Superintendents Separate Wheat from Chaff in SB 1

On behalf of the Kentucky Association of School Superintendents, Susan Weston outlined a response to Senate Bill 1 over at the Prichard Blog.

In the report Weston outlines the superintendents' agreement and concerns over the piecemeal SB 1 proposals.

So what do they see as WHEAT?

• a substantive redesign of the state assessment system
• one coherent testing and reporting system (state and NCLB)
• shortened time for testing
• an accountability “package” that includes a combination of assessments: norm-referenced
  and criterion-referenced, formative and summative, college readiness,
  program evaluation, and varied testing formats including multiple choice, open
  response, on-demand, writing portfolios at grades 7 and 12, and end-of-course
  tests
• increased student accountability
• narrowed standards, especially in mathematics
• requiring any other component required to comply with No Child Left Behind
• requiring core content assessment to be administered during the final seven days of each
  district’s school year, and to take no more than five days
• requiring all test results to be reported to schools and districts to no more than sixty days
  after testing

But the superintendents would also get rid of the CHAFF in SB 1 and oppose:

• the elimination of open response questions
• the elimination of accountability for writing portfolios at the 7th & 12th grades

KASS advises:

Rather than eliminating the criterion-referenced test, the Department should consider
using a carefully designed NRT that can be converted soundly into a criterion-referenced
test that would measure state standards and use open response along with multiple choice
formats.

KASS members strongly support more student accountability than provided in the current
version of SB1.

They note that changes in math standards identified in SJR 19 are not included in SB 1 and that SB 1 has no plan for changes in standards in the other content areas, including who will conduct the evaluation process and how often.

With the strong probability of significant changes in NCLB under the Obama administration, is action now to make significant changes in KY’s assessment and accountability system wise in regard to future compliance with NCLB?