A proficient high school example

Under Kentucky's new accountability system, schools are identified as proficient if their Overall Score is at or above the 70th percentile for schools at their level.  Now that first year results have been released, it's easier to illustrate what goes into the Overall Scores and the proficient classification  I'll use a high school right at that 70th percentile cut off to do just that.

To begin, each school now receives an Overall Score on a 0-100 scale.  For high schools, 100 will mean that all students are college and career ready, making typical or higher growth, and graduating on time.  Here's the actual example, showing the school's Overall Score of 58.0 and the five components that go into it.

The 64.5 for Achievement shown above is calculated from the students' performance levels in five subjects:

The 41.7 for Gap is also calculated from those five-subjects performance levels, using data only for students in groups that have historically been underserved:

The 59.5 for Growth reflects the students making typical growth in the two subjects tested more than once in high school. The 47.1 for Readiness looks at ACT and other tests of readiness for college, career or both, with half- point bonuses for students being ready for both options.  Here are the details on those two results:

Finally, the 77.3 for Graduation is simply the school's 77.3 percent averaged freshman graduation rate shown above.

In future years, the plan is to add program review results and professional growth and evaluation data to the Overall Score calculation. As that happens, the 70th percentile cut point will be adjusted. Once the full formula is in place, the state regulation calls for the 70th percentile to be recalculated every five years.

Added note: I've treated the school above simply as an example to help illustrate the main elements involved in being classified as a proficient school, using one of the three high schools with an Overall Score of 58.0.  Though my purpose is to clarify the process rather than focus on a particular school, I'll satisfy any reader curiosity and mention that charts above show data from Bracken County High.