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
Athens-Chilesburg Elementary: Blue
Scapa at Bluegrass Middle: Blue
Scapa At Bluegrass Elementary: Blue
Rosa Parks Elementary School: Blue
Cassidy Elementary School: Blue
Clays Mill Elementary School: Blue
Wellington Elementary: Blue
Meadowthorpe Elementary School: Blue
Ashland Elementary School: Blue
Maxwell Spanish Immersion Elem School: Blue
HIGHEST ELEMENTARY RATINGS
Athens-Chilesburg Elementary: Blue
Scapa At Bluegrass: Blue
Rosa Parks Elementary School: Blue
Cassidy Elementary School: Blue
Clays Mill Elementary School: Blue
LOWEST ELEMENTARY RATINGS
Russell Cave Elementary School: Red
Arlington Elementary School: Red
Mary Todd Elementary School: Orange
Booker T Washington Elementary School: Orange
Cardinal Valley Elementary School: Orange
MIDDLE SCHOOL RATINGS
Scapa At Bluegrass: Blue
Edythe Jones Hayes Middle School: Green
Jessie M Clark Middle School: Green
Beaumont Middle School: Green
Morton Middle School: Green
Leestown Middle School: Yellow
Tates Creek Middle School: Yellow
Southern Middle School: Orange
Bryan Station Middle School: Orange
Crawford Middle School: Orange
Winburn Middle School: Orange
Lexington Trad Magnet School: Red
HIGH SCHOOL RATINGS
Lafayette: Green
Henry Clay: Yellow
Frederick Douglass: Yellow
Dunbar: Yellow
Bryan Station: Orange
Tates Creek: Orange
GRADUATION RATINGS
Frederick Douglass: Green
Lafayette: Green
Henry Clay: Green
Tates Creek: Yellow
Bryan Station: Yellow
Dunbar: Yellow