Implementing Standards-Based Assessment to Better Track Students' Progress
Policy Rationale and Goals: Under the far-reaching Kentucky Education Reform Act (KERA) of 1990, extensive procedures for measuring the achievement of Kentucky students were created under a system called Kentucky Instructional Results Information System (KIRIS). Kentucky policymakers viewed KIRIS as a strategy to track the progress of individual students, even if they moved from one county to another. In addition, KIRIS was intended to form the basis for incentive rewards to schools meeting goals for progress and for assistance to schools in need of support. Kentucky created goals that explicitly stated graduation expectations for students. The assessment system was built specifically around these goals and addressed the state-adopted expectations for students.
First
used in 1992, all students in the state were tested, and the results were used
to determine whether schools and students had made sufficient progress in
meeting the state's goals. Individual teachers at schools rewarded with
incentive funds were allowed to vote on how the funds would be spent, and KIRIS
provided a list of schools in need of assistance and state intervention. By
tying incentives and state intervention to a new system of assessment, KIRIS
proved quite controversial. In addition, KIRIS assessments were based primarily
on portfolios, performance-based exams, and writing samples completed during
class. While arguably, these are more authentic measures of student
achievement, Kentucky found that these kinds of assessments were nonetheless
harder to implement because of problems related to scoring reliability and
comparability across schools. The confusion around the types of assessment and
the significance of the results created further contention around the
assessment system.
In April of 1998, the Kentucky legislature replaced KIRIS with a new assessment program. This new system, the Commonwealth Accountability Testing System (CATS), is planned for rollout in 1999. The CATS test includes a national norm-referenced section that is both tied to the state's core curriculum and allows national comparisons to be made for students in Kentucky. This addressed a weakness of the KIRIS test, which only compared students to Kentucky's student expectations and not to national norms. The CATS test will also use a shorter version of the writing exam that was a part of the KIRIS test. The CATS test will provide information on each individual student, allowing for comparisons of individual student progress over time.
It is likely that results from the CATS test will be included on student transcripts. High school transcripts will include information on students who complete vocational programs, certification information, community service, service learning, and any workbased learning completed. Although all students are required to take a college prep curriculum based on the reform efforts of the states (4 English, 3 science, 3 math, 3 social science, 1 fine/performing arts, 1 health/physical education, 7 electives), students must also have an individual graduation plan with a focus on career development.
The Department of Education plans to offer an occupational skill standards certification system based on career majors for students that signals to employers a graduate's skill level. Kentucky's goal is to have a standards-driven assessment system that will drive curriculum and workforce training needs in the state.
Implementation Strategy: The Department of Education began their ambitious plan by establishing a standards development and assessment implementation plan that included all the potential career major areas needing assessment development and prioritizing the areas that would be worked on first, second, and third. Many of these decisions were based on the standards that exist and the support of employers related to these areas. Both labor market data and course enrollment data will be used to fine-tune the phase-in plan as the work progresses.
Excerpt from Kentucky Assessment Implementation Plan
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Within each program area, a committee of employers and educators has been established to adopt, adapt, or develop standards. When national standards are available, the committee relies on those standards first. For example, in the area of manufacturing, the committee utilized resources from the National Skill Standards Board's Building Linkages project and the National Coalition for Advanced Manufacturing (NACFAM) national skill standards to develop Kentucky's own Manufacturing Skill Standards.
Standards are being developed for use at the secondary, postsecondary, and remedial education levels. Standards are developed in Levels 1 and 2, with Level 2 targeted to postsecondary education. Students will have the option of a more general career major certificate and a certification in specific industry (i.e. within manufacturing). Standards setting efforts in Kentucky are following the lead of the Manufacturing standards by grouping standards in the following categories: Application of Academic Expectations, Employability Skills, and Occupational Skills.
The state will develop a multiple-choice test and problem-based scenario in each career major to be scored at the state-level. The problem-based scenario will be scored on a four-point analytic rubric that utilizes categories of knowledge and skills used in the standards. The scenario assessment will include the prompt, instructions, and evaluation criteria which students will respond to in a 45-minute period. In some career majors, there may be locally scored assessment components such as portfolios that are used and kept at the local classroom level.
Evaluation Strategies/Lessons Learned: In most cases, the lack of national standards at the career major level has been the most disappointing aspect of Kentucky's effort. While specific standards in a variety of occupations do exist, very few broader, secondary-level standards in career majors have been developed. Kentucky is working hard to develop their own standards based on whatever standards do exist at the national level in an attempt to utilize a similar format across career majors.
Kentucky plans to move rapidly through the standard and assessment process in order to utilize the system to certify students and report academic and occupation attainment in Perkins III accountability requirements. With the help of the National Center for Research in Vocational Education and the Vocational-Technical Education Consortium of States(V-TECS), it is hoped that the system will contribute to both workforce and economic development throughout the state of Kentucky.
Information provided by James Justice, Program Consultant, Kentucky Department of Education, Division of Secondary Vocational Education, Frankfort, KY (1999).
