The chickens will soon come home to roost for Kentucky’s state assessment program, substantiating years of Bluegrass Institute research and comments.
We’ve consistently shown you evidence over the years that the scores from the Kentucky Core Content Tests (KCCT) used for CATS accountability were seriously overstating the real performance of the state’s public school students.
Our comments now are confirmed by – of all people – the Kentucky Department of Education (KDE).
In a preliminary study released on Friday, the KDE predicts substantial drops in proficiency rates in mathematics and reading when the state’s new Kentucky Performance Rating for Educational Progress (K-PREP) scores are released (scheduled for October).
The reason is that – unlike CATS testing, which was never aligned to any standard we could understand – the K-PREP is aligned to what students need to learn to be successful in college and careers. That means the K-PREP is much more rigorous than the KCCT, which we always thought was established mostly to make Kentuckians feel good about their school system regardless of real student performance.
In any event, we were right. Big score drops are coming.
To get an idea of how large the score drops might be, click the “Read more” link below.
