.1
Superintendent Mary Ann Gemmill pointed out that Christian County High was among the state’s lowest performing schools a few years ago and the desire to never be a priority school again gives leadership there the motivation it needs.
Gemmill says there will be more of a focus on career and technical training at Hopkinsville High going forward to improve college and career readiness.
Crofton, Indian Hills and Sinking Fork elementary schools and Christian County High School made the greatest improvements in closing achievement gaps in reading for target population groups such as free and reduced lunch and minority student populations. Crofton, Indian Hills, Pembroke and Sinking Fork made the most improvement in closing the math achievement gap from last year.
There are no categories to lump the schools or district in this year and no way to compare it to other districts—as that is how the new system is structured. It’s also impossible to compare the new data to last year. Chief Instructional Officer Amy Wilcox says it’s refreshing in some ways to solely focus on students learning.
District leadership was especially pleased with progress on closing the achievement gap in math at elementary schools.
