Student Achievement is More than a Test Score!

This spring our students will complete the first ever administration of the K-PREP test. So much about this will be new for students, and it will take us all awhile to understand the new system and what it means.   What is not new is that students will take tests in reading, math, science, social studies, and writing.   But, many other parts are new.   This is the first year of our new math and language arts curriculum -- the KY Core Academic Standards.   These standards were developed to be national standards for what our students should know and be able to do by the end of each grade. They are much more rigorous and demanding than the previous curricula but important because the goal is to get our students college and career ready by the time they graduate from high school.   Our teachers and students have worked hard this year to master these standards.

 

Another new development is that the state tests were developed by a new company, so they will look different from what students have seen in the past.   There will be multiple choice questions, short answer questions, and extended response questions.   This has several implications.   One is that the test will be different for the students from previous years' state tests.   Further, the test developer has developed a different way to determine proficiency -- the cut-off scores for a student to be considered proficient instead of apprentice will be much higher.   A possible result is that students who have scored proficient and distinguished in years past will find it much more difficult to attain those same scores this year.

 

An additional new piece is how school accountability will be determined when test scores come out next fall.   For the past few years in Kentucky, schools were ranked and judged by math and reading scores alone.   Further, the federal No Child Left Behind law held schools accountable for improving math and reading scores for sub-populations, such as African American students, free and reduced lunch students, and special education students.   The Kentucky Department of Education applied for and was granted a waiver from NCLB requirements so that KY schools are held accountable for one system -- the new Unbridled Learning system established by Senate Bill 1.

School scores will be determined by student performance on all content tests and the ACT Explore as well as by performance on tests by sub-populations and the amount of expected growth in math and reading achieved by all students.   It is a more complicated way to measure a school's performance because more information is included in the final score.   Also, schools across the state will be ranked and assigned a percentile score.   With a percentile, regardless of the original score, someone has to be at the bottom, regardless of how much they may have improved.   A percentile is not a measure of growth or even of achievement -- it is strictly a measure of rank.

 

In summary, as we prepare for state testing the week of May 14, we are encouraged by the growth our students have shown this year on MAP and district proficiency assessments as well as in class. But we want students and parents to know that a lot has changed this year, and we are unsure what the results will tell us when they come back in the fall.   It is a very real possibility that fewer students will score proficient than in years past.   Despite that discouraging fact, we are very encouraged by the ever-increasing effort and gains our students are making; they continue to impress us and give us hope, no matter what the scores might show in the fall.