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Rockcastle County Schools report shows gains in reading, attendance and work-based learning
Summary
Superintendent Dr. Ballinger and pillar leaders presented the district's annual report, highlighting elementary reading and math diagnostics, a district attendance uptick and large increases in internships and paid co-op placements. The board discussed those results and approved routine personnel and policy items.
Rockcastle County 'Superintendent Dr. Ballinger presented an annual review to the school board on student achievement, attendance and career-readiness programs, saying staff surveys and district initiatives helped produce measurable gains across several areas.
The report, organized around the district's pillars for teaching and learning, showed diagnostic (iReady) assessments with elementary reading at about 50% proficient on the spring diagnostic, short of a 60% target, and elementary math at about 46% compared with a 55% goal. "If children, they don't know how to read, it's gonna be very difficult to do all those other things," said Mr. Thomas, the pillar 1 lead, during his presentation on academic results.
Why it matters: The district framed its work as a combination of building a data culture, expanding multi-tiered systems of support (MTSS) and targeting both struggling and accelerated students. That approach drives teacher supports, intervention planning and next school year's priorities.
Key details - Diagnostic results: Mr. Thomas told the board the spring iReady diagnostic showed about 50% of students in grades 3'5 reading at a proficient level and about 46% of grades 3'5 scoring proficient in math on the district diagnostic. He noted those diagnostics are administered weeks before the state KSA tests and do not include testing accommodations used on the state exam. - MTSS and behavior tracking: The district established a district MTSS plan, a tier 2/tier 3 tracking document and piloted the Student Risk Screening Scale at Broadhead Elementary to capture behavior risk alongside academic risk. - Attendance: The district reported an increase in average daily attendance to roughly 92.68%, a rise of about 0.4 percentage points for the year. Officials said chronically absent rates declined by 4.21 points this year and about 9 percentage points over two years (from about 36% to about 27%). - Postsecondary readiness and work-based learning: Pillar 2 lead Mr. Benny said the district exceeded its postsecondary-readiness goal (the presentation noted an improvement above the 85% target) and that the district expanded paid co-op and internship opportunities; paid co-op placements rose by roughly 95% and internships by about 300% compared with the previous year, according to the presentation.
Context and next steps: District leaders said some subject-area state accountability data (science, social studies, writing) will not be available until the fall; district staff emphasized use of interim diagnostics and local assessments to guide instruction this summer. Board members approved routine personnel and policy items later in the meeting, and the superintendent's evaluation and contract extension were discussed in closed session and reported as approved on returning to open session.
The board asked staff to continue refining common formative assessments and to bring follow-up metrics on MTSS expansion and KSA outcomes next fall.
