Education Week: Kentucky, some other states still have high exclusion on federal tests

Corrupts validity of reading results

Even though Kentucky notably improved its exclusion rate for students with learning disabilities from the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) reading assessments in 2013, a new report from Education Week points out that the Bluegrass State still excludes far more of these special students than is typical across the nation.

And, the culprit, as we have said many times before, is Kentucky’s unreasonable use of the reading accommodation on the state’s own reading assessments.

Yes, that is right. We read the state’s KPREP reading tests to many students with learning disabilities.

This is why I consider the validity of Kentucky’s state test scores for reading to be questionable and didn’t use them in my new report about another problem with the state’s new school accountability program known as Unbridled Learning. The new report has evidence that schools with low scores for both whites and blacks are not reliably being identified for those severe problems.

When the continuing issues with NAEP reading are added to the problems with KPREP reading, it turns out Kentucky’s parents, students and policymakers do not have a solid idea about what is really happening with instruction in the commonwealth. Absent badly needed changes to the KPREP accommodations rules and scoring for Unbridled Learning school accountability, that situation isn’t going to change.