Presentation Outline Audit Purpose and Process Commendations Deficiencies and Next Steps Recommendations District Responsibility

Audit Purpose and Process KDE conducts district audits for any district that has a school

classified as “Level 3 Assistance” for two consecutive biennia. In JCPS, there were 2 out of 133 schools that fell into this category (Western Middle and Valley High)

The audit team assessed the district using the “Standards and Indicators for School Improvement”.

The audit team interviewed staff, board members, community groups, visited 20 schools and conducted over 250 classroom walkthroughs.

JCPS District Scholastic Audit Results 2008

2006 2008

Number % Number %

Exemplary Level of Development and Implementation

4 4% 8 9%

Fully Functioning and Operational Level of Development and Implementation

11 13% 27 31%

Limited Development or Partial Implementation

72 82% 52 59%

Little or No Development and Implementation

1 1% 1 1%

Prepared by JCPS Accountability, Research and Planning Dept.

JCPS District Scholastic Audit Results 2008

Prepared by JCPS Accountability, Research and Planning Dept.

JCPS District Scholastic Audit Results 2008% Indicators Rated as Fully Functional or Exemplary

Prepared by JCPS Accountability, Research and Planning Dept.

Standard 1: Curriculum We commend Jefferson County Public Schools for

engaging the entire school community, which includes multiple external partnerships with businesses, universities and community agencies, to expand their curricular resources for students.

Standard 4: School Culture The Jefferson County Public School District demonstrates a

strong commitment to equity, diversity and the importance of fostering a culturally competent education system. The reinstatement of the Department of Diversity, Equity and Poverty Programs is emblematic of the district’s commitment to meeting the needs of all students of Jefferson County. District and community leadership have created a comprehensive system of support to meet the physical, cultural, socioeconomic and intellectual needs of all students. District leadership through its collaboration with thousands of community partners successfully removes many barriers to learning. The district’s development and implementation of Creating A Respectful Environment for Kids (CARE) reflects its long-term commitment to promoting a caring, respectful and supportive learning community for all students.

Standard 5: Student, Family and Community Support District leadership actively initiates collaboration

among all stakeholders in promoting programs and services for all students. District leadership partners with numerous community organizations to maximize opportunities for students to learn beyond the classroom. District leadership makes a concerted effort to seek input from families and offers various trainings and workshops to engage parents in their students’ education.

Standard 6: Professional Growth, Development and Evaluation

The district has piloted the Guskey leveled system for evaluating professional development in its literacy initiative, linking a professional development initiative with improved student performance.

The district has incorporated community resources creatively and systematically to improve professional development, curriculum and student learning.

Standard 7: Leadership The superintendent’s efforts to renew the district’s

vision, mission and beliefs that the district will not stop its work until all students achieve maximum potential to be self-sufficient contributing members has become a unifying concept that has revitalized the entire community. The focus on educating the whole child and the resulting shift in culture that this demands has the potential to positively impact all educational, social and financial sectors of the state.

Standard 9: Comprehensive and Effective Planning The intense, internal, reflective dialogue that led to

the development of the core beliefs and the theory of action of the district has resulted in a clear, shared vision of long and short term goals for their students and the changes the district must make to ensure that the students are prepared to attain their goals. This work has created a standard by which to measure district work and a clear focus in the planning efforts of the district.

Deficiency 1: The current evaluation process does not

effectively promote improvement in professional practice and student achievement.

Next Step 1: The district should review its teacher evaluation system

for effectiveness in raising professional practice and student achievement and work with the Jefferson County Teachers Association to implement an evaluation system that meaningfully supports quality schools and teaching. The model of professional growth that has begun with the administrators should extend to the school level. Just as the district has developed a meaningful, constructive, interactive system of professional growth among its principals, principals and teachers should begin to collaboratively create teacher cohorts who challenge each other to aspire to higher levels of practice.

Deficiency 2: The monitoring process, at both the

district and school levels, does not lead to appropriate accountability.

Next Step 2: District leadership should develop a

systematic plan of action that not only ensures effective monitoring but also holds appropriate staff accountable for the implementation, evaluation, and modifications necessary to maximize the effectiveness of district and school practices and programs.

Deficiency 3: High levels of challenge and rigor are not

consistently expected and applied in all classrooms in all schools.

Next Step 3: District leadership should work collaboratively

with school leadership to systematically monitor and increase the level of challenge and instructional rigor in all classrooms in all schools. Instructional strategies should be rigorous, relevant and research-based (e.g., hands-on, applied, real world, cooperative learning practices, Depth of Knowledge levels 3 and 4). Lesson and unit plans should be developed to meet the unique needs of all students and formally monitored for implementation and impact.

Deficiency 4: Labor issues between the Jefferson

County Public School District and the Jefferson County Teachers Association impede the ability of the district to affect the changes needed to improve teaching and learning in all schools, particularly those that are low performing.

Next Step 4: The Jefferson County Teachers Association should

work cooperatively with Jefferson County Public Schools district leadership to align the goals of the association to the new district vision, mission and belief system. The district and the teacher association should negotiate contract provisions that enable the two organizations to increase collaborative efforts to focus on improved teaching and learning. Those efforts should extend to resolve conflicts involving barriers (e.g., teacher transfers, new hire policies that inhibit placing proficient teachers and administrative staff at low performing schools, certified personnel evaluation and other contractual barriers.)

Deficiency 5: District leadership has not ensured that

district monitoring of school councils results in accountability at the school level and supports the intentional focus on student academic achievement by all councils.

Next Step 5: District leadership should develop procedures to ensure

that the recommendations from school council monitoring efforts are sufficiently addressed to result in accountability at the school level. District leadership should make systematic efforts to ensure that increased support and guidance are made available to all councils so that all school councils have an intentional focus on student academic achievement. District leadership should hold school leadership accountable to ensure that school councils are in compliance with Kentucky Revised Statutes and Kentucky Administrative Regulations. District leadership should ensure that all school councils focus on improving student performance.

Recommendations It is recommended to the commissioner of education that the

Western Middle School School Based Decision Making Council should not retain the authority granted to them under KRS 160.345. It is further recommended that the authority of the school council be transferred to the superintendent and the school council should not continue to act in an advisory capacity until all authority has been restored when the school meets its goal for an accountability cycle as determined by the Kentucky Department of Education under KRS 158.6455.

It is recommended to the commissioner of education that the Valley High School School Based Decision Making Council should retain the authority granted to them under KRS 160.345.

District Responsibility

The district shall address the following areas in its school support plan:Instructional leadershipFinancial servicesSafe and secure instructional facilitiesEffective certified employee evaluation program

Table of ContentsTopic Page #

Executive Summary 2-8 Introduction 9-10 Curriculum 11- 16 Assessment 17-22 Instruction 23-29 Culture 30-40 Student, Family & Community Support 41-47 Professional Development 48-57 Leadership 58-67 Organization & Fiscal Resources 68-76 Planning 77-86 Summary of Next Steps 87 Conclusion 88 Graphs by Standard 89-104

Full Report The official KDE Scholastic Audit Report for

JCPS can be found using the following link:

http://www.jefferson.k12.ky.us/Departments/Planning/DistrictPlanningSite/JCPSScholasticReportAudit08.pdf