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August State Board News

In this month's State Board News
Kansas Test Results are "Awesome"
Kansas Report Card Issues
Curriculum Standards Review Set
Governor's Task Force Sets Public Meetings
In Other Action
Schools Accredited

Kansas Test Results Are "Awesome"

Kansas students' assessment scores on the 2003 state assessments showed growth that was "quite fantastic," according to a report given by Dr. Alexa Pochowski, assistant commissioner for learning services, to the State Board on Tuesday, August 12.

"There were phenomenal student improvements documented in the Kansas Report Card. The achievement gap for math and reading is closing. This is extraordinary news!" commented Christy Levings, president of Kansas NEA.

"Kansas teachers and students can be incredibly proud of their work. Even though this is only one assessment of student learning, it shows that people who work in Kansas schools are seriously engaged in the work of teaching and learning," Ms. Levings continued.

In reading, students scoring in the exemplary, advanced and proficient levels increased 5.9% at 5th grade, 3.8% at 8th grade and 4.7% at 11th grade.

In mathematics, students scoring in the exemplary, advanced and proficient levels increased by 6% at 4th grade, 3.3% at 7th grade and 1.3% at 10th grade.

In addition, in both reading and mathematics, most of the gaps between advantaged and disadvantaged students narrowed and most of the gaps between white and African American and Hispanic students narrowed. The exceptions occurred at 11th grade reading and 10th grade mathematics.

Complete information on the 2003 assessment results is available on the KSDE website .

Kansas Report Card Issued

A new version of the Kansas Report Card, required because of mandates included in ESEA/NCLB, was released on Tuesday afternoon. Based on results of the 2003 Kansas Assessments, the Report Card echoes the positive results contained in the state assessments report.

The aggregated state report card shows that 258 of 302 USDs achieved AYP and that almost 1,200 of the state's over 1,400 buildings achieved AYP during the 2002-2003 school year.

In addition, the numbers of schools meeting the standard of excellence have almost doubled from 2002 to 2003 for each assessment at each grade level.

Each state, district and building has AYP calculated based on student data. For each state, district and building, there are 60 ways to meet/not meet AYP. If even one of the 60 ways is not met, the entire state or district or building is considered to have not met AYP.

Assessment data is disaggregated by 10 different subgroups and for 6 different kinds of data. Those are:

Subgroups: all students, free/reduced lunch participants, students with disabilities, English language learners, African Americans, Hispanics, Whites, Asian/Pacific Islanders, American Indian, Multi-ethnic.

Kinds of data: reading assessment, reading assessment participation rate, mathematics assessment, mathematics assessment participation rate, attendance, graduation rate.

To be considered for AYP, each subgroup must have 30 or more students tested. Those numbers are aggregated at the building, at the district, and at the state levels. That is why some districts did not meet AYP when each of the buildings in that district did.

All the report cards are available on the KSDE website. The site is searchable by district or building name, city, zip code or USD number.

To see AYP data, go to the KSDE website and click on Building Report Card. Then click on "search." For any district or building, once you are at that USD's or building's page, scroll down the options on the left-hand side of the page to School Qualifications - Requirements of AYP (almost at the bottom of the list). Once you are looking at the AYP chart, you can click on any cell to see detailed information on that data. Building Report Card

Curriculum Standards Review Set

Following an hour of discussion and debate, the State Board agreed on a schedule for reviewing the content standards for science and for history/government.

A motion to conduct external reviews of both sets of standards, science first, followed by history/government, failed 5-5. Voting for the motion were Sue Gamble, Carol Rupe, Bill Wagnon, Janet Waugh, and Bruce Wyatt.

Immediately, Steve Abrams offered a motion to conduct external reviews of both sets of standards, history/government beginning in August, 2003 and science beginning in August, 2004.

"Why? How is that different from the previous motion," questioned Rupe.

Abrams responded it was because "controversy takes time" and that the department needs time to respond to the demands of and gear up for technical assistance for ESEA/NCLB.

Several board members expressed different views of which would take more time, science or history/government, and during which year the department would need to spend more time responding to ESEA/NCLB.

In the end, 7 members voted for Abrams' motion: Steve Abrams, John Bacon, Connie Morris, Carol Rupe, Iris Van Meter, Bill Wagnon, and Ken Willard.

This means that establishing the committee to review science curriculum standards will likely begin immediately following the 2004 primary election, at which the even numbered State Board districts (Gamble, Wagnon, Wyatt, Rupe and Abrams) will be on the ballot.

Governor's Task Force Sets Public Meetings

Following five months of meetings, Governor Kathleen Sebelius' Education Policy Task Force has published draft recommendations for what Kansas needs to do to "keep Kansas a national leader in the education of its students."

Sylvia Robinson, the Governor's education policy director, presented the recommendations to the State Board on Wednesday and announced the dates and places of upcoming public meetings.

The meetings will include presentation of the recommendations and time for discussion and input from participants.

The meetings are scheduled for September 11, Goodland; September 12, Garden City; September 17, Kansas City; September 18, Topeka; September 22, Greenbush; September 23, Wichita.

Additional information regarding specific agenda, locations and times will be posted on the KNEA website as soon as it is received from Robinson's office.

In other action, the State Board

KNEA Legislative Contacts

Blake West, President
Peg Dunlap, Director, Instructional Advocacy
Mark Desetti, Director, Legislative and Political Advocacy
Terry Forsyth, Director, Political Action

The KNEA Lobby Team consists of elected leaders and staff. The Lobby Team welcomes member feedback on issues before the Legislature and on this site.