Louisville, KY (WDRB) Groups in the community are banding together to get parents ready for new Kentucky test scores, which could be lower.
The Kentucky Department of Education is expected to release the scores next Friday. In the meantime, city government, schools, and business leaders are getting the word out.
Kentucky was the first of 46 states to adopt those standards in math and English/Language Arts. JCPS Spokesman Ben Jackey says, "There is no doubt all eyes are on us. We've had national media attention...it was important that Kentucky leads."
Students K-12 are assessed under the new standards. But third through eighth graders actually take the KPREP test. The district says high schoolers are tested on the standards using end-of-course testing.
Mary Gwen Wheeler, the Executive Director of 55,000 Degrees says, "They are going to see scores that may look lower. What it means is not that their students are doing worse, but that we've raised the bar."
The district also set up the www.RaiseTheBarLouisville.org website. It talks about how the tests level the playing field for all students. JCPS also sent out a letter and gave parents flyers on what to expect for the test scores.
Louisville's Mayor, Greater Louisville, Inc., and 55,000 Degrees have all teamed up with the district to prepare parents for the expected test score release on November 2nd.
Wheeler says, "There was a disconnect before between what they were being told in being proficient and whether they were college or career ready. Now, when they are told they are proficient they know they are also college and career ready."
The data released will come from test results from the 2011-12 school year.
--------------------
The KY Department of Education also released this info:
This marks the first release of data from the Unbridled Learning accountability model, which Kentucky implemented beginning in the 2011-12 school year. The data to be released on Nov. 2 reflects test scores and other information from that school year.
The Unbridled Learning model holds public schools and districts accountable for five primary areas:
• Achievement – student performance on subject-area tests
• Gap – gaps in academic performance among students who are ethnic minorities, have disabilities, are English language learners or come from low-income households and students who do not fit into those categories
• Growth – student academic growth in reading and mathematics
• College/Career Readiness – how well schools and districts prepare students for life after high school
• Graduation Rate – how many students graduate on time
Each school and district will receive an overall score on a scale from 1 to 100. Those scores will be rank-ordered by district and by elementary, middle and high school levels, then percentiles will be established so that each school and district will receive a percentile rank.
Schools and districts also will receive overall classifications, based on their overall scores:
• Distinguished – the top 10 percent of districts or schools from the elementary, middle and high school levels (90th percentile)
• Proficient – in the top 30 percent of districts or schools from the elementary, middle and high school levels (70th percentile)
• Needs Improvement – schools/districts falling outside of the Proficient or Distinguished categories and not meeting their AMOs (at or below the 69th percentile)
The Unbridled Learning accountability model is used for both state and federal reporting purposes. In early 2012, Kentucky received flexibility from the U.S. Department of Education to use this model in place of the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) model that had been in place since 2001.
Copyright 2012 WDRB News. All Rights Reserved.
