CTBS scores down
A recent round of standardized test scores show that basic skills could be on the decline
From Kentucky Citizen Digest, Sept, 1997

While state school officials continue to insist that basic skills are not detrimentally affected by the Kentucky Education Reform Act (KERA), standardized test scores appear to be telling a different story.

Although Kentucky is spending tens of millions of dollars of taxpayer money every year for a statewide test, called “KIRIS,” it isn’t the only test that Kentucky children take. Among the other tests taken by many Kentucky students is the Comprehensive Test of Basic Skills, more commonly known as “CTBS.”

CTBS is one of several commonly administered tests taken by children across the country. Unlike the KIRIS test, standardized tests like CTBS emphasize basic skills.

According to recently released test scores for Kentucky schools taking CTBS-5, the performance of third grade students in the state may have declined by three points on the national average since 1990.

In 1990, the scores of Kentucky 3rd graders on the CTBS-4 total battery (an average of all the parts of the test) was 52.6. 1997 scores declined 2.9 points, to 49.7. The worst drop came in language arts, an area where officials claim the most progress.

Although the publisher of the CTBS-4 and CTBS-5 tests is still working on a way to fully compare the two tests, the initial comparisons don’t appear to support advocates of Kentucky’s test who say that basic skills have not gone down.
 

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