BY ANDREA TORTORA
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Kentucky students continue to score at the national average in reading, language arts and math while scores for individual Northern Kentucky schools show a decline.
The Kentucky Education Department released school-by-school scores on the Comprehensive Test of Basic Skills on Friday, calling the state's performance "competitive."
But scores from the three other states that administer the same version of the CTBS test show Kentucky students scoring below students in Indiana, Nevada and Wisconsin.
"We don't want to be average, not that that's bad," Education Department spokeswoman Lisa Gross said.
Kentucky's scores are at the national average of 50, at about the same place that students scored last year.
The CTBS test was given for the first time in 1997 after parents complained that KIRIS, the state's assessment test, did not show how their children compared on a national level.
Starting in 1999, CTBS tests will be critical to determining how much money schools receive.
The CTBS test is administered by CTB - McGraw-Hill, one of the nation's oldest and largest test publishers. In Kentucky, all students in grades three, six and nine -- including those with learning disabilities and limited English proficiency -- took the test. There are several versions of the CTBS test, which is given in most states. Scores for a grade level are a weighted composite of reading, language arts and math scores, with 50 as the average score. Within Northern Kentucky, the scores show:
Fort Thomas Schools posted the highest scores. Third-graders scored a 64.8; sixth-graders scored a 68.2; and ninth-graders scored a 68.4. Fort Thomas also boasts the second-highest scores in the state, second to the Anchorage Independent Schools, a K-8 district in Jefferson County.
Covington Schools showed the lowest scores. Third-graders scored a 38.3; sixth-graders scored a 40.5; and ninth-graders scored a 40.5.
Other Northern Kentucky districts with scores above 50 are Beechwood, Boone County, Campbell County, Kenton County, Ludlow, Walton-Verona and Williamstown.
The Newport, Grant County and Southgate school districts showed significant gains.
The state also released data Friday that showed fewer Kentucky students are dropping out of school; fewer students are failing classes or grades; attendance remains high; and more graduates are entering college.
Larry Stinson, Fort Thomas Schools superintendent, said the scores help teachers decide where students need improvement. Though the Fort Thomas scores are among the highest, the scores declined this year in every area except ninth-grade language and ninth-grade math.
"It's in terms of the concepts that maybe our students have not learned quite as much as they could," Mr. Stinson said. "We're always wanting to maintain existing levels of achievement."
Covington ninth-graders improved their scores in language and math. Assistant Superintendent Susan Cook said the district thinks it is making steady progress.
"We have definitely continued to stress the development of the writing skills that are necessary to successfully respond to the open-response type questions," Ms. Cook said.
Ms. Gross, the Education Department spokeswoman, said the state is most concerned with how schools compare to the national average and how schools use their scores to improve lessons taught.
