McKinney Elementary highest performing Lincoln school under new system

Lincoln Middle School's score of 55.2 ranked 152nd out of 333 middle schools, placing it in the 54th percentile.

Sarah Hagans, an academic performance consultant at the middle school, said despite uncertainty surrounding what the new K-PREP scores would look like, the middle school actually landed right about where officials expected it would.

"We expected that we would kind of be in the middle based on how our data looked in the past," she said.

The middle school has been given the goal for next year of improving its score by one point, which Hagans said is very doable.

But because even more different measurements will be incorporated into school scores next year, it's still difficult to predict exactly what will happen, she added.

"We can't really anticipate where we might even compare to other schools," she said. "But we want to be better than where we are now."

Hagans said the individual information included in the new scores looks like it will be very helpful.

"Knowing where the problem is can help us move forward," she said. "If we can identify the specific problems within the content, then that's going to help."

McGuffey Sixth Grade Center's score of 53.2 was 179th among Kentucky middle schools, placing it in the 46th percentile.

McGuffey was also designated as a "focus" school because of "a significant achievement gap in reading between students with disabilities and those without disabilities," said Pam Hart, chief deputy of quality management for the district.

Elementary scores vary widely

At the elementary level, McKinney Elementary placed 110th out of 733 schools, putting it 85th percentile of elementary schools statewide.

McKinney Elementary Principal Jeff Craiger credited his predecessor, Don Leigh, with helping achieve the high mark and said he is extremely proud of the teachers and students at his school.

“We’re just really proud of our school, really proud of our kids and we hope to continue with the success we’ve had in the past,” he said.

Craiger noted that besides getting the highest score in Lincoln County, McKinney also received the fourth-highest score among all elementary schools in a seven-district area of Boyle, Casey, Garrard, Lincoln and Mercer counties and Danville and Burgin independent districts.

Next year, McKinney’s goal is to jump five percentiles up the rankings and earn a “distinguished” classification, Craiger said.

“I think that the systems (to accomplish that) are already in place,” he said. “We were already doing the right things, we just need to tweak our practices.”

Hustonville Elementary, which received a "proficient" classification like McKinney, is ranked 207th in Kentucky, landing it in the 72nd percentile.

Highland Elementary was 342nd in the state, with a score better than about 54 percent of elementary schools in the state.