Across Kentucky, schools delivered underwhelming results in new testing released Tuesday, with achievement rates in the crucial subjects of math and reading remaining stagnant from the prior year.

In Jefferson County Public Schools, tasked with educating nearly one in six Kentucky kids, the results were equally disheartening: The district saw its overall test scores slip and even more of its schools slide into the state's worst-performing category.

JCPS Superintendent Marty Pollio acknowledged the setback.

But, he insisted, brighter results are in the district's future. New initiatives that focus on what's best for students — beyond an annual test score — will pay off on the long run, he said.

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"We've asked our principals over the past 12 months to do things differently than they've ever done them before," Pollio said, noting the district's efforts to provide students with more hands-on learning opportunities.

"... We're no longer interested in (short-term results) here in JCPS," he said. "We want that long-term impact. Change that will make a difference in the lives of children across all of our schools."

JCPS' efforts to uplift the students at its highest-needs schools, though, run headlong into an intractable reality: Students living in poverty tend to fare poorly on standardized tests.

Check out:How well did your child's school do in the 2019 K-PREP test scores?

The district's achievement results on the 2019 K-PREP exams are a case study in the haves and have-nots of Kentucky's largest district.

Low-poverty, predominantly white schools — especially those that can select their students — tended to earn top honors under Kentucky's new five-star rating system. Schools serving significant shares of poor students — and, often, students of color — generally fared worse.

It is “no secret” poverty and school performance are correlated, Kentucky Education Commissioner Wayne Lewis said.

But, he added, the state system takes into account student growth, which can help “even the playing field” for high-poverty schools.

Cochran Elementary, a school of about 330 students, represents what's possible, officials said.

In 2018, the high-poverty school in Old Louisville was deemed among the worst in the state. This year, it shed that distinction. In fact, by boosting its reading and math achievement by 9 and 18.8 percentage points, respectively, Cochran earned three stars on the new rating system.

Star ratings paint 'mediocre' picture

Using an equation of test scores, student growth and transition and graduation rates, Kentucky schools now receive a rating from one to five stars. Any four- or five-star schools with "statistically significant" achievement gaps between students, though, lose a star.

In Kentucky the bulk of schools scored three stars — signalling “at the very least, a pretty good school,” Lewis said.

JCPS, which serves a disproportionate share of the state's students of color, skewed toward lower ratings.

There are 56 five-star schools across Kentucky. Seven are in JCPS:

duPont Manual High School

Barret Traditional Middle School

J. Graham Brown School (elementary)

J. Graham Brown School (middle)

Greathouse/Shryock Traditional Elementary

Lowe Elementary

Norton Elementary

Manual is an application-based school, allowing it to admit only the district’s top students. Brown, Greathouse/Shyrock and Barrett are also magnet schools and have special privileges within the district’s student-assignment system. For example, Brown does not provide student transportation, meaning families must have their own means of getting students to school.

Some of the schools use a lottery system to decide which applications make the school, but students who go through the application process tend to have more involved parents.

The other two — Lowe and Norton — have smaller shares of poor and black students, who traditionally fare worse on standardized tests.

Despite the star reduction rule, all of JCPS' five-star schools had sizable achievement gaps between black and white students or students with or without disabilities — or both.

State education officials said those gaps weren't "statistically significant," so they didn't affect the star rating.

Read this:Amid statewide teacher shortage, JCPS says it's seeing staffing improve

State scores stagnant as JCPS slips

Kentucky's scores on last spring's state K-PREP assessments, released Tuesday, show a mostly stagnant education system.

As a district, JCPS' scores dipped slightly, seeing around a 1.5 percentage point drop in reading and around a 2-point drop in math compared with last year.

Statewide, marks for elementary and middle school students in reading and math stayed within a percentage point of last year's scores. Over half of those students can read at grade level, and a little less than half can do math at the same level.

Those rates slip in high school. About 44% of high schoolers are reading at grade level, and only one-third can do math at the same level.

“We’re not making movement,” Lewis said.

As reading and math proficiency remained about the same, Lewis said he’s concerned about the amount of students scoring at the novice level. Novice, the lowest score of four, means an “academic emergency,” he said.

Roughly one-fifth of the state’s elementary and middle schoolers score in the novice category in the key areas of math and reading, Lewis said.

Achievement gaps at the lowest level are especially concerning, he said, with black students more likely to show minimal understanding of grade-level content than their white peers. Kentucky has made “very little progress” on shrinking those gaps at the novice level, Lewis said.

Kentucky's graduation rate continues to be one of the highest in the nation, with more than 90% of students graduating in four years.

However, the proportion of students deemed “transition ready,” or prepared for life beyond high school, continues to lag, at 65%.

That preparation gap is even starker for Kentucky kids living in poverty: While 75% of advantaged students are prepared for college or a career, just half of the state’s poor students are, results show.

The trend holds in JCPS, which this year posted its highest ever graduation rate, according to district officials. Though 82% of JCPS students graduated within four years, just over half (53.3%) were considered transition ready.

Pollio said he expects the readiness rate to rise as the district’s Academies of Louisville model expands. Under the initiative, students earn real-word experience through internships and career certification courses.

“... I see our transition readiness number in the next few years getting up to 75 and 80%,” Pollio said.

Check out:How this Kentucky school uses a slide to promote learning

Despite oversight, JCPS sees jump in CSI schools

JCPS now accounts for 70% of the state's lowest performing schools, up significantly from last year.

Schools that fall in the bottom 5% of Kentucky schools are labeled "comprehensive support and improvement schools" under the state's accountability system. Last year, JCPS made up less than half of CSI schools — 21 of 51.

This year, JCPS accounts for 35 out of 50 schools — all of them one-star schools.

But those schools largely educate student bodies with high needs — students living in poverty, those in a racial minority, those who are learning English or those who have special education plans.

And they are mostly "resides" schools, meaning many of them do not get to cherry-pick the district's top learners to fill their classrooms. They get who lives in their area.

The more poor students a school has, the lower its overall performance is, according to a data analysis by The Courier Journal.

Pollio acknowledged the district's level of high-needs students, but said JCPS can't make excuses.

"When we look at poverty, when we look at homelessness, when we look at food insecurity, when we look at trauma that many of our kids face ... that's no excuse for not achieving and improving student outcomes," Pollio said.

The increase in low-performing schools comes as the district hits the one-year mark under increased state oversight after JCPS and the Education Department agreed to a corrective action plan to avoid a state takeover.

“I’m very concerned," Lewis said. "I was very concerned last year with 21 CSI schools. I’m even more concerned this year with 35 schools.”

Under past systems, high levels of priority schools were not enough to cause an audit or takeover of JCPS, Lewis said. Academic improvement will not be the sole thing he’ll consider when he audits — and considers a state takeover — of the district next fall.

“(The number of CSI schools) significantly weighs into my recommendation to whether it’s state management, state assistance or nothing at all,” Lewis said. “That’s not the rubric.”

Meanwhile, across the state, the majority of schools identified last year for a lesser label — "targeted support and improvement" — left the status. Of 418 schools with identified achievement gaps, only 11 (two of which are in JCPS) continue to have pressing enough problems for the label, the Education Department says.

Even with the mass exodus, closing JCPS’ achievement gap is “not overnight work,” Pollio said.

“It's very difficult and challenging, and it is being fought in many communities like this across America right now,” he said.

“We know we have 155 schools, and a vast majority of them have gaps we need to work on. … And so we're not looking at 10, we're looking at 155. And that's the systemic work we have to do.”

Seeing stars:How to decipher Kentucky's new school rating system

Mandy McLaren: 502-582-4525; mmclaren@courier-journal.com; Twitter: @mandy_mclaren. Support strong local journalism by subscribing today: courier-journal.com/mandym.

Olivia Krauth: 502-582-4471; okrauth@courierjournal.com; Twitter: @oliviakrauth. Support strong local journalism by subscribing today: courier-journal.com/subscribe.