The latest new test score results for Kentucky schools and school districts were released by the Kentucky Department of Education last Friday and again, local results were somewhat of a mixed bag, with some not so positive results opposed to some very positive scores, according to Clinton County School District Instructional Supervisor Paula Little.

The new testing system, known as KPREP (Kentucky Performance Rating of Educational Progress) results revealed statewide what many had predicted and warned school districts across the state to be aware of months ago–that overall scores and results probably wouldn’t be positive in most schools.

Although looking at scores on base results, Little said the downside showed the school district as a whole was in the “needs improvement” category. However, the uptick side is that a total of 70 percent of the schools across Kentucky rank in the same category and although in some subject areas, all schools need improvement, other subject areas showed local students doing well in comparison to most of their counterparts.

The most positive news that Little was extremely proud of during the most recent testing cycle was that Clinton County High School scored “proficient”, having an 80 percentile statewide. Only 10 percent of schools in the state scored a 90 or higher, which gains that school or district a “distinguished” rating.

CCHS improvement ranked that particular school in the top 20 percent in the state.

As far as the “needs improvement” schools, Little told the Clinton County News on Monday afternoon that “70 percent of all schools and districts in the state are in that category, and it was not unexpected.”

Little noted that only those schools scoring 90 or above are deemed distinguished and schools scoring between 70 and 90 are ranked proficient, as was the high school.

Also the good news is that the lowest 10 percent of schools are considered priority needs schools with 30 percent and below considered standard deviation priority, none of the local schools made the lower two categories. The lower scoring schools below the state average for sub-population are considered focus schools and “we are pleased that none of our schools is in the latter two categories.”

CCHS being classified as “proficient” is “remarkable,” making them part of an elite group of high schools in the state, Little noted.

Albany Elementary School had a 34 percentile while Clinton County Middle School scored a 36, and although not as spectacular as the high school, was still “solid,” said Little.

Little said that if you took all the state and divided it into three groups, the high school would be in the top group and the elementary and middle school in the middle group among averages statewide under the KPREP testing method.

Even though the lower graded schools did not show as high a score as would have been hoped for, Little said there were several bright spots in the overall results, including the science scores at both the elementary and middle school levels.

Little further added that CCHS could take great pride in the area of end-of-course assessments, primarily in Algebra II, English II and writing, which all were well above the state averages.

The Instructional Supervisor also said the high school and middle school did well in college and career readiness and that the Alternative Assessments Students also did very well on the most recent testing under the new system.

Little did admit there were areas that needed improvement, including elementary reading, middle school math and language mechanics across the district.

“The faculty did a lot of work to prepare for the new testing system,” said Little. “They have worked to re-align curriculum with common core standards, redone lesson plans and continue to take training and refine instructional methods.”

Little further noted that the faculty, staff and school administration are already meeting to develop ideas for how to do even better and improve on next year’s scores.

Although statistics released per subject area and categories in which schools are scored and ranked can be confusing and mind-boggling, the following are basic areas where each of the local schools scored, per subject area, in comparison to state averages.