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The Harlan Independent School District, along with the rest of the state’s school districts, recently received their report card, with the district’s elementary and high schools receiving well above average rankings.

The Kentucky Department of Education website at www.education.ky.gov explains the Kentucky Summative Assessments (KSA), which are yearly assessments given to students in grades three through eight and 10 and 11. These assessments provide content area assessments, including reading and mathematics, science, social studies, writing and editing and mechanics.

The state’s ranking system consists of five color designations representing rankings ranging from lowest to highest: red, orange, yellow, green, and blue.

According to a news release, Harlan High School and Harlan Elementary School achieved green-level scores, both were less than one point short of the highest rating (blue), while Harlan Middle School achieved a middle (yellow) rating, a drop from last year’s score.

Superintendent C.D. Morton addressed the district’s overall rankings.

“We have been reviewing student data prior to the public release of the school report card information; once again, it affirms the strong steady performance of our students and helps us identify areas of needed growth,” Morton said. “As always, we will celebrate the areas where we have excelled and get to work on the areas where improvement is needed. This is the first year that student growth from the previous year is factored into the overall score, when you start strong like we did last year, it makes demonstrating additional “growth” challenging, but that is what we do best so I am confident we will continue to see strong consistent results from our schools year after year.”

Morton is encouraged by the district’s overall performance. He also pointed out there are areas in which the district will be working to improve.

“We have a lot of very bright spots across the district, many in the same area we were high in last year, it demonstrates that the system is consistently high performing for our students,” Morton said. “We also have some key areas that we are going to be working in to make some needed improvements.”

Supervisor of instruction Jennifer Parsons highlighted improvements at the elementary school level.

“We are particularly pleased with the elementary level where we have seen significant student growth over the last two years. We have been able to move those new students in our district academically and get them headed in the right direction,” Parsons said. “Thinking about how important it is to have a strong foundation, Harlan Elementary has been able to maintain a high level of student achievement very consistently. There is a great team of teachers and support staff focused on meeting the needs of students.”

Morton noted science, social studies and combined writing scores at Harlan Elementary were in the top 8% of all 719 elementary schools in Kentucky. Harlan Elementary also improved in each indicator for the 2023 assessment.

Morton stated there is room for improvement in key areas across the district.

“We know math is a critical skill required for success, so we have to do better and do it quickly,” Morton said. “We have already begun working on this and it will continue to be an area of focus as we move forward.”

Parsons pointed out comparisons to previous assessment models are not possible because of significant changes in accountability and assessment.

A briefing from the Kentucky Department of Education located at education.ky.gov states “with the introduction of change into the system, comparisons cannot be made to accountability data from 2022. Although the color-coded dials represent school accountability in 2022 and 2023, the system is vastly different with the inclusion of the change score and should not be compared.”

Harlan Independent School District students scored above the state average at each level for all assessment areas except math. The district scored significantly higher than the state average in science and social studies.

For more information, go to www.kyschoolreportcard.com.