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May State Board News

In this month's news
It Really Is Still All About "Science Wars"
Kansas Assessments Update
Confidence Intervals Explained
Advisory Committee Reappointments
July Meeting Dates Changed
In other action, the State Board
Accreditation Decisions

It Really Is Still All About "Science Wars"

Tuesday, with little discussion, the State Board voted 10-0 on their charge to the committee that will review the science curriculum standards. The first draft of the review will be presented to the Board in December, 2004. Wednesday, a thirty minute discussion around nominations to the committee became more contentious.

At issue was how many nominations each Board member could make and, implicitly, how many "representatives" each would have on the committee. Originally, each Board member was invited to submit one name. At least one Board member submitted more than one, prompting other Board members to ask for more time to submit additional names, on the presumption that all names submitted by Board members would be appointed to the committee.

Sue Gamble, district 2, indicated a desire for continuity from the previous committee to the new one and said she would withdraw her nominee, if needed, to ensure that people from the previous committee were appointed.

John Bacon, district 3, said that he didn't understand the need to have continuity from the previous committee. "I was offended when one of the previous co-chairs said he would resign from the committee before he would work with a small group of us," Bacon stated in an explanation of why he didn't support continuity.

Bacon also requested a list of current appointees, so that he could "have the best chance of my two nominees being selected."

Commissioner Andy Tompkins explained that no one has been selected yet and selections won't begin until all nominations are received.

"This won't be much of an issue. School finance will take precedence in the media," said Ken Willard, district 7.

Finally, Bill Wagnon and Steve Abrams, members of the Board's policy committee, reminded Board members that these committees are not Board committees, they are the Commissioner's committees, to which Board members have been invited to submit nominations.

"We are exceeding our policies…in trying to carry out our own personal political agendas," Wagnon stated.

Final resolution is that Board members have until May 21 to submit names to Tompkins. Each Board member will have 1 of their nominees selected and Tompkins will complete the committee of 25 with persons who provide the necessary balance to do the committee's work. The committee must have geographic balance, include elementary, middle level and secondary teachers, as well as representatives of higher education and the public. In addition the disciplines within the broad field of science must be represented.

Let the games begin.

Kansas Assessments Update

Almost 60,000 Kansas students participated in online assessments during the 2004 administration of reading and mathematics testing, according to Dr. John Poggio, University of Kansas Center for Educational Testing and Evaluation.

Those students represented 230 USDs and 11 private school systems and came from 658 buildings. At the peak, 3,500 students were online simultaneously.

Reports from participating schools are extremely positive and very, very supportive, according to Poggio. Teachers, especially, reported benefits to receiving results almost immediately following test administration.

Analysis of student test results indicate no ill effects from computerized testing and, in fact, point to slight increases in student scores when tested online, as opposed to by paper and pencil. The greatest benefit was shown by students with learning disabilities on the 7th grade mathematics assessments.

KSDE and CETE officials are working with the US Department of Education to make it possible to use discontinued forms of the online assessments as diagnostic and/or practice assessments prior to the official testing window. Currently, USDE insists that if a student takes multiple forms of the same assessment, even at different times, the first assessment is the one that must be counted for AYP purposes.

Confidence Intervals Explained

Most adults are familiar with media explanations of polling results that include the phrase "margin of error." That, in a nutshell, explains confidence intervals.

Because confidence intervals are used as a second level of decision if exact AYP targets are not met, Dr. John Poggio, KU-CETE, gave the State Board a description of what they are and how they are computed.

Confidence intervals, explained Poggio, are based on population size and indicate a range of "score" within which judgment is accurate. The range is usually expressed as + or - x%, with the variation based on the size of the population.

Because school populations differ, each school's confidence interval is different. If a school does not meet the exact AYP target, a confidence interval is automatically computed and if the score is within the confidence band, the school is declared to have met AYP if all other AYP requirements are also met (participation, attendance, graduation rate).

Advisory Committee Reappointments

The State Board approved reappointments of eligible members to the following advisory committees:

Teaching and School Administration Professional Standards Advisory Board (Standards Board)
Connie Hartman, elementary principal, Wellington, first full 3-year term
Cynthia Neighbor, local board of education, Shawnee Mission, first full 3-year term
Steve Scott, regents institution, Pittsburg, second 3-year term

Professional Practices Commission
Rick Riffel, administrator, Phillipsburg, first full 3-year term
Damon Roberts, teacher, KNEA Turner, second 3-year term

Licensure Review Committee
Renita Ubel, elementary teacher, Ottawa EA, second 3-year term
Steve Pegram, superintendent, Silver Lake, second 3-year term

July Meeting Dates Changed

The July meeting of the State Board will occur on Thursday and Friday, July 8 and 9. Commissioner Andy Tompkins is completing his term as treasurer of the Education Commission of the States, which has its annual policy forum on July 13 and 14, the regularly scheduled Kansas SBOE dates. The State Board meeting will be in Topeka.

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

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