State testing task force ends with a whimper
A panel dealing with testing woes produces disappointing results
From Kentucky Citizen Digest, Sept, 1997

This summer the public was stunned by new revelations of cheating and scoring errors made by the state’s testing contractor. Despite these disclosures, the deliberations of a state panel handling the KIRIS testing controversy yielded recommendations that could scarcely elicit a yawn.

The panel, which was forced to bring in a mediator to broker disputes between warring factions, ended its deliberations by agreeing on recommendations that constituted little more than the least common denominator.

The panel included advocates as well as opponents of the status quo. It was a part of a larger task force convened by Gov. Paul Patton to change KERA. The panel’s most significant recommendations were the result of the participation of The Family Foundation’s Martin Cothran and State Sen. Gex (“Jay”) Williams. The two promise to file a minority report with more substantial recommendations to change the state’s tests.

August 1, the panel voted to supplement the state test with a national test and to send reward money to schools rather than individual teachers.

At its final meeting on August 13, the panel recommended that state tests be expanded to cover basic skills and academic content and that they be changed to reliably measure individual achievement.

The panel rejected a motion to hold state school officials more accountable for their performance and to cease the administration of the test.

The changes, however, do not fundamentally change the current system—a system one report described as fundamentally flawed.
 

Key Family Foundation Contacts: Kent Ostrander, Executive Director Martin Cothran, Senior Associate Policy Analyst