Far from outstanding, but closer to acceptable. Such are academic baby steps.

        This is the Covington Independent Public School District in 2002.

Ninth Distrct School teacher Pat Surber shows her enthusiasm during a fifth-grade class recently. (Patrick Reddy photo) | ZOOM |

        The district, long among the state's lowest achievers on standardized tests and once riddled by mismanagement and apathy, still lags behind most schools, both regionally and in Kentucky.

        Yet few made more progress in the state's crucial Commonwealth Acountability Testing System (CATS) tests, results of which were released Thursday.

        “I think it's changed,” said parent Kathy Iles of Covington. “I sense some of the teachers care more. In the past, they didn't care about the learning, the discipline. It was bad.”

        Ms. Iles represents Covington's past, present and future.

        A 10th-grade dropout of the district herself, she put four children through the Covington schools. They're now 22, 20, 19 and 18. Two other children are at John G. Carlisle Elementary.In 2000, five of the district's eight schools, including John G. Carlisle, were labeled “Level 3 Assistance,” the state's lowest ranking. And none qualified for rewards from the Kentucky Department of Education.

        Historically, Covington's obstacles included a high percentage of poor families, and an inability to attract, and retain, quality teachers. Administrative in-fighting worsened those factors.

        Today, all five have moved up to “Progressing” status, and four qualified for rewards, two of them major rewards.

        Qu alifying schools statewide split the reward pot, so it's unknown how much John G. Carlisle — one of the major winners — will receive. The other was Ninth District Elementary.

        John G. Carlisle's CATS index score of 53.4 exceeded its established goal by one-fifth of a percentage point. It also exceeded the novice-reduction goal and improved its 2000 baseline score by 6.7 units.

        John G. Carlisle Principal Mike Earlywine said a key for the school is involving parents.

        But there is another big difference at John G. Carlisle. They started teaching to the CATS test, emphasizing which classes would be taking which subjects on the test. Other districts have been doing that for years.

        “Follow the core-content curriculum,” Principal Earlywine explained. “So we're now aligned to Kentucky's curriculum. We're in our third year of that. I think that was a big part of it.”

        That's right out of Superintendent Jack Moreland's playbook. Mr. Moreland, who was a key figure in shaping Kentucky's 1990 education reform (KERA), was lured out of retirement two years ago to take over the beleaguered district that a state audit would soon classify as “deficient.”

        In 2000, Mr. Moreland delayed the opening of school for a week, to implement a new focus among faculty: Teach to the test.

        However incrementally, it has worked.

        Partial-reward recipients are Glenn O. Swing and Thomas Edison elementary schools.

        Slightly less encouraging, the minimal improvements at Holmes Middle School, which nonetheless was labeled “progressing.” Holmes sco red 50.1 on the 140-point scale test, 3.5 percentage points below its goal. Still that's up from a score of 46.8 in 1998-99.

        “I'm pleased, but we all know we have a long way to go,” said Holmes Junior Principal Ray Finke, a retiree from Cincinnati Public Schools who joined Covington two years ago. He retired as CPS' director of schools, and previously was principal at Western Hills High.

        “The issue was curriculum wasn't aligned (with the state),” he said. “We painstakingly trained everyone in the school, and I think that's going to lead to higher test scores in the future. As long as you stay the course, we'll show improvement.”

        Mr. Finke gives credit to the teachers. “They did the work to prepare the kids. Most people in this business work hard, but you have to work smart.”

        Most troubling is Holmes High, where scores remained essentially flat.

        “Truth of the matter is, it's going to take more than two years,” Mr. Moreland said in his office this week.

        “We're not at all happy how we're doing relative to other schools.” But he called the results this week “a partial victory.”

        The district's elementary schools all improved, with the exception of Latonia, which dropped to level 3 assistance and was named a “failing school” by the federal government on Friday.

        Parents must be given the option to transfer their children from any school named to the federal “failing school” list.

        The school had a 35 percent faculty turnover in the past two years. It also lost its pool of high-scoring students from the district's “gifted program,” which was based at Latonia.

        Those students were shifted back to their neighborhood schools.

        In a memo to faculty this week, Mr. Moreland began his summary by saying: “First of all, we want you to know the (district) is not where we want to be academically. We have a long way to go. There is no reason this district cannot be among the best districts in our area and in the state.”

        Today, despite great strides, it's not even close to that status. Such are baby steps.

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