February 2018 Edition of Envision Equity

ENVISION EQUITY FEBRUARY 2018
address disparities will be presented. Further, current JCPS interventions and programs that members of
the community, and members of the JCPS community, may not be aware of will be explained.
In featuring promising practices that are working in other cities, we present the community with
opportunities to support students in ways that could bolster their school performance. The solutions are
not obvious, and will necessarily be complex, but in this Scorecard, some starting points are presented in
accounts of strategies that seem to work in other communities; surely we can replicate some of the
successes in Louisville.
Below is a brief overview of the five sections of the Scorecard, including why we should be concerned
about these areas. Following the table is more detail on each of the five Scorecard areas.
Scorecard Section Data Points Why we should care
Literacy
We see that Black students have the lowest
reading proficiency average of all ethnic groups.
The proficiency rate for Black JCPS elementary
students is just 29%.
In addition to hindering future school achievement and
success later in life for individual students, we are
jeopardizing our city’s future work force. This is a moral
problem as well as an economic challenge.
Discipline
College and Career
Readiness
Culture and Climate
Opportunities and Access
Black males accounted for about 43% of all
suspensions in 2016-17, even though they are
fewer than 19% of all JCPS students.
When students are suspended they become less
engaged in school, and school performance is
negatively impacted. Overly punitive environments
harm school climate, and reduce performance of the
entire school.
In 2017, only 38.1% of Black graduates and 53% Again, we all will suffer—not only individual students—
of Latino students were CCR. Sixty-nine percent of when we are graduating so many seniors who are
White students were CCR.
considered ready for neither college nor a career. We
are only perpetuating the cycle of poverty and
unemployment among our communities of color if we
don’t support our students in their transition to
adulthood.
For all measures, Black students are least likely to
report feeling positively about their school
environments. Interestingly, Latino students report
more positive feelings than White students.
School culture and climate is a priority for our acting
superintendent. A positive school culture and climate
leads to an environment conducive to both teaching
and learning. When culture and climate are poor,
students can disengage and exhibit negative
behaviors, and teachers are more likely to leave.
Many students of color do not have any teachers of When students have a teacher who shares the same
color. Schools with higher poverty levels have ethnicity, they are more likely to perform better
teachers who are less-experienced. G&T and AP academically. Because so many of our teachers are
both have underrepresentation of Black and Latino White, students of other ethnicities are at a
students, illustrating disparities in opportunities and
access.
disadvantage. Limiting access to enriching academic
opportunities (e.g., Gifted programming and Advanced
Placement) restricts ability to realize full academic
potential, which also in turn cripples our future
workforce.
Literacy
Scorecard data indicate Black JCPS students have lower levels of reading proficiency than any other racial
group. 2017 KDE data show that only 29% of Black JCPS elementary students were proficient or
distinguished in reading. The number for White students was nearly 60%. (For Latinos and Asian students,
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