Common Core: Costs versus education performance in Kentucky
Thanks to a presentation on Common Core State Standards I did on Thursday, I’ve been looking at some financial information that relates to the cost changes for public education in the Common Core era in Kentucky.
I have further expanded this analysis, now comparing education revenue during the last five years before Kentucky adopted Common Core to the revenue figures during the first five year of the state’s implementation of Common Core. I also added some interesting test result information covering the same period.
The results don’t look encouraging.
As you look at the information below, keep in mind that Kentucky adopted the Common Core State Standards – sight unseen – in February 2010.Table 1 below compares how public school per pupil revenue changed in Kentucky during the 5-year period prior to Common Core and the initial 5-year period when the state transitioned to the new standards.
Table 1
Per Pupil Costs Before and During CCSS Era in KY
The blue shaded area shows total per pupil spending figures covering the last five school years before Kentucky adopted the Common Core (2004-2005 to 2009-2010) and the first five school years of Common Core transition (2009-2010 to 2014-2015).The first column of spending data in the blue shaded part of Table 1 shows total per pupil revenue in Kentucky for the listed school years without any adjustment for inflation. The last column shows spending converted to inflation adjusted, constant 2005 dollars.
Below the rows listing the revenue figures I show the changes in revenue for each 5-year period, shaded in yellow.
As you can see, spending in the five years preceding Kentucky’s adoption of Common Core increased notably more slowly than in the early Common Core transition years. From 2005 to 2010, spending in unadjusted dollars only increased by $1,951, an increase of 23.9 percent. Meanwhile, during the first five years of the state’s Common Core era, spending rose by $2,815, or 27.9%.The real spending increase is much more dramatic. From 2005 to 2010 the spending increase in real dollars was only $739, just a 9.1 percent rise. In the Common Core transition period from 2010 to 2015, the rise was $1,650, an increase of 18.6 percent, more than double the rise in the pre-Common Core period.
So, spending rates on public education in Kentucky notably accelerated in the Common Core era.
But, how did educational performance trend? For the answer to that, click the “Read more” link.
Unfortunately, it isn’t possible to use Kentucky’s own state test results to examine school performance throughout this 10-year period. The state completely shifted reading and math testing from its pre-Common Core, CATS Kentucky Core Content Tests in reading and math to current Kentucky Performance Rating for Educational Progress (KPREP) tests during the 2011-2012 school year.
Likewise, ACT data are not consistent throughout the period because of a major change in 2009. In that year Kentucky tested all high school graduates with the ACT for the first time. Previous to 2009, only about 75 percent or so of the state’s graduates took this college entrance tests. Those very different student samples are not comparable.
That still leaves us with results from the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) in math and reading at Grades 4 and 8. NAEP was consistently given in late winter of each odd numbered calendar year throughout the period of interest. NAEP directly provides scores for the 2004-2005 and 2014-2015 school years. For 2009-2010, a school year when the NAEP was not administered, a reasonable estimate was developed by averaging the NAEP 2009 and 2011 results.
Table 2 adds NAEP testing information to our financial data from Figure 1.
Table 2
Per Pupil Costs Before and During CCSS Era in KY with NAEP Data
The NAEP Scale Scores for math and reading in grades four and eight are shown in the green shaded area of Table 2; changes in those scores for the two time periods of interest are shown in the pink shaded area of the table.
It is very clear in the changes (pink shaded) part of Table 2 that progress in NAEP math and reading was being made much faster in the five-year period preceding adoption of the Common Core State Standards in Kentucky. The fourth grade NAEP progress rate was cut by more than half in reading and tumbled to less than one-third of the progress made earlier in math after Common Core came along.
The situation looks even worse when the eighth grade results are examined. Progress totally halted in NAEP Grade 8 Reading after Common Core was launched and actually DECLINED in eighth grade NAEP Math!
So, NAEP results for key Common Core subjects of math and reading do not reflect well for the impact of Common Core despite Kentucky’s substantial spending increases after Common Core implementation started.
It is important to note that establishing a more detailed comparison of Kentucky’s funding changes to Common Core and related testing performance would be very difficult. Highly detailed data on how those extra dollars were actually spent isn’t available and detailed estimates on the costs to implement Common Core in Kentucky were never publicly released.
Never the less, the overall comparison in Figure 2 still raises great concerns about Common Core’s bang for the buck because most educational changes during the time frame analyzed relate to Common Core.
For example, Kentucky didn’t adopt the Next Generation Science Standards until 2013 and has yet to bring an aligned science assessment online. Arguably, many substantial changes in science had yet to occur as of 2015. In fact, as of 2015 the state was still using pre-Common Core science tests in the high schools and was only using very limited multiple-choice science tests that didn’t count for accountability in lower grades.
The social studies situation has been even more stable. New standards have not been adopted in many years and the state has not changed its social studies tests from the old Kentucky Core Content Test in social studies, either.
So, as of 2015, the big educational changes in Kentucky have been the Common-Core-driven revisions in English language arts and mathematics. Thus, the comparison of financial to NAEP test results in Table 2 is probably quite representative of actual Common Core related cost increases.
Technical Information:
The unadjusted Total Per Pupil Spending Amounts come from annual reports of Revenue and Expenditures for each year from the Kentucky Department of Education.
Inflation adjustments were calculated using the very neat Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI Inflation Calculator Web tool.
The NAEP Grade 4 and 8 Math and Reading scale scores shown in Table 3 come from the NAEP Data Explorer Web tool.
Table 3
NAEP Scores for Analysis from 2005 to 2015