Audit shows HCS improvement

A state audit of Hardin County Schools shows improvement in eight of nine standards analyzed compared to a similar audit in 2007.

Some aspects of school culture and comprehensive planning standards received the highest possible marks in the audit and all standards rated better than the lowest ratings.

Instruction was the only standard that didn’t show improvement over the 2007 audit.

HCS Superintendent Nannette Johnston said initially she wasn’t happy that HCS was selected to be audited, but she’s glad now that she can share the results.

“I’m thrilled that they came because now the world knows” about how the district is doing, she said.

The district was ranked on levels from 1 to 4. Level 1 means “little or no development and implementation” of the standard in question, 2 indicates “limited development or partial implementation,” 3 indicates development and implementation are “fully functional and operational” and 4 shows development and implementation of the standard to be at an “exemplary level.”

Six of the nine standards — school culture, leadership, classroom evaluation/assessment, school organization and fiscal resources, professional growth, and comprehensive and effective planning — were rated at level 3 in 50 percent or more of indicators. A portion of the school culture and comprehensive planning standards indicators rated level 4.

The other three standards, curriculum; student, family and community support; and instruction, had 29 percent, 40 percent and 13 percent of indicators rated at a level 3, respectively.
Results of the 2007 audit show the district to be rated predominately at a level 2 in all standards.

No standard had any portion of its indicators rated at level 1. HCS was one of three districts audited and was the only district to have any portion of indicators rated at a level 4, Johnston said.

The audit team provided five suggestions for continued improvement, which the district will work into its No Child Left Behind corrective action plan and school and district improvement plans. The suggestions include organizing leadership assignments, implementing monitoring procedures to evaluate programs, improving instruction strategies, establishing professional development plans and developing a training program for staff on intervention processes.

HCS was one of 13 districts receiving assistance from the Kentucky Department of Education after failing to record adequate yearly progress in NCLB requirements for eight or more years.

Five of the districts were audited, while the other eight were assisted with improvement plans and tools to perform their own audit.

The other 12 districts receiving assistance are Adair, Bourbon, Bullitt, Campbell, Simpson, Clark, Fayette, Grayson, Jefferson, Knox and Carter counties and Covington Independent. The last four were audited.

Kelly Cantrall can be reached at (270) 505-1747 or kcantrall@thenewsenterprise.com.