Education

The Shelby County Area Technology Center soon will start helping students with much more than technical skills.

Area Supervisor Mary Stratton applied for and received a grant f that will put a College Coach in the school by the start of November. The coach will help students from the ATC, SCHS and Collins.

The Shelby County school district saw a considerable increase in ACT scores this year, but students continue to perform below benchmarks for college success.

Kentucky requires every student to take the ACT in the fall of his or her junior year, and Shelby County saw an increase of .7 to a composite score of 18.7 in 2010.

Assistant Superintendent for Student Achievement Kerry Fannin said the district was impressed by the growth.

"An increase of point two to point three is considered significant growth," he said.

Shelby County Public Schools' enrollment was down slightly from projections, according to a report at Thursday’s meeting.

The district had projected 6,571 students, but on Aug. 24 had 6,551 students enrolled throughout its 11 schools.

Dave Weedman, the district's director of student support services, told the board that the district's "warm body" count, taken on the fifth day of school, puts them right on track.

The Shelby County Board of Education got to walk through the district's first year of MAP data during Thursday's meeting and to learn how administration and teachers can use the data to track learning by school, grade, class and individual student.

Kerry Fannin, the assistant superintendent for student achievement, and Lisa Smith, the director of student programs and services, led two groups that showed how the district is able to breakdown the data.