Beech Tree News Network

Butler County Schools 2013-2014 profile for Kentucky’s Assessment system, Unbridled Learning-College and Career Ready, shows the district has an overall achievement score of 65.6%. The score exceeds the state goal of 65.3 and the Annual Measurable Objective (AMO goal of 64.1 set by the federal government. The district has a classification of a “Needs Improvement” district. The overall score was below the 70th percentile or overall goal of 67.5. Student participation rate for all student groups and each subgroup was met. The district did not meet its graduation rate goal of 92.2% but graduation rate of 89.9 exceeded the state goal of 87.4%. Student growth in Reading and Math at grades 3-8 and PLAN/ACT average scale scores in reading and math are categories where a student’s individual  score is compared to the their academic peer.  Schools and the district are recognized for the percentage of students showing typical or higher levels in growth, which is defined as being at the 40th percentile. Butler County schools had approximately 55% of growth goals students meet their goal with 15 % of those students showing higher levels of growth at 80%.
North Butler Elementary School’s classification for 2013-14 is that of a Proficient/Progressing school. The school’s overall score of 70.0 placed it above the 70th percentile. It is considered progressing because the school met its AMO and student participation rates. NBE had a score of 96.3 on Program Reviews. Achievement scores increased in Reading from 63.8 to 72.3, Math from 52.5 to 54.3, Science remains same at 100, Social Studies from 75.1 to 96.3 and Writing from 57.5 to 67.0.   The percent of students scoring novice in reading was decreased and Proficient/Distinguished scores increased. Math had an increase in the percent of student’s scoring Proficient/Distinguished. North Butler had no students scoring at the Novice level in Science.

"We are very proud to announce to  that North Butler is a Proficient school.  We scored at the 72nd percentile.  We are very excited about this and hope to improve even greater as we move forward. There are a lot of great things going on here right now and many more to come," said Principal Josh Belcher.

Morgantown Elementary School’s classification is Needs Improvement. The school was identified as a needs improvement school due to the Overall Score being below the 70th percentile. This year the Overall Score of 62.7 was lower than the 70th percentile score of 66.8% for elementary schools.  MES had a score of 100 on Program Reviews. There was an increase in the achievement score in math of 55.6 as compared to 51.7 for 12-13. The number of students scoring Proficient and Distinguished increased in Math and Science and the number of students scoring at a Novice level was decreased in Social Studies.

The overall score for Butler County Middle School for 2013-14 is 56.7 and was slightly lower than the 70th percentile score of 58.7 for middle schools. The classification of Needs Improvement/Progressing has been assigned to the school.   Butler County Middle is considered progressing because the school met its Annual Measureable Objective (AMO) and student participation rates.  The middle school was identified as a Focus school last year based on its score in reading with one of the identified gap groups.  The school has increased the score for that sub group this year and is no longer considered a Focus school.  Achievement scores increased at BCMS in Math from 57.7 to 58.5, Social Studies from 77.2 to 86.8, writing from 61.4 to 63.0 and Language Mechanics from 51.3 to 52.4.  The middle school decreased the number of students scoring at a novice level in Social Studies and increased the number of students scoring Proficient/Distinguished.

The 2013-14 overall score of 64.8 classifies the Butler County High School as Needs Improvement School.   Its reward or assistance category is Focus school.  It was designated a Focus school due to the low score of 3 standard deviation in writing with one of the identified gap groups.  The school had increased the score for that sub group but fell short on improvement for 2013-14.  A school must improve their gap area for two consecutive years in order for the classification of Focus School to be removed. The high school had a graduation goal of 92.7% with an actual graduation rate of 91.2%. Math and Social Studies were areas in which there was noted growth at the high school.  BCHS increased achievement scores in Math from 61.4 to 76.7 and Social Studies from 58.8 to 62.1.  The school reduced the number of students scoring at novice level and increased the number of students scoring at the proficient and distinguished level in both content areas. 84 out 139 students were considered college ready, career ready or both.
Superintendent Scott Howard issued the following statement. “I would like to praise each of the schools and all of the faculty and staff.  We are moving in the right direction in many areas.  Of course there is still some work to be done.  There were some gains across many of the academic areas at each school and we had reductions in the number of students who scored in the novice category.  I am very proud of the number of students who are becoming college and career ready.  We will continue to put strategies in place that will increase our graduation rate.  The literacy initiative that we have begun across the entire district will show gains in all areas of the assessment as we move through the next few years.”

School Report Cards can be viewed at  http://openhouse.education.ky.gov/