KSBA eNews Service, Frankfort, Aug. 11, 2016
Commissioner Pruitt: More input needed before Next Generation social studies measures used to gauge instructional progress
By Brad Hughes
Kentucky Education Commissioner Stephen Pruitt announced Wednesday that he is delaying implementation of new academic standards to measure student performance in social studies to get “additional input and feedback.” This means schools will continue to use last year’s standards.
The Department of Education’s weekly email to local, regional and state education leaders also noted that a prerecorded webinar on the new process for conducting program reviews is available online as part of required training for educators this year. Twice-postponed live webinars are no longer part of that process, but regional trainings are still planned.
“As a result of an ongoing and collaborative feedback process conducted with shareholders across Kentucky, the proposed Social Studies Standards for the Next Generation are pending further review during the 2016-17 school year,” Pruitt said in the Commissioner’s Corner portion of the email.
“These future-oriented standards, built from a vision crafted in 2013, present the opportunity to transform social studies education in Kentucky. The standards have undergone revisions based on the input and feedback received from more than 2,000 people involved in focus groups, open online surveys and feedback captured during the Social Studies Leadership Networks,” he said.
“In order to ensure educators have the necessary resources to support the revised standards, KDE will be seeking additional input and feedback during the 2016-17 school year. This will further ensure Kentucky social studies teachers and students have the most relevant, flexible and forward-thinking standards,” the commissioner said.
Options for gathering comments on the standards are being developed and will be provided later to educators and other shareholders.
“Please note that until new standards are adopted by the Kentucky Board of Education, there will be no changes to social studies assessments for the 2016-17 school year. All social studies assessments in place during the 2015-16 school year will remain a part of the statewide accountability system for 2016-17,” Pruitt said.
At the December 2015 Kentucky Board of Education meeting, Pruitt said he was going to make this school year a pilot year for assessments of new Next Generation science standards. The commissioner said he hoped taking the time to create solid assessments for the science standards could be useful in improving standards and assessments in other measured academic areas, including social studies.
This week's announcement comes as KDE is working to fashion a new school accountability system, which would incorporate testing of the standards, in order to comply with the new federal Every Student Succeeds Act. Teams of agency staff and advisors are trying to meet an early 2017 target timeframe to have a system ready for the Kentucky Board of Education to consider. The new accountability system would be implemented in the 2017-18 school year.
On a related issue, the KDE communication moved forward plans to provide information to Kentucky districts on the new way in which program reviews are to be used in schools and reported to the state. Program reviews cover areas such as arts and humanities, writing, K-3 studies, practical living and world languages. Program reviews count for 23 percent of school and district scores under the existing state accountability system.
On Aug. 4, the state board of education approved changes in the program review process. Some of those changes are:
• Program reviews will be completed on a state-designated rotating schedule, two per year.
• Schools will complete Assurances yearly for each program.
• Rubrics are streamlined, focusing more holistically on program quality.
• No evidence will be listed in ASSIST and schools will no longer write rationales in ASSIST.
• K-3 programs will now be documented only using the Assurance. (This will be the only reporting process for the K-3 program review.)
• Timelines for entering data will be in place and late entry in ASSIST will result in a “0” score for that program review.
• Work plans will replace rationales; KDE will provide examples of acceptable and unacceptable evidence-based work plans.
KDE officials have stressed that the changes will require training for school personnel. Plans for a live webinar were delayed twice in July and have now been replaced with a recorded presentation on the department’s website here. According to the email, the webinar will provide a brief look at the new rubrics, an explanation of interpretation of the rubrics, the new rotation system for program reviews, a look at the new Assurances and a question/answer session.
A regional series of training workshops, limited to 100 people at each site, is scheduled for the coming weeks. One clinic, Sept. 2 in Richmond, already is full. Districts are asked to send at least one or two representatives to one of the remaining workshops. Registrations may be made online here.