As I mentioned in an earlier blog, back in 2008 four Jefferson County Elementary Schools were in the worst NCLB performance Category – Tier 5. They are:
o Atkinson Elementary
o Hazelwood Elementary
o Maupin Elementary
o Okolona Elementary
These schools all failed consistently to make Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) for at least six years by 2008.
So, what is happening to those schools today?
According to the NCLB Media Report for 2009, all four schools were reconfigured after the end of the 2008-09 school year and prior to the start of the 2009-2010 school term. That reset their 2009-10 NCLB accountability status all the way back from a worst possible Tier 5 classification to having no accountability classification what-so-ever today – NONE!
Do you believe that?
Here is one example. This table summarizes the Maupin Elementary School’s NCLB performance by year since this program started.
Note that Maupin never, EVER, met the Annual Measurable Objective score for reading under NCLB. By my estimate, Maupin would be a No Child Left Behind Tier 5, Year 3 school in this new school term of 2010-11 (Note, the department of education had to rename the “Tier” system to avoid confusion because the federal government is now using that name for something else. The correct new term would be Restructuring, Year 3).
Never-the-less, Maupin faces no consequences what-so-ever in the current school term. It won’t face consequences until after the 2010-11 NCLB scores come out around August or September of 2011.
Maupin’s entire school staff got a “Get Out of Jail Free” card from the district’s parent- and student-hostile busing nonsense simply because the enrollment in the school changed by at least 20 percent. Do you think an enrollment change that small should wipe out all accountability?
Still to be decided – what happens if Maupin fails NCLB again. Will it go to a “Restructuring” classification, or just start NCLB all over at the least severe category of School Improvement, Year 1 (The old Tier 1)? I’ve been talking to the Kentucky Department of Education about this very serious question. So far, no answers, but the department is sensitive to this obvious problem.
By the way, I have similar tables to the one above for the other three Tier 5 schools from 2008. Click the “Read more” link to see that.
Atkinson is unique among the four schools in this list in that it actually met AYP in the 2008-09 school term. If it had met AYP again in 2009-10, it would have earned its way out of the NCLB sanctions program (schools exit sanctions if they make AYP for two successive years). 
As you can see, that didn’t happen for Atkinson. But, thanks to Jefferson County “Bus-ting” NCLB, Atkinson got a “Get Out of Jail Free Card,” anyway. Is that in the best interests of this school’s students?
Hazelwood Elementary is interesting for a different reason. It has blazed a trail of grief for its students in reading ever since NCLB began. But Hazelwood actually started to perform badly under an earlier accountability program from the previous version of the federal Elementary and Secondary Education Act that preceded the NCLB version.
That is why Hazelwood was already in Tier status by the time NCLB reporting started in 2002-03 on this table.
Okolona Elementary School, like Hazelwood, started down its trail of grief even before NCLB was enacted. 
Because Okolona’s NCLB status got wiped clean in 2009-10, it will have to fail NCLB again next year before any consequences are felt in the school.
Here are some interesting questions:
Can Jefferson County play “NCLB BUS-ted” any time it wants? Will that happen over and over again in the future?
Busing has been going on in Jefferson County for decades. That clearly hasn’t done much to improve academic performance in the schools discussed here. All we are doing is subjecting different children to bad schools. Meanwhile, the educators in those schools have never really had their feet held to the fire. Neither has the local school board been held to account for continuing to impose its parent- and student-hostile busing scheme on everyone even thought the court mandate to do so was eliminated years ago and there is no evidence that this improves schools. Do you think it is time to demand better?
Tech notes:
You can access the individual school NCLB reports I used to assemble the tables above from pull down menus here.
Access the NCLB Media Reports (and all other by year NCLB reports) by year here
2008,
2009
and
2010
Tuesday, September 28, 2010
What happened to Jefferson County’s 2008 NCLB Tier 5 schools in 2010?
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15 comments:
Unrelated but I couldn't find a place to ask a question. There is a news report on Fox 41 in Louisville today about a student, 18yrs old be arrested at a Louisville High School, the school in my neighborhood. Parents around me are shocked because this time there was no lock down, no note sent home and when they call the school they tried to downplay it as old news. Calls to Fox 41 apparently show this happened yesterday. Do the schools not have some responsibility to keep parents informed about what goes on at school, especially when students are coming to school armed with large amounts of cash! Only one news outlet reported this which makes me wonder if there was not an attempt to cover it up. It seems JCPS is more worried about public image than doing what is right
http://www.fox41.com/Global/story.asp?S=13228997
The public school system in Kentucky is falling apart which is one reason I am homeschooling my daughter, but if Kentucky would allow charter schools into our state, parents who home school would be willing to enroll their children into these schools. I do not like all the politics, money, drugs, and just plain favoritism that is in the schools today. It is only right that every parent have more than one choice when it comes to their children's education. Our recent scorecard, the school mentioned in the comment above, and many others are proof we need better education in Kentucky. Our state representatives refusal to allow charter schools here is proof enough that our educational system is in trouble.
RE: Anonymous September 28, 2010 3:51 PM
I don't know if the schools have mandatory requirements to report incidents, but just because a student is arrested wouldn't necessarily require a lockdown. I expect it would depend upon the crime involved, which you don't mention.
RE: Anonymous September 28, 2010 8:35 PM
I agree that our state representatives need to do more about the low performance of our schools.
Also, choice for parents has been a Bluegrass Institute goal since our foundation in 2003. It remains important to us today.
These types of loopholes in NCLB are a very large part of the reason so many of our children are behind in their education. Schools that fail NCLB should be held accountable--despite the loopholes.
RE: Anonymous September 29, 2010 11:35 AM
Thank you for the comment. We agree and have made it clear for a long time that the loopholes are allowing low-performing schools to continue on without consequences and improvement.
I am working on a presentation for a major series of conferences to be held next month in Kentucky on charter schools and choice. As part of my preparation, I have developed a much better understanding of how setting low standards with our Kentucky Core Content Tests also seriously undermined NCLB in a way that overstated minority performance by a considerable amount.
I'll have more on that later, so stay tuned.
Mr Innes the student was arrested because he had a .38 caliber handgun in his backback. Two Previous lockdowns at the same school in the last four years, one for a suspect believed to have been armed in the building and another for pepper spray being discharged. After the first incident the school put in the DEAN alert system but this time no lockdown, no letter home to parents until two days later after the media go hold of it. Amazing how things get handled differently after the state reccomendes a principal be fired and the superintendent goes to bat and saves his behind. I fear students and our neighborhood are were put at risk because of "what might look bad!"
RE: Anonymous September 29, 2010 11:16 PM
I did some research on your concerns with the Kentucky Department of Education and the Kentucky Office of Education Accountability.
The school acted properly in this incident. While it is a recommendation that schools notify parents in these cases, it isn't mandatory. The school did follow requirements to notify authorities about the breech of law.
Your questions did prompt me to get together information about how citizens can raise their concerns anonymously. I'll post a blog and a freedomkentucky.org item on that in the next few days.
I am a teacher at JB Atkinson and have been at the school going on 6 years now. Your solution is to be rid of all the teachers or at least half to solve the problems without ever visiting the school, without ever meeting the teachers, without understanding how each school, each community,each child poses a unique challenge. You hide behind the guise of liberty and choice with your sites continued push for charter schools. When these schools are highly selective and drop "problem" kids who don't fit the mold for their schools. Guess what in our society those kids by law still must be educated and guess where they get sent...to us...a school like JBA so we must take all comers and we must find a way to teach them, no lotteries to get in, no one fighting for their kids rights, just us the educators doing the best we can with what we have got. Whether they are motivated or not, whether their families care or not, whether they are abused, hungry, homeless...etc. It is our job to meet their basic needs and oh yes teach them as well. The problem sir isn't with the teachers. It can't be fixed by systematically turning these type students away who don't fit the requirements of a charter school. The problem runs much deep and can't be solved by just firing teachers and opening up charter schools. Our scores have went up tremendously in the last few years. No we haven't met AYP every year, but instead of sitting on high with all your solutions come to our school. See what we do first before condemning us. Maybe you can make a more informed decision after a visit. Since you believe in the constitution and liberty so deeply give us a chance at a fair trial before becoming judge, jury, and executioner before ever stepping foot into our school and see what it is we do. You should have nothing to fear. In fact think about all the evidence you could amass to further back your arguments about how inadequate our public school is. JBA is a model for how to get kids from poverty to perform at higher levels. You wouldn't know that because although you talk about individualizing education and meeting each child's need you only worry about test results and miss a larger part of the picture because you are only driven by end result data. I will check for a reply, I would love to welcome you to our school in hopes of opening your eyes up to the reality of what a good school does to meet each child's needs.
RE: Anonymous at November 23, 2010 11:10 PM
We need to get some facts straight.
First: No teacher gets removed at any school until after an audit team looks at the school and the local board of education decides which of FOUR turn-around options they will actually use. Not all of those options require teacher replacement. Your local board made that choice.
Second: Either Fox41.com news has it wrong, or you do, but it reported on November 22, 2010 in an article titled "Worst-performing KY elementary school shows improvement" that about half of the staff was changed in Atkinson as part of its turn-around. Who is right? If Fox News is correct, the improvement in Atkinson looks like it came in part due to significant staffing changes. That seriously undermines your case.
Third: You need to listen to the recent REL Appalachia webinar about the turnaround in the West Jessamine Middle School which I blog about on November 24, 2010. It was in NCLB Tier 4 status (old NCLB definitions) and is now out of all NCLB accountability. However, among other things, even after working very hard with the teachers to try to get them to improve, ultimately they had to let around 25% go.
Fourth: The US Government’s Institute of Education Sciences recently published a very interesting practice guide titled “Turning Around Chronically Low-Performing Schools.” It has lots of good, researched information about what works in low-performing schools. Of interest in this discussion, however, is a summary of some case studies in the back of the report. On page 41 you will read that among other actions that had to be taken was the removal of about 20% of the teachers who would not, or could not, adjust to methods that worked better for students (25 of 125 teachers in one example – a comment that similar proportions were noted elsewhere). This is a very sad statistic, but it is one that is showing up in the turnaround success stories.
Now, let’s be very clear. I have met a lot of Kentucky teachers over the years. Many teach in great schools and do a great job. The vast majority of teachers in this state have my deep admiration.
However, in our very poorest performing schools, the experts are telling us that isn’t the case. Worse, teachers in those poor performing schools often circle their wagons together in a culture of denial as they continue to fail their students.
It is possible to turn around low-performing schools. Atkinson (absent a lot of its original staff – if Fox 41 is right) seems to be doing it. West Jessamine Middle School did it too. But, the evidence also indicates that a knee-jerk reaction that the problem in low-performing schools does not in any way relate to the teachers is wrong.
Now, if Fox 41 got it wrong about staff replacement at Atkinson, I want to know, and they would owe us all a correction. That still won’t reverse the comments about the federal studies and West Jessamine Middle, of course, but I strive to deal with accurate information.
And, yes, I would love to visit Atkinson if you can arrange that. We really want to see success stories because they bolster our positive outlook that we really can make positive changes for kids – a goal I know the vast majority of our teachers share. I do not share your “Culture of Can’t” that all the problems these kids bring to school make the challenge insurmountable. We see evidence from charter schools and schools like West Jessamine Middle that this “Culture of Can’t” simply isn’t right.
One last tip: I know you are upset, and we all make them, but your comment has more than a few typographical, punctuation and grammatical errors. That doesn’t help your case, either.
RE: Anonymous at November 23, 2010 11:10 PM
We need to get some facts straight.
First: No teacher gets removed at any school until after an audit team looks at the school and the local board of education decides which of FOUR turn-around options they will actually use. Not all of those options require teacher replacement. Your local board made that choice.
Second: Either Fox41.com news has it wrong, or you do, but it reported on November 22, 2010 in an article titled "Worst-performing KY elementary school shows improvement" that about half of the staff was changed in Atkinson as part of its turn-around. Who is right? If Fox News is correct, the improvement in Atkinson looks like it came in part due to significant staffing changes. That seriously undermines your case.
Third: You need to listen to the recent REL Appalachia webinar about the turnaround in the West Jessamine Middle School which I blog about on November 24, 2010. It was in NCLB Tier 4 status (old NCLB definitions) and is now out of all NCLB accountability. However, among other things, even after working very hard with the teachers to try to get them to improve, ultimately they had to let around 25% go.
Fourth: The US Government’s Institute of Education Sciences recently published a very interesting practice guide titled “Turning Around Chronically Low-Performing Schools.” It has lots of good, researched information about what works in low-performing schools. Of interest in this discussion, however, is a summary of some case studies in the back of the report. On page 41 you will read that among other actions that had to be taken was the removal of about 20% of the teachers who would not, or could not, adjust to methods that worked better for students (25 of 125 teachers in one example – a comment that similar proportions were noted elsewhere). This is a very sad statistic, but it is one that is showing up in the turnaround success stories.
Now, let’s be very clear. I have met a lot of Kentucky teachers over the years. Many teach in great schools and do a great job. The vast majority of teachers in this state have my deep admiration.
However, in our very poorest performing schools, the experts are telling us that isn’t the case. Worse, teachers in those poor performing schools often circle their wagons together in a culture of denial as they continue to fail their students.
It is possible to turn around low-performing schools. Atkinson (absent a lot of its original staff – if Fox 41 is right) seems to be doing it. West Jessamine Middle School did it too. But, the evidence also indicates that a knee-jerk reaction that the problem in low-performing schools does not in any way relate to the teachers is wrong.
Now, if Fox 41 got it wrong about staff replacement at Atkinson, I want to know, and they would owe us all a correction. That still won’t reverse the comments about the federal studies and West Jessamine Middle, of course, but I strive to deal with accurate information.
And, yes, I would love to visit Atkinson if you can arrange that. We really want to see success stories because they bolster our positive outlook that we really can make positive changes for kids – a goal I know the vast majority of our teachers share. I do not share your “Culture of Can’t” that all the problems these kids bring to school make the challenge insurmountable. We see evidence from charter schools and schools like West Jessamine Middle that this “Culture of Can’t” simply isn’t right.
One last tip: I know you are upset, and we all make them, but your comment has more than a few typographical, punctuation and grammatical errors. That doesn’t help your case, either.
RE: Anonymous at November 23, 2010 11:10 PM
We need to get some facts straight.
First: No teacher gets removed at any school until after an audit team looks at the school and the local board of education decides which of FOUR turn-around options they will actually use. Not all of those options require teacher replacement. Your local board made that choice.
Second: Either Fox41.com news has it wrong, or you do, but it reported on November 22, 2010 in an article titled "Worst-performing KY elementary school shows improvement" that about half of the staff was changed in Atkinson as part of its turn-around. Who is right? If Fox News is correct, the improvement in Atkinson looks like it came in part due to significant staffing changes. That seriously undermines your case.
Third: You need to listen to the recent REL Appalachia webinar about the turnaround in the West Jessamine Middle School which I blog about on November 24, 2010. It was in NCLB Tier 4 status (old NCLB definitions) and is now out of all NCLB accountability. However, among other things, even after working very hard with the teachers to try to get them to improve, ultimately they had to let around 25% go.
Fourth: The US Government’s Institute of Education Sciences recently published a very interesting practice guide titled “Turning Around Chronically Low-Performing Schools.” It has lots of good, researched information about what works in low-performing schools. Of interest in this discussion, however, is a summary of some case studies in the back of the report. On page 41 you will read that among other actions that had to be taken was the removal of about 20% of the teachers who would not, or could not, adjust to methods that worked better for students (25 of 125 teachers in one example – a comment that similar proportions were noted elsewhere). This is a very sad statistic, but it is one that is showing up in the turnaround success stories.
Now, let’s be very clear. I have met a lot of Kentucky teachers over the years. Many teach in great schools and do a great job. The vast majority of teachers in this state have my deep admiration.
However, in our very poorest performing schools, the experts are telling us that isn’t the case. Worse, teachers in those poor performing schools often circle their wagons together in a culture of denial as they continue to fail their students.
It is possible to turn around low-performing schools. Atkinson (absent a lot of its original staff – if Fox 41 is right) seems to be doing it. West Jessamine Middle School did it too. But, the evidence also indicates that a knee-jerk reaction that the problem in low-performing schools does not in any way relate to the teachers is wrong.
Now, if Fox 41 got it wrong about staff replacement at Atkinson, I want to know, and they would owe us all a correction. That still won’t reverse the comments about the federal studies and West Jessamine Middle, of course, but I strive to deal with accurate information.
And, yes, I would love to visit Atkinson if you can arrange that. We really want to see success stories because they bolster our positive outlook that we really can make positive changes for kids – a goal I know the vast majority of our teachers share. I do not share your “Culture of Can’t” that all the problems these kids bring to school make the challenge insurmountable. We see evidence from charter schools and schools like West Jessamine Middle that this “Culture of Can’t” simply isn’t right.
One last tip: I know you are upset, and we all make them, but your comment has more than a few typographical, punctuation and grammatical errors. That doesn’t help your case, either.
JBA teacher here...
In the age of the internet blogs, message boards, comments posted are forms of informal communication. This is/was not a dissertation waiting for publication but a place to informally share thoughts.
You took one line of the piece about our school that stated "about half the staff changed" and in your words said "had to replace half of the teachers".
In your reply "First: No teacher gets removed at any school until after an audit team looks at the school and the local board of education decides which of FOUR turn-around options they will actually use. Not all of those options require teacher replacement. Your local board made that choice."
You do not know what happened at our school. The reason the staff changed had to do with the leadership style of Dr. Hensley and the culture change he brought. It had nothing to do with audits or the board. It had to do with individuals making choices whether they wanted to be a part of something special and were willing to put in the time and effort to do so. This is what makes our school special. Not only have our students made tremendous growth the teachers and staff who stayed have made this change from the inside out. We our proud of what we have accomplished and continue to do even better, push ourselves harder, achieve even more.
We share the view that this job isn't for everybody and some teachers probably do need to find other schools and in some instances different professions. This has been a part of our success but this would not be the key or only part of our success.
JBA Teacher reply continued...
I take issue with your categorization of me as a person who believes in a "Culture of Can't". Where in my message did that come through? I talk about meeting each child's needs, making tremendous gains, being a model for getting kids who are from poverty to perform at higher and higher levels. This comes off as a "Culture of Can't"? I talked about abuse, neglect, and homelessness because these are realities. We have students in our school that come to us with great needs that sometimes need to be addressed, medical, physical, social, and mental. These aren't excuses I am making this is the reality we live in. The child who comes in with bruises from a beating, hungry from missing meals, exposing themselves to other children still must be taught, even if their behaviors tend to be extreme when they get to the school. My point was they stay with us at JBA and we find a way to meet their needs and also teach them. Unlike charter schools who can kick kids out or be selective about who they enroll. I am sure it would be easier to meet the needs of the kids you have in that case. Back to my original point, we take all kids from wherever they come and I am proud of that. Of all the comments you have made the "culture of can't" rubbed me the wrong way. Have you watched the stories on our school? Have you looked at the numbers in the exit data and the huge jumps we have made in reading, math, and writing? We have had some of the greatest jumps in scores the state has ever seen. This means nothing to you? Our school's scores have made progress each year that Dr. Hensley has been here and honestly with a good portion of it's original staff still in place.
JBA Teacher cont...last one...promise...
My first year there we had three principals. The school was full of inexperienced teachers who often left within the first year or within a couple of years due to the negative atmosphere and behavior issues. When Dr. Hensley came this changed. Some of the people who had already wanted to leave left. Some new teachers replaced them and what once was a school that teachers fled from is now a place that teachers ask to be transferred to. So yes we had staff changes but not necessarily for the reasons you perceive.
There is something disingenuous about your approach to school change that I do not appreciate and maybe that would change if we met face to face and discussed these issues. I do not get the feeling you fully understand some of the issues that you are so strongly advocating change for. You make these broad base statements about getting rid of staff and teachers without even knowing much about these individual schools' families, communities, teachers, and/or staff the work we have done or the progress we are making. I can arrange a visit to Atkinson if you would like. My email address is carring1@live.com
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