K-PREP middle school math

The new “Kentucky Performance Report for Educational Progress” (K-PREP) test results and the “Unbridled Learning” school accountability scores have now been released. People are asking, “What do these new test scores show? Is the new program really more rigorous? Is it rigorous enough?

While the newspapers will undoubtedly cover the final school rankings, we dig deeper into what the new tests really seem to represent. We start with the school level where we have the most comparison data: middle schools.

This graph compares the mathematics proficiency rate reported by the new K-PREP eighth grade test to other test results available for our eighth grade students. This K-PREP math test is very important both here in Kentucky and across the nation because it’s the first test to incorporate the new Common Core State Standards into its development and scoring process.

Notice that K-PREP eighth grade math proficiency rate is definitely lower than the proficiency rate score from last year’s Kentucky Core Content Test (KCCT). The KCCT were the last remaining vestiges of Kentucky’s Commonwealth Accountability Testing System, which the legislature killed in early 2009 following a review of ample evidence that the test was providing misleadingly high scores and had lost public confidence.

However, while the K-PREP reported an eighth grade math proficiency rate is notably lower than the old KCCT rate, the new K-PREP grade eight math proficiency rate is still more than 10 points higher than the proficiency rate for Kentucky’s public school students reported by the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) one year ago.

The new K-PREP proficiency rate is also more than 10 points higher than the percentage of the very same cohort of 2011-2012 eighth graders that met the EXPLORE test’s Benchmark Score for math. Meeting that Benchmark score shows students are on track for solid success in high school and in follow-on college and career activities.

So, while scoring on the K-PREP eighth grade math test appears to be considerably more rigorous than scoring from the state’s old assessment, K-PREP grade eight math scoring may not be rigorous enough.

Data Sources:

EXPLORE Benchmark Scores Excel Spreadsheet from Kentucky Department of Education

NAEP Data Explorer, Accessed 30Oct12

K-PREP Proficiency Rates – 2011-2012 Achievement State Grade report received by e-mail from KDE. Should be available on line soon.

CATS KCCT Scores – “2010-2011 Interim Performance Report, State,” Kentucky Department of Education, Frankfort, KY. May no longer be on line.