Jefferson County schools set new academic-readiness metric, board adopts goals and tax rate

Jefferson County Superintendent H. Yearwood presented a new, district-level academic readiness measure and baseline data to the Jefferson County Board of Education on Aug. 19, and the board voted to accept the district's Goals 1–3 and to set the fiscal-year 2025–26 tax rates that will yield a 4% revenue increase.

The new metric combines standardized achievement measures and performance-based "defenses of learning" (the district's Journey to Success) to give a broader picture of student preparedness. "We want every single student to graduate prepared," Doctor H. Yearwood, superintendent, said during the superintendent's report.

Why it matters: district leaders said the measure is intended to show opportunities a single standardized test may miss and to drive targeted interventions across elementary, middle and high school levels. Presenters described gaps in proficiency and attendance and proposed modest, measurable initial targets to produce districtwide gains and reduce disparities.

Yearwood told the board that Jefferson County Public Schools serves about 95,000 students pre-K–12, noting demographic and need indicators included in the presentation: African American students make up roughly 36% (about 34,570 students) and white students about 32.8% (about 31,000); 67% of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch; 22% are multilingual learners (about 21,000 students); and roughly 14% are students with disabilities (about 13,000). "Overall, our students are about 10% below the state average," Yearwood said of proficiency rates in reading and math.

District staff described how the academic readiness metric is constructed. Doctor Douthat, a district academic staff member presenting the pilot…