Contact: Tammy Lane • First Posted: Tuesday, May 26, 2009

For the 18^th straight year, Fayette County Public Schools has received the “What Parents Want” award, given to districts that make noteworthy efforts to meet families’ needs. 

SchoolMatch, an educational research and database service firm that specializes in rating schools, found that parents are looking for:

• Solid academics, competitive test scores and appropriate levels of rigor;
• Accreditation;
• National recognition for excellence;
• Competitive teacher salaries;
• Above-average instructional expenditures;
• Above-average expenditures for library/media services;
• Small class sizes.

Nationwide, SchoolMatch found 16 percent of public school districts met these criteria (2,436 of the nation’s 15,571 districts). Fayette County Public Schools, which has won this award every year since its inception, was among 18 of 174 Kentucky districts to qualify. 

“Fayette County is certainly deserving of this honor,” Kentucky’s interim commissioner of education, Elaine Farris, wrote to Superintendent Stu Silberman. “Your district’s performance on state assessments, low dropout rates and recognition on the state, regional and national level make it a natural choice.”  

SchoolMatch is a national consulting and research company that collects and manages information about public and private K-12 school systems and schools. It compiles information from county assessors, county auditors, state taxing authorities, state departments of education and others.