Schools across Ky see big jumps

Experts debate effect of changes

The numerous changes to the Commonwealth Accountability Testing System this year weren't supposed to have much of an effect on test scores for the state's 1,183 public schools.

But according to a Herald-Leader analysis, scores that were adjusted to accommodate the changes showed big jumps at nearly every level.

Across the state, the number of schools scoring between 90 and 99 between 2006 and 2007 went up 35 percent. The number of schools that surpassed 100 rose nearly 50 percent. And the number of schools that scored less than 60 decreased 63 percent.

The big jumps are part of a confusing maelstrom for educators and parents, as state officials try to bring the statewide test more in line with federal requirements. Scores were supposed to be released Sept. 26, but the changes -- in the test and in how it's graded -- resulted in a delay...

Quotes:

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Skip Kifer, director of the Advance Study on Assessment at Georgetown College, quoted a famous maxim in testing circles: "If you want to measure change, don't change the measure," he said. "When you change so many things over the years, it's hard to know what you're comparing."

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"It meets the technical expectations," said Susan Weston, former director of the Kentucky Association of School Councils and a testing analyst. "But you need public understanding and respect, and the public is struggling. I certainly hear the sounds of axles that really need some oil." ..."I can't tell yet whether we've got an equally difficult test and we're just grading it easier, or whether the test itself is easier," Weston said.

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"You worry that it's an easier test," said Kati Haycock, president of Education Trust in Washington, D.C. "If you've got way more at the top, and way fewer at the bottom, either it's an easier test or a lower cut score."

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Keith Travis, a member of the state board of education, said he's not concerned about the boost being a result of an easier test or altered scoring system. "Any time you change testing modes, there's always going to be a concern that you've diminished the rigor of the test to enhance the scores," Travis said. "That's a valid question and one that people ought to be asking."

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"It's a little early to be panicking," said Sen. Jack Westwood, R-Crescent Spring, who said he received phone calls about the boost in scores. "I don't want to suggest at this stage that there is something amiss ... . On the surface, it seems a little disturbing to me. We need to make sure that the spike in the scores are in fact accurate examples of where our kids are."

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Starr Lewis, a former associate commissioner with the Kentucky Department of Education and now a professor at University of Louisville, said she would advise parents to look at other data, such as National Assessment of Education Progress, or NAEP, scores, to see whether Kentucky is improving overall. "This is real progress, and it's not a matter of smoke and mirrors and changing performance standards on a state test," she said.

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Bob Sexton of the Prichard Committee said "It's complicated every place because the nature of testing is that you have to change things as you go along because ... you have to respond to legislatures and the federal government," he said. "School systems have accepted the notion that accountability can drive change, so it's the state's obligation to help school systems understand the data. Right now they can't tell what it tells them."

This from the Herald-Leader.