By Associated Press
Louisville, KY – Kentucky was one of 10 states Thursday to be granted relief from some parts of the Bush-era No Child Left Behind law, allowing the state to use a newly developed accountability system to determine progress in public schools.
Under NCLB, progress in public schools is primarily measured using scores from standardized reading and math tests. Reductions in federal funding were one consequence for being listed as a failing school or district.
Kentucky's model scraps the one-test method and instead measures a school's progress using a combination of test scores, achievement gap levels, student progress, graduation rates and career- and college-readiness benchmarks.
"The accountability model that we will use for state and federal purposes provides in-depth information about every school and district, so that we can focus our resources on the areas of greatest need and challenge our students and educators to constantly improve toward the ultimate goal of college and career readiness," Kentucky Education Commissioner Terry Holliday said in a statement.
Gov. Steve Beshear also applauded the decision, which the state has been waiting for since applying for relief in November.
"Kentucky is once again leading the nation in the area of public school accountability," said Gov. Steve Beshear. "This federal flexibility opens a new chapter in the Commonwealth's work to ensure a well-educated citizenry."
Kentucky education officials have been overhauling the state's public education system from top to bottom since the 2009 passage of Senate Bill 1, which mandated that every Kentucky public school student graduate prepared for higher education or a career.
The state's application was more than 400 pages long and provided a detailed roadmap of the last two years' worth of efforts to overhaul public education in the state.
In detailing the new method for measuring progress, the application said the state is setting lofty goals for children beginning as early as the third grade.
"The new testing system is linked from Grade 3 to Grade 12 and locked into college readiness standards," it reads. "Students taking the tests from Grade 3 to Grade 12 will know if they are on the path toward college and career readiness as defined by all of the public universities of Kentucky.
Kentucky's accountability model will measure achievement by tests in reading, mathematics, science, social studies and writing, according to the Department of Education. There will be so-called "Program Reviews" in subjects that aren't tested, such as arts and humanities and practical living-career studies.
The steps to close the achievement gap - the degree to which some categories of students tend to score below achievement goals - include placing students in one "Student Gap Group" in an attempt to give schools one goal to reach. Under NCLB, gap groups are sectioned out and schools given benchmarks for each subgroup, such as students with disabilities, black students and students who receive free or subsidized meals.
The department said the first release of data from the new accountability model will occur in late summer/early fall 2012. For the 2011-12 school year, schools and districts will be gauged on test scores, achievement gap reduction, student academic growth, college- and career-readiness percentages and graduation rates. Schools and districts will have annual measureable objectives to reach in all of these areas.
Additional measures, such as the program reviews and percentages of effective teachers and leaders, will be added later.
Each school and district will receive an overall score on a scale of 0 to 100 and will be classified as distinguished, proficient, progressing and needs improvement.