CATS Reaction Across the State

Senate Bill 1 could be signed into law today as across the state folks are coming to grips with what all this means.

"I believe there are several positive elements that could represent an important step forward in our ongoing efforts to reform primary and secondary education. Most significantly, this legislation will create a new system for statewide accountability and assessment that will, for the first time, measure individual student progress over an extended period of time. That is critically important,” Beshear said in a statement.

Politically, some wonder anew if House Speaker Greg Stumbo's rookies should be faulted for the surprise abandonment of accountability over the next three years. Was this a phantom provision, dropped into the free conference report at the last minute? If so, how, and by whom? Or was it a provision that all conferees agreed to with eyes wide open?

"It's an outstanding bill that will make great improvements and will honor the input that we've received from our educators," Rep. Harry Moberly, D-Richmond [told the Herald-Leader].

Republican Sen. Dan Kelly of Springfield, a longtime proponent of changing Kentucky's assessment tools, said the bill would strengthen Kentucky's education system, not weaken it. "This is not the death of reform," Kelly said.

By all accounts, there was a great deal of input from teachers who had had enough....of something. Some clearly reacted to the amount of time they were being "asked" to commit to assessment at the expense of instruction. After all, you don't fatten a calf by weighing it. Some claimed that district personnel and principals had pushed teachers to the edge of some ethical cliff, and they pushed back.

Kelly's assurance that this does not mark the death of education reform in Kentucky is a welcome acknowledgement for those of us who believe a strong system of public schools is essential to our ability to compete as a state. But not all conservatives are buying it. Over at vere loqui, Martin Cothran declared that with the removal of the testing system KERA is officially dead and asked,

Will the last person out of Kentucky's Education Reform Headquarters please turn off the lights?

At KentuckyProgress, David Adams noted "the end of a disastrous episode in education 'reform'" and "got a kick out of "the Courier Journal referring to Bluegrass Institute as merely a "right-wing think-tank" (when everybody knows they are so much more). He thanked the Herald Leader for the "big laugh and free mention" when they referred to "conservative enemies" which Adams correctly assumed meant BIPPS, even though H-L didn't say.

None of the conservative groups came right out and said that Kelly was wrong. But they apparently believe he was.

The Herald-Leader lamented that as "lawmakers were dismantling Kentucky's school-accountability system last week, researchers were holding it up as a national model" citing Kentucky as one of five states that stand out for increasing high-school graduation rates while reducing schools that are "dropout factories." "It's impossible to not credit the Kentucky Education Reform Act for improvements in graduation rates," the H-L wrote.

Secretary of State Trey Grayson issued a statement voicing his dismay over the reduction of emphasis on social studies.

“By suspending the state accountability index and following the federal accountability requirements, we run the risk of marginalizing civics education,” he said in the statement. “With no accountability system in place for social studies, schools will naturally place a greater focus on those subjects that are part of accountability standards of No Child Left Behind.”

It now falls to the Kentucky Board of Education to guide KDE's response to Senate Bill 1. They start chatting on April 1st.

In the interim, some school districts, like Fayette County, are going to "make public its own 'academic index' based on this spring's testing, whether the state publishes a performance index or not." State education department spokeswoman Lisa Gross told the Herald-Leader the interim provisions in SB 1 might lead to widespread confusion until the new assessment system starts. Wayne Young, executive director of the Kentucky Association of School Administrators told H-L, "Some districts are going to go ahead and finish their portfolios. But you could get a bit of everything. There's no pattern that I would describe."

This morning outgoing President of the Council for Better Education Roger Marcum told state education leaders in an email message that Kentucky "chose the path of least resistance and the high risk of lower expectations for the immediate future."

His opinion echoed that of Prichard Committee head Bob Sexton who wrote an open letter posted on the Prichard blog,

It was decided that, for the next three years starting this spring, Kentucky schools should have no accountability except for student test scores on math and reading as required by No Child Left Behind. This means that the results of testing for writing (portfolios included) science, history, geography, economics, civics (i.e., social studies) and the arts won't be counted. The Kentucky Department of Education is also prohibited from publishing an overall school improvement score (accountability index) so schools won't know whether they are better or worse than the previous year - and neither will parents or other taxpayers.

Sexton quoted KEA President Sharron Oxendine as saying, "we should 'just give everybody a breather' from most accountability until we have a new system in three years."

The problems with that, according to Sexton include:

1. For the next three years schools won't have a way of telling parents and other taxpayers how they're progressing with student learning except in math and reading required by NCLB.
2. A likely result will be to de-emphasize writing, science, social studies (history, economics, geography, civics) and the arts.
3. Strong accountability ... and making the case for adequate or superior school funding are joined at the hip.

This last point has some serious legal implications for schools. Kentucky's constitution requires the General Assembly to provide an efficient system of common schools throughout the commonwealth. The Supreme Court has ruled that that means schools must be adequately funded to reach their goals. The absence of state accountability makes it very difficult, if not impossible, for a court to determine whether the General Assembly has fulfilled its obligation. How is a court to determine whether the system is sufficiently funded to reach its goals if the state has no justiciable standards by which the court might measure the efficiency of the system?

Stumbo Sends Rookies to Conference on CATS

This from Stephanie Seitzer at C-J:

Freshmen legislators thrown into the belly of the beast

House Speaker Greg Stumbo appointed four freshmen legislators to the conference committee on Senate Bill 1, the measure to reform the CATS test.

Those freshmen will be up against Senate President David Williams, R-Burkesville, Majority Floor Leader Dan Kelly, R-Springfield, and Minority Floor Leader Ed Worley, D-Richmond.

The freshmen are Reps. Kelly Flood, D-Lexington, Linda Belcher, D-Shepherdsville, Kent Stevens, D-Lawrenceburg, and John "Bam" Carney, D-Lawrenceburg.

Of course, longtime legislative heavyweight Rep. Harry Moberly, D-Richmond, and House Education Chairman Rep. Carl Rollins, D-Midway, will be accompanying the freshmen...

CJ Smacks ...Everyone over Assessment Reform

This from C-J:

...Here are some facts:

It does not take a good teacher excessive time to prepare for CATS tests, as critics like to claim.

It would be wrong to drastically narrow the testing, since that inevitably would narrow the teaching that precedes it.

It would be astonishingly stupid to remove writing portfolios from the accountability system, because that certainly would end serious classroom work on this profoundly important capstone skill, which is essential not just for admission to college these days but also to success in the information age workforce.

It would be equally absurd to remove open-response test questions, since they get at the very deep learning and critical thinking that education reform was supposed to foster.

It's deceitful to condemn the legitimate coaching of student writers as "suspect" and to mistake the product of student rewrites as "inauthentic."

It would be educational malfesance to replace CATS with a jury-rigged combination of some off-the-shelf nationally normed test and a few extra questions that make passing efforts to address Kentucky curriculum -- especially since those nationally normed tests are designed to categorize a substantial percentage of those who take them as failures.

Throwing open the entire state curriculum to a revision of standards would, in the current environment, certainly produce a dumbing down of what Kentucky expects its kids to learn...

... there are deep, important differences separating what educators, politicians and competing advocates believe should be done.

To run a political bulldozer over CATS in the few days remaining to this General Assembly session would be a travesty.

Incredibly, almost nobody is standing up to object. All the interested parties cower at the roadside, frightened of retribution from Mr. Williams, Mr. Kelly and the regressive caucus that keeps them in control of events at the Capitol.

Conservative enemies of public education sit in the cramped turrets of their think tanks and cheer.

Perhaps the most pathetic claim is Mr. Moberly's -- that his House bill will successfully set and enforce "world-class benchmarks" and "preserve the principles of reform," serving not only to place Kentucky students' achievement in a national context but also to supply prescriptive information for individual students and to test the acquisition of state-established curriculum. ...No testing system can claim to do all three...

Perhaps the greatest disappointment is a lack of leadership from Gov. Steve Beshear, who has contented himself with a muted call for a thorough review ... whining, "The Republicans won't let me do anything." ...

Lawmakers may be close on testing

This from Ronnie Ellis in the Glasgow Daily Times:

Work on accountability compromise

The state’s public schools accountability testing system, CATS, may have run out of lives as key lawmakers appear close to a compromise on its replacement.

The Republican controlled Senate has passed Senate Bill 1, which would replace the time consuming, controversial testing system with a simpler, less expensive multiple choice test. But they’ve done that in past sessions only to see it go nowhere in the Democratic controlled House. But the landscape has changed in the House with the selection of Greg Stumbo, D-Prestonsburg, as Speaker, and he’s been more willing to discuss changes to the testing system.

Senate Majority Floor Leader Dan Kelly, R-Springfield, said there’s “been a sea change in attitudes about the need to make adjustments in the test.”

Rep. Harry Moberly, D-Richmond, concedes it’s time to adjust the test, but he doesn’t want to rely solely on a multiple choice test – especially what is known as a norm-referenced test. Such tests compare student performance to that of students from across the country – as opposed to criterion or standards based tests, which measure how much a student knows against established standards of knowledge.

Sharron Oxendine, president of the Kentucky Education Association, said many teachers prefer a multiple choice, “norm-reference” test, but KEA wants to retain a standards based component to any new test.

She said norm reference tests are fine for comparison purposes but they don’t help with assessment because they don’t measure what students specifically know. And such tests, she pointed out, are designed so that half of all students score at the 50th percentile or below. So schools can never place most of their students at the proficiency level on such tests...

Both the right and the left have taken shots at former Commissioner Jon Draud for either too much or not enough of something or other. OK, there was the car thing. But his Task Force on Assessment that was said, by some, to have produced no good, seems to have produced some good. No matter how one views the testing situation, perhaps we should ask ourselves; Until recently, when is the last time we heard cooperation like this out of Frankfort?

Kelly said universities are “reaching out and starting a dialogue with school districts,” helping them prepare their students for college level work.

Nearly everyone said discussions between Senate leaders, including Kelly and Sen. Ken Winters, R-Murray, who sponsored SB 1, and House members over their differences are going well.

Rep. Carl Rollins, D-Midway, chairs the House Education Committee. He said Thursday, “We’re real close to an agreement. I’m very optimistic.”

Included in discussions about how to re-craft the state’s testing system have been school board members, superintendents and Oxendine and KEA. Rollins said for the most part, all the parties “are pretty much on the same page.”

Draud's CATS Task Force Produces Attractive Math Bill

Math Reform gaining quick support,

Farris wants time to implement

Video from Mark Hebert at WHAS.

This from H-L:

FRANKFORT — The state Senate Education Committee approved a joint resolution Thursday that would revamp the way math is taught in Kentucky schools.

Education experts and sponsors said the measure would make Kentucky math standards "higher, clearer and fewer." The proposed curriculum standards would boost achievement, better prepare students for mathematics in college, and mean fewer youngsters would need remedial help, they said...

...Kelly, who outlined the proposed resolution, said it grew out of a state task force that studied Kentucky's Commonwealth Accountability Testing System, or CATS.

Alice Gabbard, diagnostic intervention director for the Kentucky Center for Mathematics, said Kentucky's standards now require teachers to cover many "big ideas" in math as rapidly as possible. As a result, many students don't get the depth of understanding they need, she contended.

Gabbard noted that the tiny nation of Singapore has a curriculum that covers only about 52 percent of the material on the International Math and Science test. Yet Singapore has some of the world's highest math scores.

"That is maybe a good lesson that we don't have to teach children a whole lot of content every year in order for them to become proficient and have high achievement," Gabbard said. "If we have (Kentucky) teachers who are just covering these topics quickly in order to cover other topics, then we have students who are not well prepared."

Sen. Tim Shaughnessy, D-Louisville, said he liked the proposal, but questioned whether new standards could be ready by August.

Interim Education Commissioner Elaine Farris said preparing teachers to use new math standards would take time.

"We agree with the concept and we already have begun some work on narrowing the standards. But it's not as easy as some people might think," she said.

Hat tip to Kentucky Votes.

From SJR 19:

Be it resolved by the General Assembly of the Commonwealth of Kentucky:

Section 1. The Kentucky Department of Education is directed to revise core content standards in mathematics for grades prekindergarten through grade 12 and concurrently develop objectives for each standard with teaching tools to accomplish each objective for use by the classroom teacher. The revised content standards and related materials shall be concise and shall be based on the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics "Curriculum Focal Points for Prekindergarten through Grade 8 Mathematics" and "Principles and Standards for School Mathematics." These revisions shall be completed no later than August 1, 2009, and shall consider the 2008 findings of the National Mathematics Advisory Panel.

Section 2. The Kentucky Department of Education is directed to revise Kentucky's assessment program in mathematics to ensure that the revised concise content standards are measured and mathematics assessments produce scores that are valid and reliable for individual students. Assessments in mathematics for school year 2009-2010 shall measure the revised content standards.

Kelly and Winters Proffer Math Reform

Senators Dan Kelly and Ken Winters filed SJR 19 (BR 804), the bill to which Sen David Williams referred this week.

The Joint resolution calls for the following:

Direct the Kentucky Department of Education to use the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics report recommendations to revise mathematics core content standards and materials in grades prekindergarten through grade 12 by August 2009, and revise math assessments accordingly by the 2009-2010 school year.

I suspect the adoption of NCTM standards would be well received. But somebody will have to tell me what "revise math assessments accordingly" means.

If this is leverage to support a new version of Senate Bill 1, it may be enough to kill an otherwise good idea. But if that phrase is open to interpretation by KDE, perhaps not.

Hat tip to David Adams at Kentucky Progress.

A Softball for Dan Kelly

I tossed Senator Dan Kelly "a softball" last night.

I asked him if he thought the CATS Task Force was a waste of time.

I thought he'd say, "Yes."

But he didn't.

I did not record a direct quote, but Kelly said he was satisfied with the group, they did some good, and that he benefited from the exchange.

Of course, all the while, Kelly has been recrafting the former Senate Bill 1 for another run during the 2009 session.

It's increasingly hard to ignore the eroding popularity of the CATS assessment among educators. Put to a public vote, I doubt it would pass either. But this is not an issue the public will vote on. The new Senate Bill 1 (or whatever number it carries) will surely sail through the Senate.

Will it take another dirt nap in Moberley's committee in the House?

Whether the CATS Task Force was successful or not, I'll leave to others. My thought is that the task force wasn't where the real action was going to take place on this issue in any case.

But I'd like to thank both of these warriors.

Like Harry Moberley before him , Kelly was gracious enough to host my doctoral students for a three-hour discussion on Kentucky politics, testing, the budget, and more.

To my surprise, Kelly still wanted to talk about the 2005 Dana Suem Stevenson case and accepted my challenge to debate. (I'm not an attorney, but had studied the case and wrote a piece for H-L in 2005.) He argued the case made by Paul Salamanca and James Keller in the Kentucky Law Review. I argued the Supreme Court's position.

Thanks to both legislators for unselfishly giving their time to our students - at the end of a long day and before a long drive home.

CATS Task Force Divided Over Writing Portfolios

If a vote had been taken today it is unclear whether Commissioner Draud's Assessment and Accountability panel would keep writing portfolios in the CATS assessment.

What was clear is that at least ten members are deeply divided on either side of the issue.

Acknowledging the divisiveness of the issue, the Commish, who attended the first bit of the meeting by phone due to a follow up doctor's appointment with his neurologist in Cincinnati, encouraged the Task Force to move on to consideration of Arts & Humanities and other issues. Citing a mid-November deadline so that the report could go to the state board for approval and be prepared in advance of the 30-day legislative session in January, Draud said,

"...if we can't reach a consensus on this issue, then I'd like to see us move on
and table the issue."

But the Task Force went a different way, some even doubting aloud whether the November deadline was necessary, and spent the entire meeting discussing writing portfolios and a proposal to substitute a "program review" without resolution.

The panel heard a list of 13 recommendations from writing consultant, Dr. Charles Whitaker, who recommended that Kentucky,

Retain a balanced writing assessment that includes Multiple-choice Items for Revising and Editing On-demand Writing Tests and Writing Assessment Portfolios.

Whitaker argued that these methods provide useful information and about students' writing and the effectiveness of schools' writing programs.

Sen Dan Kelly (R) Springfield outlined his concerns.

"...We've been at it for 18 years...We're not seeing that the program, as devised, is getting the results we want and we're hearing that nobody else in the country is doing it....and the problem I think is the worst problem, is...so many of the teachers are saying, 'We can't use the writing portfolio like we should because we've got these assessment restrictions, in order to try to make it a more valid assessment'."

Under questioning from Rep Harry Moberley (D) Richmond, Whitaker, said,

"I have to say to you, this bluntly, that if you take the writing portfolio from assessment, I think there will be a dramatic reduction of instruction in writing in the state."

Moberley argued that the problem wasn't a bad idea that was tried and failed, but rather, a good idea that was never supported enough to make it as effective as it might have been.

"We've never had the professional development that has really taught [teachers how to embed writing instruction into the portfolio to make class time efficient]; we've never had the administrative leadership or professional development for administrators to make that happen."

Wayne Roberts, representing the state assessment coordinators, suggested substituting a "working portfolio" with a "program review" for the existing assessment portfolio. The balance of the meeting was largely concerned with his proposal.

Whitaker opined about the program review, "...A lot would depend on the details of who's doing the reviewing, what are they reviewing ...and what are the criteria..on that program review.

And that can be slop, or it can be a high quality review.

I'd be very careful to ensure that we had a pretty clear idea of who's going to do it, what kind of training they've had. Do they know about writing? Have they served as scorers in writing portfolio work? Do they know the criteria of different types and forms of writing for different purposes - academic, analytic, technical? ...How skilled will they have to be to do a good program review?

...We'd better have conviction that whatever we do with a program review is going to result in good instruction and good curriculum for our kids...

I can see the same problems appearing in a program review...

Thank you, Sir. May I have Another.

Lovin' the bad news...'cause it's not worse.

This from PolWatchers:

'Good news and bad news' budget agreed upon

After an all-nighter, lawmakers negotiating the state’s budget emerged from behind closed doors at about 7 a.m. with a plan that cuts university funding by 3 percent and other government programs by an as-yet unknown amount.

State workers and teachers are slated for 1 percent pay raises in each of the next two years. "There's some good news and bad news," said House Speaker Jody Richards, D-Bowling Green. "Not as good in human services and education as we'd like but it's an improvement over the (governor's proposed) budget that we got."

This latest version of the $19 billion two-year spending plan, which key House and Senate members finally finished cobbling together after 21 straight hours of work, adds at least $150 million more each year beyond what Gov. Steve Beshear first outlined in January...

..EDUCATION: Public universities would have to trim another 3 percent beyond the 3 percent Beshear asked them to cut back already this year.

The Bucks for Brains program, which helps attract prominent professors to Kentucky public colleges, would receive the $60 million Beshear requested, Kelly said.

The budget also includes more money for student financial aid than was proposed by Beshear.

The spending plan, Kelly and Richards said, also includes money local school districts can use for textbooks and safe schools programs, which has been urged by Rep. Harry Moberly, D-Richmond...

..."Given the revenue constraints they had, I think it's a remarkable showing of how much both chambers value us," said Doug Whitlock, president of Eastern Kentucky University. "We recognize the realities of the situation." ...

...UNIVERSITIES REACT: Several university presidents expressed gratitude that their budgets weren't cut further.

"Given the revenue constraints they had, I think it's a remarkable showing of how much both chambers value us," said Doug Whitlock, president of Eastern Kentucky University. "We recognize the realities of the situation."

..."I'm quite ecstatic," said Brad Cowgill, interim president of the council. " It's like a coming from behind win for the home team. Higher education has staying power with this legislature, and we're grateful for that." ...

Dyche calls for SB 1 debate in the House

Louisville columnist John David Dyche would have us believe that the motives of Senate Bill 1's sponsors are as pure as the driven snow, and everyone should play nicely. ...otherwise he presents a nicely balanced view of the bill. Maybe Dyche is right. Personally, I think at least one of the key players has worked hard to earn his reputation. But, Dyche correctly outlines the way things ought to be.

Dyche wants to sweet talk Democrats into a lovely floor debate in the House. Kentucky is nowhere near ready to resolve this issue and it's hard to see how SB 1 could be amended without turning it 180 degrees. But, OK ... let's talk about it. It should never move out of committee, however. Better is Commissioner Jon Draud's effort to put a task force together to draft a new plan over time.

If Kentucky's leaders were truly "passionate about the agreed goal of all students achieving at high-levels" we wouldn't be having this conversation. Instead, these "well-intentioned men" would have already supported an adequately funded system of schools throughout the state, producing better student achievement and fewer students needing remediation as college freshmen.

This from John David Dyche in today's Courier-Journal:

SB 1 sparks productive debate

... [Senate Bill 1's] sponsor, Senate President David Williams, R-Burkesville, and two other Senate proponents, Dan Kelly, R-Springfield, and Ken Winters, R-Murray, do not deserve the scorn some ideological adversaries reflexively heaped upon them. Whatever one's opinion of SB 1, these smart and well-intentioned men performed an important public service by challenging old assumptions and forcing high-profile discussion of testing alternatives.

SB 1's supporters sometimes swerved off the legislative high road in ways that distracted from the substantive issues. Still, seeking better student-specific data, more instructional days and savings makes sense.

But the bill's backers failed to make a compelling, broad-based case for the radical change they advocate. There were credible witnesses, like the Kentucky Chamber of Commerce's Dave Adkisson, but insufficient evidence of either urgent need or widespread sentiment among administrators, parents or teachers to immediately abolish CATS altogether.

Among SB 1s opponents, Sens. Gerald Neal and Tim Shaughnessy, both Louisville Democrats, shone in committee, as did Senate Minority Leader Ed Worley, D-Richmond, on the Senate floor. They are open to reform, but they reasonably argued the benefits of CATS.

Other SB 1 foes featured Education Secretary Helen Mountjoy, who is dedicated, knowledgeable and deserving of great respect, if not deference. So are Robert Sexton and the Prichard Committee for Academic Excellence, which Williams was wrong to impugn in his Friday floor speech.

Roger Marcum, the Marion County superintendent and president of the Kentucky Association of School Administrators, and Brent McKim, representing Jefferson County teachers, spoke with the prudence that real-world experience produces.

Rep. Harry Moberly Jr., D-Richmond, who gave a feisty tour de force in defending CATS on the "Kentucky Tonight" show, says SB 1 may rest in his committee "for years." But the House should hold hearings and vote. Like the stream-saver bill Moberly is helping to liberate, testing reform is too important for any one chairman to kill.

Task forces are frequently farcical or futile, but since SB 1 is probably dead this session, Education Commissioner Jon Draud is correct to convene one on assessment. In the meantime, maybe legislators should let some individual districts, like flourishing Fort Thomas Independent, opt out of CATS as a pilot program.

After watching this robust debate, albeit from a distance, this dad wants both sorts of assessment for his children. Neither CATS nor SB 1 covers all bases, but from a parental perspective, each test type has its virtues. A blended or hybrid assessment strategy seems desirable and should be possible. But time constraints may dictate that there must ultimately be an either-or choice.

Public school families know well that budget woes and partisan politics infuse this issue. They wish more mutual respect would, too. For despite all Kentucky's past policy struggles and present pedagogical disputes, we are grateful so many talented people are passionate about the agreed goal of all students achieving at high-levels.

The National View on Kentucky and Senate Bill 1

Linda Jacobson of Education Week (subscription) did a nice job of pulling together a lot of information on Kentucky's consideration of Senate Bill 1.

The testing program tied to one of the nation’s most closely watched education accountability systems is under siege in Kentucky from GOP lawmakers pushing a bill to replace it with nationally standardized tests. The Commonwealth Accountability Testing System, or CATS—stemming from the landmark Kentucky Education Reform Act of 1990—covers seven academic areas and includes writing exercises called portfolios. But members of the Republican-controlled state Senate, led by Majority Leader Dan Kelly, say eliminating most of the testing program, which is tied to a high-stakes accountability system, could save the state as much as $10 million a year and give teachers far more time to focus on the curriculum instead of preparing for and administering the CATS...

Jacobson touches on

• Conflicting claims over cost savings - KDE says about "$6 million, out of an annual budget of $11.3 million for the tests now given."
• Since NCLB requires "states to administer tests that are aligned with state curriculum standards" replacing CATS with norm-referenced tests might make it difficult for the state to fully comply. Many states use commercially developed tests and then add items based on state standards.
• Criterion-referenced tests, such as those now used in Kentucky, measure how proficient students are on a set of state standards. Norm-referenced tests, such as CTBS, measure where a child stands in comparison with a sample of peers, with scores reported on a curve that always includes some children at the top and some at the bottom.
• KERA changed curriculum and assessment and served as a model for other states as they joined the move to KIRIS and standards-based approaches to improving schools.
• Complaints made about the KIRIS program—that it didn’t offer individual scores, that it took too long to provide results, and that it didn’t allow for comparisons with other states—are being made about CATS.
• Some policymakers in the state have always been uncomfortable with the fact that the Kentucky tests are meant to measure school performance but cannot be used to compare student to student or state to state.
• The writing portfolios and open-response questions now required under CATS are targeted for elimination.
• Even if administering the writing portions of the test takes significant class time, KDE spokeswoman Lisa Gross said, the change in attitudes toward writing since the passage of the reform law has been dramatic. “Writing isn’t just seen as something we do when we have time,” she said.
• A CPE report showed that "more than half the students entering colleges and universities in the state needed at least one remedial course, especially in mathematics."
• Ky Chamber of Commerce reported "strong connections did not exist between all levels of the education system."
• The percentage of all Kentucky public schools making adequate yearly progress under the federal No Child Left Behind law increased to 77.5 percent in 2007, from 65.8 percent in 2006. But most middle and high schools are still not meeting their goals.
• National Assessment of Educational Progress’ shows that in 2007 4th grade math 27 percent of Kentucky students scored proficient, compared with 33 percent for the nation. In 8th grade reading, 25 percent scored proficient level, below the 27 percent of 8th graders nationally.

Pop Quiz on Testing, Senate Bill 1 and the definition of "all kids"

There seems to be broad agreement that Kentucky school students should be tested. State schools invest millions of dollars and thousands of hours per year assessing learning. But there is much less agreement about why students should be tested.

This is a problem. But, it is not really a “testing problem.”

This is a political problem. How does a community of responsible adults care for all of its children?

Let’s start with a pop quiz.

Question: Public school students should be tested…

a.) often; so that a teacher might catch learning problems early, adjust instruction and report to parents how well their children are learning specific objectives

b.) annually; in order to inform parents whether or not their children are “college material”

c.) annually; in order to hold schools accountable for the performance of all of their students

d.) all of the above

e.) a & c only

Have you got an answer in mind? (Weigh in on KSN&C's Pop Quiz, top right)

Broad agreement on the answer to this question would go a long way toward resolving the issues surrounding Senate Bill 1 – which proposes replacing the CATS assessment with a national multiple-choice exam.

Senate Bill 1 is sponsored by Senate President David Williams and Majority Floor Leader Dan Kelly. It is of questionable constitutionality but that’s not a major obstacle for an experienced - constitutional - interpreter like Williams.

Kelly explained the motivation behind Senate Bill 1 to KET’s Bill Goodman recently on Kentucky Tonight saying he wanted to “make sure that all students have the opportunity to find out ...whether or not they are college material. Some, we think, will find out they are, when maybe their family background would say that they aren't. And some, like my children, who thought they were, might find out they aren't." I suppose Kelly would choose answer “b.”

On the surface this answer seems OK. As a parent, I certainly wanted an idea of how my children were performing relative to others and normative data should be a part of CATS. As a principal, I wanted that data too. But it’s not just about "my child." It’s about "all" of Kentucky’s children. If SB1 is tied in any way to Kentucky’s historic tendency toward acceptance of inequitable education, it needs to be stopped.

The present circumstance has been brewing since KERA required the monumental task of creating a performance-based assessment system that ranked and judged schools, rather than children. From the beginning, one of the hardest things for parents to understand (second only to the multi-aged primary program) was why students would sit for days of testing and when it was over, parents did not learn much about how their children were performing. They were used to testing that focused on their child.

As scientific testing became increasingly popular over the last century the main instrument for group assessment has been the nationally-normed multiple-choice exam, like those suggested in SB1. Such tests were designed to tell parents how their children performed on a set of objectives (that may or may not have been taught in their classroom!?) and compared that performance to the average scores of other children of the same age.

But the tests were also designed to discriminate among students; to separate the “college material” from those who would work in the fields and factories. Viewed narrowly, it gave parents a useful metric for determining how their own child was doing relative to other kids. But viewed broadly, it confirmed deeply held beliefs about which students were worth educating. While it might serve a majority of top students fairly well, Senate Bill 1 would return Kentucky to the days when it was expected that many students would not achieve at high standards. That’s why many educational leaders have tended toward answer “c.”

Teachers have always given assessments in their classrooms to find out, “Who got it” and “Who didn’t.” This is testing in its purest form; diagnosis and prescription for student learning. It begins with the curriculum – what you want students to know or be able to do – and ends when the teacher is satisfied the student knows or can do it. No political agenda - just an effort to improve a child’s learning. I suspect most teachers would prefer answer “a.”

Testing today is like the CTBS on steroids. In addition to teacher-made tests, school districts use other assessments to get snapshots of how students are performing in advance of the state’s CATS assessment – the ultimate yardstick for measuring results in Kentucky schools. The already complex CATS assessment was recently made worse when NCLB required unreasonable targets for the schools.

Teachers should recognize that any efficient system needs inertia and keeping a reasonable amount of “pressure” on school personnel to perform is a good thing for children; as long as it is fair, well-focused on the needs of all of its students, and leaves teachers better prepared to be successful.

We need a comprehensive, accurate and stable accounting of student progress over time - including an improved accounting of dropouts. There is a place for normative assessment within CATS but the state would be foolish to surrender Kentucky's curriculum by outsourcing it to an out-of-state vendor.

But, as it is, CATS needs work. Anytime schools have to derive one of their two accountability scores from a concordance table - to see what they would have scored on a test their students didn't take - look out!

There is much to talk about.

Commissioner Jon Draud has called for a Task Force to look into it. Then, for reasons that are unclear to me, the Courier-Journal called him a “wimp.” Perhaps C-J mistook Draud for "Railroad" Commissioner.

For citizens who want schools to be accountable, Senate Bill 1 is not the answer. It would waste precious time going in the wrong direction? The state would have to figure out a new way to describe proficiency and school goals - based on a “yardstick” that always leaves half of the children below average; even when they have made great gains. Surely encouraging growth must be central to any efficient system.

Normative data is for individuals and should remain a minor player in state-wide accountability – not its central feature. There remain practical limitations to any test’s ability to describe what a human knows or can do and claims of “great advances” in multiple-choice testing technology since 1990 look more like purposeful fabrication to me. But some folks swear by it. I think schools should get out of the business of telling students that they will never amount to anything. Instead we should do everything possible to double the number of college graduates in Kentucky.

For that reason, the best answer for all of Kentucky’s children is “e.”

This is an age of information and technology. The old “industrial model” of the school-as-social filter is morally bankrupt and economically suicidal and must be avoided at all costs. Senate Bill 1 is not the solution to Kentucky's problems.

Making SB 1 a joke

This from the Courier-Journal:

One hardly knows whether to cheer or jeer.

On Thursday, Senate leaders Dan Kelly and David Williams put on a frivolous show, ostensibly for the purpose of discussing Senate Bill 1, through which they hope to gut education reform.

The Senate Education Committee meeting didn't even include testimony from the state's top two education officials, Commissioner Jon Draud and Education Secretary Helen Mountjoy.

Mr. Williams dismissed complaints that Mr. Draud wasn't asked to appear. "He was welcome to come," the Senate president shrugged. "He's aware of the agenda … I didn't invite anyone."

It was a silly session that suggested Sens. Kelly and Williams aren't serious about trying to pass SB 1. That would be good news indeed, and well worth cheering.

On the other hand, playing games with the fate of Kentucky's historic effort to improve elementary and secondary education is shameful.

As Sen. Tim Shaughnessy, D-Louisville, said, "… If they're interested in just gutting the (Commonwealth Accountability Testing System) test, gutting accountability and just ramrodding things, then count me out."

The Senate leaders' effort to go cheap on Kentucky's kids is reprehensible. They would use off-the shelf, one-size-fits-all testing to undo the accountability that's based on CATS. They would impose testing that's not centered on the Kentucky curriculum, would not measure higher learning skills, would defy the KERA precept that every student can become proficient and would put Kentucky athwart basic requirements of the federal No Child Left Behind Act.

Most important, SB 1's approach to testing would ensure that writing gets little emphasis. That would please a few lazy, inept teachers who can't or won't master such instruction.

But what a tragedy it would be for Kentucky students, who absolutely must learn to gather, interpret and communicate information and ideas, if they are to survive in the emerging economy.

A new hearing has been set for next week, and this time Senate leaders should come up with a serious witness list, certainly including Mr. Draud.

No real "school man" could support SB1, and that's how Mr. Draud, also a former GOP legislator, was described by those who defended the rush to appoint him before the Republican administration left Frankfort -- a "school man."

In Kentucky, that old-fashioned term is used to describe somebody who has devoted a career to education and who knows what schooling can do for people.

Politicians may play games with SB1, but a real "school man" would unequivocally oppose this terrible legislation.

Gutting KERA

This from the Ashland Daily Independent:

Senate Bill 1 would abandon the high standards

of 1990 law

Make no mistake about it: Senate Bill 1 would be a major retreat from the Kentucky Education Reform Act of 1990.

The bill would abandon two of KERA’s greatest strengths: Its insistence on holding schools and teachers accountable for how well their students perform on tests, and its demand that students not only prove that they can recite certain facts but also can apply that knowledge in practical ways.

The bill co-sponsored by Senate President David Williams, R-Burkesville, Senate Majority Leader Dan Kelly, R- Springfield, and others would replace the high standards and demanding tests of KERA with national standardized, multiple choice tests that were the norm in the days before KERA.

Unlike the Commonwealth Accountability Testing System — CATS — those standardized tests tell us little about whether students can apply their knowledge and absolutely nothing about their ability to write. But CATS and portfolio writing would be scrapped by Senate Bill 1.

Senate President David Williams said his bill would eliminate arts and humanities testing, open response questions and scoring of student portfolios as part of the accountability testing. But one of the greatest strengths of KERA is that is demands that students display knowledge in a wide-variety of subject areas.

In contrast, the federal No Child Left Behind Act tests students only in reading and math. No Child Left Behind may have helped schools improve in other states, but not in Kentucky, which was already holding schools more accountable than the federal law does.

Senator Kelly — who opposed KERA when it was first enacted and has repeatedly tried to gut the law — says Senate Bill 1 will save the state money now spent on grading CATS. He’s right. It takes time and knowledgeable people to fairly grade the essay and open-ended questions on CATS and to evaluate the portfolios, while a computer can grade the multiple choice answers on standardized tests in a matter of minutes. The answers are either right or wrong; there is no gray area.

Senate Minority Leader Ed Worley, D-Richmond, complains that under KERA “teachers are encouraged to teach the test, as opposed to teaching the kids.” So what? If the tests fairly measure the skills that we want students to acquire, should not teachers be teaching those skills as opposed to something else?

Senator Williams’ sponsorship of this bill — and the high priority the Republican majority has given it by designating it as Senate Bill 1 — is particularly disappointing. As a senator who had no leadership position in 1990, Williams courageously opposed the Republican leadership by voting for KERA. For that vote, he earned the wrath of his GOP colleagues. It took a few years for him to emerge from political exile and rise to become the most influential Republican in Frankfort. Now he is trying to use that power to gut the bill he boldly supported.

Sen. Charlie Borders, R-Grayson, also has been a strong supporter of KERA. Will he now join his GOP colleagues in attempting to weaken the bill? To his credit, he has at least not signed on as a co-sponsor of the bill.

There is another former Republican legislator who should buck the GOP leadership in the Senate by opposing Senate Bill 1: Education Commissioner Jon Draud.

In the final weeks of Gov. Ernie Fletcher’s term, Draud, the former superintendent of the tiny Ludlow School District, resigned from his seat in the Kentucky House of Representatives to become the state’s top educator. At the time, Draud’s supporters insisted he was a educator, not a politician. He now can prove that by opposing this GOP attack on KERA. If he fails to do so, Draud will prove he is more loyal to the Republican Party than he is to quality schools in Kentucky.

Sure, we know that KERA is not perfect and neither is CATS. But since its enactment, the law has undergone constant change and so has the way students are
tested. That was to be expected. Kentucky was breaking new ground by enacting a law that moved away from standardized testing. The development of CATS has been an 18-year work in progress. Kentucky public schools have improved in the last 18 years, mainly because KERA has demanded constant improvement.

Public education in this state still is not where it needs to be, but it is no time to abandon the high standards and accountability of KERA.

Your Kid isn't "College Material" and Senator Kelly is going to prove it.

On Monday, KET's Bill Goodman hosted yet another informative Kentucky Tonight program - this time on student testing.

Within the first five minutes Kentucky Education Secretary Helen Mountjoy expressed the modern school reform philosophy while Senate Majority Floor Leader Dan Kelly revealed the old conservative philosophy that Senate Bill 1 is built upon.

When it comes to state-wide school accountability both philosophies are ...less than perfect. The liberal, because it over reaches; the conservative, because it underestimates.

Mountjoy said she believes that the most important sentence in KERA is, "Schools shall expect a high level of achievement from all students."

Kelly clearly does not.

"Reform of education is a continuing process," Kelly said. "Representative Moberly and I have collaborated on ...Senate Bill 130 that requires the AC[T] testing of all students so that we can make sure that all students have the opportunity to find out ...whether or not they are college material. Some we think, will find out they are, when maybe their family their background would say that they aren't. And some, like my children, who thought they were, might find out they aren't."

Kelly hints that, given their "family background factors," (a reference to James Coleman's 1966 report "Equality of Educational Opportunity") one may be pleasantly surprised when a low-income, inner-city, person of color excels - but it is not to be expected.

These competing philosophies are not new. They've just been given a retread for today's discussion. Their roots run deep into the early 20th century. In the John Dewey/William Torrey Harris "debates" the issue involved what was to be done with the throngs of poor immigrant children who came to America.

The conservative notion was that education should teach a person the skills and knowledge necessary to responsibly assume their place in society.

The liberals believed that education should teach a person skills and knowledge necessary to improve their place in society.

These are very different goals.

Senate Bill 1 would return us to the pre-KERA days when it was fully acceptable for a third of our students to fail because they just weren't "college material." The normative testing that sorted out students during much of the twentieth century would be reemployed as the sole measuring stick under Senate Bill 1. Hidden within group means, individual students can get written off pretty quickly.

Mountjoy has a better idea, one that keeps expectations high for every student.

But today's liberal bias - that refuses to lower expectations below 100% of all students - is unrealistic and threatens to poison an otherwise right-headed notion. Every child proficient by 2014 is the right aspiration, but it fails as an operating principle for high-stakes accountability. Education Trust has downgraded their proficiency expectiations to 80%, but I think something closer to 85% or 90% is within our reach if the system is adequately funded.

It would also be good for education leaders to consider the negative impact of taking too much pressure off of students and assuming that every child who fails does so because the teacher failed.

At the heart of Senate Bill 1 is a failed philosophy. One that dismisses criterion referenced assessment in favor of a normative system that guarantees winners, but also guarantees losers.

Senate Bill 1 is not a step forward.

Also joining the program were Rep. Harry Moberly, Chair of the House Appropriations and Revenue Committee and Ft Thomas Superintendent John Williamson.

Watch the full KET video here.

C-J attacks Senate Bill 1

This from the Courier-Journal:

Education reform attacked

It has been state Senate Majority Leader Dan Kelly's long-term mission to sabotage the nationally praised education reform program that emerged from the 1990 General Assembly and remains one of the state legislature's historic achievements.

The last great assault came in 1998, and it was beaten back only with furious counterattack and a few tactical concessions.

This year Mr. Kelly is joined by Senate President David Williams in attempting to blunt the thrust of the Kentucky Education Reform Act, by passing Senate Bill 1.

It is difficult to overstate the damage this bill would inflict. Most important, it would undo the accountability that's based on the Commonwealth Accountability Testing System. CATS would be replaced with national tests that are not based on the Kentucky curriculum, would not test higher learning skills, would defy the KERA precept that every student can become proficient and would place Kentucky athwart the No Child Left Behind Act.

Most devastating would be the effective removal of portfolios from the accountability system, because writing is the capstone skill with which students demonstrate their ability to gather, interpret and communicate information and ideas. To ensure that writing gets less emphasis in classrooms across Kentucky would be a real travesty...

...Some of those appearing to join the Kelly-Williams attack should remember that there are political consequences, because many Kentuckians are proud of KERA's successes, and proud of the progress Kentucky students have made. Voters will take note of those like Sen. Tim Shaughnessy, D-Louisville, who embolden the anti-KERA offensive by insisting "there's nothing wrong with revisiting, revising and updating the accountability system." Shame on Mr. Shaughnessy. He knows full well the intent is to subvert.

Education Commissioner Jon Draud can't let SB 1 go unchallenged. Mr. Draud's defenders, at the time of his controversial rushed appointment, said he is a school man, first and foremost. If so, he can't sit on his hands now. A shroud of neutrality won't cover his culpability if he refuses to stand up to SB 1. He's a former superintendent. He knows it was wrong, as Marion County Superintendent Roger Marcum points out, to push "a major change in where we're going without consulting educators."

Sen. Williams, presumably with a straight face, calls the proposed SB1 sabotage of KERA a "natural progression." That must mean be thinks all good things must come to an end.

Lawmakers and education leaders will discuss student testing on KET

State lawmakers and education officials will join host Bill Goodman to discuss student testing on the Feb. 25 show of “Kentucky Tonight” on the Kentucky Educational Television network.
Scheduled guests are Senate Majority Leader Dan Kelly, R-Springfield; House budget chairman Harry Moberly Jr., D-Richmond; state Education Secretary Helen Mountjoy; and John Williamson, superintendent of Fort Thomas Independent Schools.

The show will begin at 8 p.m. ET on KET1.

Viewers with questions and comments may participate in the live broadcast by telephone at 1-800-494-7605.

From PolWatchers.

Kentucky students rank 33rd....sorta...kinda

More on Kentucky Long-Term Policy Research Center study

As Kentucky School News and Commentary reported last week, a recent Kentucky Long-Term Policy Research Center study said that Kentucky has moved up from 43rd to 34th nationally in education over the last 13 years driven primarily by increases in 4th and 8th grade science scores and 4th grade reading, along with a steady decline in the dropout rate .

But not everyone is impressed with the report. Absent a uniform interstate data set, the study cobbled together available data to make it's determination. This might be upsetting if there was a better tool present, but there isn't. There ought to be. Even if states continue to shy away from national standards we would have a more precise idea of how America's students were progressing if states could agree on how we measure progress.

And in Kentucky, there is progress.

As it is, the KLTPRC report only serves to verify two previous studies. This morning's Herald-Leader reported, "Kentucky was 34th in Education Week's Quality Counts 2007 Achievement Index and was 31st in the Morgan Quinto 2006-2007 Smartest State Index."

H-L also collected some quotes:

Robert F. Sexton, Exec Dir of the Prichard Committee: Called the report convincing. "To an older generation, the saying about education in Kentucky was always, 'Thank God for Mississippi'...This is far from the case now...the challenge is how to move forward...The frustration is so many people don't understand where Kentucky started and how far we've come...This is by no means victory, but we're better off than the last generation."

State Sen. Majority Leader Dan Kelly, R-Springfield: "I think everybody recognizes we've made progress in Kentucky, but obviously not at the rate we anticipated or hoped for. There's still lots of work to do." (One can only wonder how much faster Kelly expected gains to be made based on the bargain basement dollars being contributed to the effort.)

Brad Cowgill, interim president of the state Council on Postsecondary Education: "This report is good news for Kentucky. It represents a more comprehensive way of understanding education progress at all levels in the commonwealth." He warned against complacency.

I am certain Cowgill understands Kentucky's historical tendency toward education - to 'fund it and forget it.'

This from the Herald-Leader.

Heir-apparent Mooneyhan was a contributor to David Williams

Rumors of a secret meeting between Senate President David Williams, Senate Majority Floor Leader Dan Kelly and a select group of Kentucky Board of Education members persist - but have also been denied.

Now it turns out that Leon Mooneyhan was a $500 contributor to David Williams 2005 campaign (11/11/2005), despite the fact that Williams and Mooneyhan live in different districts. This is not to suggest any impropriety. As senate president, Williams's reach is statewide. I'm sure he does lots of good for lots of folks.

The rumor is of a "secret meeting" before the board of education met on Saturday July 14, possibly involving David Webb, David Rhodes, Joe Brothers... All denied.

So...it's still just a rumor and shouldn't be believed. Right?

But immediately, Leon Mooneyhan's name surfaced as the choice for interim commissioner along with the rumor of the secret meeting. He says he was negotiating with Board Chair Keith Travis for the commissioner's job on Tuesday July 17.

On Thursday July 19, Doug Hubbard called for an emergency meeting to sign the deal. Some have suggested the hasty meeting may have been seen as desirable specifically because certain board members wouldn't be able to make it. All rumor, of course. But due to the notification requirements of the Open Meetings Act, that effort failed.

The board is now set to meet on Saturday at 10AM. The agenda calls for a closed session to consider both the interim and the permanent positions.

It is expected that Leon Mooneyhan will be named interim Commish. It is unclear if Mooneyhan will also be under consideration for the permanent post.

And think. Mooneyhan's name sprung to life from a meeting that never took place. I'm sure there's no story here. Just business as usual.

Speaking of business as usual, Mooneyhan indicated to the Kentucky Registry of Election Finance that he was the Executive Director of KSBA at the time - a position he has never held. Brad Hughes, KSBA's Communications Director told Kentucky School News and Commentary that he "...has never been on the KSBA staff in any position..."

Wow! Another successful search. I wonder who will receive awards this time?