Re-examining CATS

This from the News-Enterprise:

State task force will review standardized testing system

Possible changes to Kentucky’s standardized testing system hasn’t met any resistance from local school officials.

Jon Draud, Kentucky Department of Education commissioner, is forming a task force to review the Commonwealth Accountability Testing System and assess whether any changes need to be made.

The task force will be formed after the current legislative session ends. It will be made up of legislators, educators and other education experts from groups such as the Southern Regional Education Board, according to a news release from KDE.

It hasn’t been decided who will be on the task force, although the department received a lot of interest from people willing to serve, especially from teachers, Communications Director Lisa Gross said.

“They came forward and offered to be a part of it,” Gross said.

Employees of Hardin County Schools and Elizabethtown Independent Schools are willing to be part of the task force, district administrators said.

“We’d certainly like to participate in some capacity,” Elizabethtown Superintendent John Millay said.

No specific areas of CATS have been named as aspects that might be changed. CATS uses test scores in seven subjects, dropout, graduation and attendance rates, portfolios, the ACT, PLAN and EXPLORE tests, along with alternate tests for disabled students, to assess schools and districts.

Draud said in the news release there are “legitimate concerns” for some parts of CATS. Gross didn’t specify which parts.

“I don’t think there’s anything that’s off-limits,” she said of what might be reviewed by the task force.

Robert King, assistant superintendent for curriculum and instruction at Hardin County Schools, said he would like to see the test show more of how students have improved, instead of whether they had met a specified goal. A student could make great improvement, but if it’s not enough to meet that goal, it doesn’t count for anything on the test, he said.

CATS’ scores feed into No Child Left Behind, a national initiative which requires all students to be proficient in reading and math by 2014. It provides goals for every year, leading up to 2014.

Millay said if serious changes are being considered for CATS, it’s good that Draud decided to form a task force.

The Elizabethtown superintendent said it’s a good time to review the assessments.

“2014 is right around the corner,” he said.