While no longer being referred to as a distinguished district, Clark County Public Schools has held steady or slightly improved in most categories after the most recent round of KPREP testing.

Superintendent Paul Christy said overall he and other administrators at the district have been pleased with the scores.

“We’re ahead of the state in several areas,” Christy said. “In others we realize there’s still some work to be done.”

Christy said interpreting this year’s scores is proving to be a bit of a challenge as the state is transitioning to a new accountability model.

“The district continues to disaggregate the data at the district and school level,” Christy said. “We are waiting to receive additional information on this new accountability model. In the future, we will learn how districts and schools will be held accountable.”

Because of some changes to the Kentucky Department of Education’s accountability system, districts and individual schools are no longer receiving overall scores or labels based on those scores — such as proficient, distinguished or needing improvement.

Results from Clark County’s 2016-2017 school year KPREP tests show the district has, for the most part, maintained its scores from the previous year when it achieved distinguished status.

Overall scores are as follows:

In reading, the district has stayed consistent with the previous year’s performance level. 56 percent of elementary students and 57.8 percent of middle school students were considered proficient or distinguished compared to 56.1 percent of elementary and 57.5 percent of middle school students last year. The statewide percentage is 54.3 percent for elementary and 56.9 percent for middle school.

Mathematics scores have shown improvement across the board, with 56.5 percent of elementary and 51.3 percent of middle school students ranked as proficient or distinguished. In the previous year’s report, 55.3 percent of elementary and 49.6 percent of middle school students made the same marks. The state average is 49.1 percent for elementary and 47 percent for middle school.

In social studies, 55.6 percent of elementary and 60.9 percent of middle school students earned proficient or distinguished rankings. The scores show an improvement for elementary students, who earned an overall score of 45.7 percent last year, it is short of the state average which jumped to 60 percent for elementary and 60.5 percent for middle school.

Elementary students showed a drop in writing, with 36.2 percent being considered proficient or distinguished as opposed to 38.9 percent last year. For high school students, however, writing proficiency increased to 56.7 percent from 49.8 percent the year before. State averages for this year are 45.9 percent for elementary and 58.5 percent for high school students.

Language mechanics scores improved among elementary students, with 49.6 scoring proficient or distinguished this year compared to 45.2 last year. The state average is 55.6.

Students were not given a science score this year, as elementary and middle school students took part in a field test rather than an examination and no scores can be generated from field tests.