First Time in History: Union County School Achieves Distinguished Status

For the first time ever, a Union County school has reached Distinguished status in the state’s Unbridled Learning Accountability System.

Sturgis Elementary is the highlight of the district scores this year with more than a 10-point increase in overall score as well as increases in all three measured areas of Achievement, Gap, and Growth.  SES also met the Annual Measurable Objective (AMO) established by the state and earned the four star labels of Distinguished, Progressing, High Performing, and High Progress. 

SES Principal Michelle Hall is proud of her staff and students.  “There were many factors that went into our success,” said Hall. “We have always had amazing staff and students who work very hard. I think the relationships our staff has with students and our students really becoming leaders in our school are two big keys to our success. We are excited about our achievement and will continue to build on it!”

Uniontown Elementary is also celebrating this year.  Uniontown met AMO this year, had an increase in overall score, moved up in percentile rank, and had increases in 2 out of 3 areas: Achievement and Gap.

Uniontown Elementary Principal Tamala Howard says the improved scores are just one indicator of the growth she has seen at UES. “It’s great when the scores reflect the effort I know has been invested by our students and staff,” said Howard. “They work so hard all year and deserve to be able to celebrate these scores. We are proud of our school and the families we serve!”

Union County High School, our flagship school, turned in another strong performance with a Proficient rating for the second year in a row and held steady in the school’s overall score and percentile rank. UCHS showed improvement in four of the five measured area: Growth, Gap, College/Career Readiness, Graduation Rate.

UCHS Principal Evan Jackson says that UCHS is glad to see continued progress. “Reaching proficiency last year was a huge step for our school and something we worked hard to maintain and improve on,” said Jackson. “We have a vision for becoming a Distinguished school, and achieving back-to-back proficiency gives us a solid foundation to build on as we reach toward our goal. We have a lot of positive momentum headed in the right direction, and we’re committed to keep working toward long-term success.  I commend our students and staff for showing continuous improvement.”

All five schools scored Proficient on the Program Review portion of Unbridled Learning. New to the accountability system last year, Program Review consists of K-3, Arts and Humanities, Practical Living/Career Studies, and Writing. With AMO established by the state, Sturgis Elementary and Uniontown Elementary surpassed their AMO mark with increases of 10.2 and 3.7 points respectively.

“The district data from the last two years tells us we are headed in the right direction,” said Superintendent Patricia Sheffer.  “Last year, we had two schools ranked Proficient for the first time ever.  This year, we have one Proficient and one Distinguished. We know how to be successful; we now have to apply those best practices to every school in a sustainable way.  Our goal is to see continuous improvement at every school and build a long-term culture of growth and achievement district-wide.” 

Union County Middle School and Morganfield Elementary School both were in the Needs Improvement category.  MES had bonus points in Social Studies.  They will be celebrating individual student strengths, revisiting opportunities for improvement, and implementing a detailed plan of action for next steps.

Superintendent Patricia Sheffer says the scores are one piece of the big picture.  “Test scores are one indicator of success,” said Sheffer.  “We have schools that made great gains this year and a couple of schools that didn’t. We know we have quality students and staff at all of our schools; we are looking closely at the data and moving quickly to correct any areas that may have gone off course.”

Sheffer added, “We saw continued growth at the high school in our College and Career Readiness Scores.  This is a testimony to what can happen when you have the community on board with your schools. Our industrial community has developed a Union County Industrial Education Alliance and has worked to improve and support our students by sharing their available resources. It’s evident that it takes the efforts of the whole community to maintain the quality of education that our students deserve, especially in these hard economic times. With significant staff reductions and budget cuts these last few years, we are so thankful for our involved community members that provide the support we need.”

“We know that it is important to have incredible student-teacher relationships, high expectations, relevant instruction, and a safe learning environment. Every day, we will continue to make good things happen for other people. We look forward to celebrating our growth and keeping our district SMOVING (Smiling + Moving)!”