What’s happening in those Persistently Low-Achieving Schools?

For some, it was a brutal face-to-face with reality that cut off all chances for continued denials. Their schools – sometimes the entire school district – were doing an extraordinarily bad job for their students. They were performing at the very bottom of the heap in Kentucky. And, changes were going to have to be made.

But, what are those changes, and do they provide any hope that Kentucky’s current list of 22 Persistently Low-Achieving Schools and problem school districts are on a hopeful path of turn-around?

CN|2 takes a video look inside one troubled school district, the Newport Independent School District, and its Persistently Low-Achieving Newport High School.



The school system has seen big changes this year – a new high school principal, new high school dress codes, a new district superintendent – along with basic changes in the way the teaching staff conducts business.

Will this be enough to turn this chronically under-performing school around? It’s way too early to tell for sure, but the students look neat and purposeful on camera, and it is clear the students believe the new principal cares for them more than the outgoing principal did. That can’t help but be encouraging.