Rewarding failure in Carter County Schools

Read the full "Rewarding Failure" commentary here.

"Rewarding Failure" is a recently published commentary by The Bluegrass Institute based on superintendent evaluations obtained via the Kentucky Open Records Act.

One of the districts profiled is Carter County Public Schools, a district that, at the time of the requested superintendent evaluation in 2009, had:

• failed meet even the watered-down goals of No Child Left Behind (NCLB) for eight consecutive years
• five of 10 schools not meeting the basic NCLB goals
• and only 9.2% of 11th graders meeting the ACT benchmark for math

raved about the performance of their superintendent.  In fact, the evaluator commented that the superintendent was:

"doing a good job like the fact you attend so many school function and visit classrooms...."

It seems like the superintendent of a school district should be more concerned with student achievement.  The leader of the school district should be held to high standards, evaluated based on specific goals outlined by quantifiable metrics, and held accountable when even the most basic standards for student learning can not be met.

You can view the actual performance evaluation for Carter County School along with three other districts here.