Assessment and Accountability Task Force Wants to Hear from You

(FRANKFORT, Ky.) – The members of the Task Force on Assessment and Accountability have issued a call for input from teachers, administrators, parents, businesspeople, elected officials, education advocacy groups and others who are interested in the state’s public school testing and accountability system.

The task force is focusing on a number of areas, including:

• on-demand writing/writing portfolios
• arts & humanities and practical living/vocational studies
• minor changes to the assessment system, including national comparisons, alternate assessments and the Kentucky Core Content Tests
• formative/diagnostic assessments
• assessments of student learning
• standards (narrowing of curriculum)
• longitudinal testing models
• individual student focus
• college readiness
• analysis of Educational Planning and Assessment System (EPAS) technical
  programs
• balance of student/school accountability
• timeliness of results
• end-of-course exams

Written comments on those areas (or others) are requested. Those may be sent to Lisa Gross, director of the Division of Communications, 6th Floor, 500 Mero St., Frankfort KY 40601; e-mail lisa.gross@education.ky.gov; fax (502) 564-3049.

The task force is charged with reviewing the Commonwealth Accountability Testing System (CATS) and providing a blueprint for the system’s progress in the future to ensure that the system meets the best interests of public school students. Members of the group include policymakers and experts in the field.

Education Commissioner Jon E. Draud asked statewide organizations, partner groups and leaders of the Kentucky Senate and House of Representatives to name members to the task force. The group will analyze individual components of CATS and determine the effectiveness of those in meeting the needs of students.

SOURCE: KDE press release

CATS and KERA

This from C-J:

Ho, hum. Another year, another set of ambiguous results from CATS, the Commonwealth Accountability Testing System.

CATS is the battery of tests, given starting in the third grade, to gauge student performance in seven subject areas -- reading, math, science, social studies, writing, arts and humanities and practical living/vocation studies. Since schools are the units of accountability in Kentucky, they are judged on the progress they make (or lack of progress) toward reaching proficiency for all their students.

Recent changes necessitated by the lamentable federal No Child Left Behind law have clouded public understanding of the progress made since the state's own accountability system was put in place, with passage of the Kentucky Education Reform Act (KERA) of 1990. The short version of the truth is that there's been enormous progress, but not enough. Many schools have been meeting or even surpassing their goals, but not enough.

As we come ever nearer 2014, when all schools are supposed to score at least 100 on CATS tests, it becomes more and more obvious that we won't reach that goal. The question is, what do we do about that? Scrap KERA altogether? Abandon CATS in favor of a narrow, less demanding, nationally normed test?

A review of KERA is in order. Any such reform effort can be improved, based on 15 years of experience.

What is not advisable -- indeed, what would be tragic -- is replacing CATS with testing that effectively narrows the curriculum now being pushed in the classroom and de-emphasizes both (a) the building of critical thinking skills and (b) the development of writing skills.

The original opponents of KERA -- especially those whose unspoken and unadmitted agenda is the undermining of public education, in favor of private schools supported with taxpayer-financed vouchers -- believe their time has come. They will try to turn a sensible 15-year review into proof that they were right all along -- into evidence that they were right to oppose Kentucky's historic, pioneering effort at school uplift and rigorous accountability.

There's no honest way to torture the actual KERA experience into a story of failure. In truth, the reform set Kentucky on the path toward a deeper, broader educational experience for its children.

Now is not the time to move in the other direction.

2008 CATS Scores released

First, a little shout out

to my friends and colleagues

at Cassidy School,

recognized as Pacesetters,

and ranking 16th

at 111.6

You still make me proud.

This from KDE:



(FRANKFORT, Ky.) -- Results from the 2008 administration of the Kentucky Core Content Tests (KCCT) show improvement in most scores for all grade levels and subject areas, and fewer schools are in need of assistance as a result of their performance over the 2007-2008 testing cycle.


Scores from the April 2008 administration of the KCCT, the primary component of the Commonwealth Accountability Testing System (CATS), were released today. Nonacademic data, which is another component of school and district accountability indices, was released in May. ACT results for juniors, which contribute to high schools’ accountability indices, were released last week.


Every two years, schools are classified as Meets Goal, Progressing or In Assistance, depending whether they have met their unique goals for the biennium. The ultimate goal is for all schools to reach proficiency – 100 on a 140-point scale – by the year 2014.


More than 431,000 students in grades 3-12 participated in the 2008 assessments, which covered seven subject areas: reading, mathematics, science, social studies, arts & humanities, practical living/vocational studies and writing. Schools are held accountable for their students’ performance on the tests, for nonacademic factors (such as dropout, attendance and retention rates) and, for high schools, 11th-grade students’ performance on the ACT.


Schools must meet dropout rate and novice reduction requirements. The dropout rate requirements are that a school must have an average dropout rate of less than 5.3 percent over the biennium or an average rate that is at least one-half of one percent lower than its average rate of the previous biennium.


The novice reduction requirements are that a school must reduce its percentage of novices so that, by 2014, it has only five percent of its students in the novice category.



Schools are expected to have accountability indices of 100 (on a 140-point scale) by the year 2014. During this cycle, 91 schools have reached or exceeded 100 on their 2007-2008 combined indices...

Assessment and Accountability Task Force to Meet

(FRANKFORT, Ky.) –The first meeting of the Task Force on Assessment and Accountability will be held on Tuesday, August 5, in the State Board Room of the Capital Plaza Tower in Frankfort.

The meeting will begin at 1 p.m. and is scheduled to end at 4 p.m. The tentative agenda includes discussion of the group’s work, procedures and future meeting dates.

The meeting will be webcast, and information about accessing that will be posted on the Department of Education’s homepage at http://www.education.ky.gov.

The task force will review the Commonwealth Accountability Testing System (CATS) and provide a blueprint for the system’s progress in the future to ensure that the system meets the best interests of public school students. Members of the group include policymakers and experts in the field.

Education Commissioner Jon E. Draud asked statewide organizations, partner groups and leaders of the Kentucky Senate and House of Representatives to name members to the task force.

The task force will seek input from teachers, administrators, parents, businesspeople, elected officials, education advocacy groups and others. The group will analyze individual components of CATS and determine the effectiveness of those in meeting the needs of students.

SOURDE: KDE press release