State releases school report cards with spring testing results

Statewide, school report cards containing assessment results from testing conducted in the spring of 2023 were recently released for school districts and the public to see.  The report cards include performance ratings for individual schools and districts based on one of the five color-coded performance levels which combine all available state indicator data (including assessment results for math/reading/science/social studies/writing/school climate/ graduation rate/postsecondary readiness/English language proficiency.)  The five color-coded levels are red (lowest performance), moving upward to orange, followed by yellow, green, and then blue (highest performance.)

Status levels range from very low to very high (red to blue) and status score is the current year performance for each indicator.

The McCreary County School District’s report card is based on a total of four schools, with 2,592 students in grades preschool-12.  Data classifies 81.9% of students in the District as economically disadvantaged.  96.1% of students are classified as white, 1.7% (42 students) classified as Hispanic or Latino, 1.4% (36 students) are two or more races, and .8% (19 students) classified as other.  The data indicates only 27.6% of faculty in the District are male.

The District received a math & reading indicator for its elementary schools of green (status medium) with significant increase shown from the prior year.  The District received an orange (status low) math & reading indicator for the middle school and an orange (status medium) for the high school with declines from the previous year at both schools.

At McCreary Central High School, 43% of students tested were proficient/distinguished and 57% were novice/apprentice in reading.  In math, 30% of tested students scored proficient/distinguished, while 70% were novice/apprentice.  Overall 38% of the students tested were novice in math.  Central received an orange (status medium) math & reading indicator with a decline from the previous year. McCreary Central, with 715 students, received a yellow (3 out of 5) overall performance rating.

At McCreary Middle School, 36% of students tested in reading scored proficient/distinguished.  64% scored novice/apprentice.  29% scored proficient/distinguished in math while 71% scored novice/apprentice.  McCreary Middle School received an orange (status low) reading & math indicator with a decline from last year.  With 604 students in grades 6-8, McCreary Middle received an overall performance rating of orange (2 out of 5.)

At Pine Knot Intermediate School, 51% of students were proficient/distinguished in reading while 49% were novice/apprentice.  53% were proficient/distinguished in math.  47% were novice/apprentice in math.  Pine Knot Intermediate received a total reading & math indicator of green (status medium), showing an increase from the previous year.   The school received an overall performance rating of green (4 out of 5.)

Whitley City Elementary School with 487 students was the highest performing school in the District, receiving an overall performance indicator of blue (5 out of 5/highest performance.)  55% of the Whitley City Elementary School students scored proficient/distinguished in reading, while 45% scored novice/apprentice.  In math, 45% of students were proficient/distinguished, and 55% were novice/apprentice.  Whitley City Elementary School received a reading & math indicator reading of green (medium status) with a significant increase from the previous year.