Principal Sheldon Harlan recently received an email from the Kentucky Department of Education stating Clinton County High School would be recognized as a Model KSI/RtI service site due to the reading, writing and math intervention plans implemented four years ago.

The email from Judy Halasek, from the Department of Education, said “We were very impressed with your commitment to the students at CCHS and the hard work you do to meet each child’s individual needs.”

Each year, students take tests to determine their progress throughout the course of their high school career.

Last year Clinton County’s score was 60.9, which places the school above 79 percent of all other high schools in the state.

Clinton County was close to average throughout the state on other areas, but in three categories Clinton County was well above average, which pushed the score up.

With the college and career readiness program, Harlan told the NEWS Clinton County jumped 38.8 percent from the previous year, putting CCHS students in the top 10 schools with the most improved score.

Harlan said the improvements they have made directly stems from an intervention program they have started within the school.

This program puts those students together who have similar problems, which allows the teachers to focus on what they need in order to improve their test scores and better prepare them for college and their career.

“It’s very targeted,” Harlan said. “We’ve been doing this for three or four years.”

The program was reported to KED and it has been so successful within the high school that the state department now confirmed it wants to use Clinton County as a model school for the program statewide.

“They are confident enough that they are going to recommend to other schools to come and view our program,” Harlan said. “Our teachers are working hard and that’s just it … it’s the teachers and the kids. It’s not me. All I can do as a leader is to tell them to do what they can and not to give up on the kids and to keep working hard.”

Other high schools in the state chosen as a model school are Harrison County High and LaRue County High.