When the Kentucky Supreme Court declared Kentucky's educational system unconstitutional in 1989, the Kentucky legislature responded by enacting the Kentucky Education Reform Act (KERA) in April 1990. One of the most comprehensive, statewide restructuring efforts ever attempted in the United States, the reform called for top-down and bottom-up systemic change.
For the past three years, the focus has been on the top-down changes in resource flow and programmatic initiatives. Official data from the first two years of implementation indicate that tax increases added a state average of over 30 percent to district budgets. The Kentucky Department of Education developed world-class curriculum standards, a new statewide authentic assessment system, and a system of school accountability that links sanctions and rewards to demonstrated student achievement. A nongraded primary school pilot became mandatory in September 1992, and teachers, principals, and superintendents are receiving extensive professional development to help them implement the necessary changes.
Aiming High
In designing the Kentucky Education Reform Act, one of the primary challenges facing the Kentucky legislature was raising the standards for what students know and are able to do. In the act, the legislature mandated world-class standards and asserted that all students could achieve them. As explained by Kentucky Commissioner of Education Thomas C. Boysen: American education has been shooting at baskets that are six feet high. Kentucky has decided to move up to world-class competition and to begin shooting at baskets that are 10 feet high.
- Students use research tools to locate sources of information relevant to a specific need or problem.
- Students identify, compare, construct, and use patterns to understand and interpret past and present events and predict future events.
- Students communicate ideas to a variety of audiences for a variety of purposes in a variety of modes through writing.
Assessment tasks and scoring rubrics evaluate and give specific meaning to the 75 learner outcomes. The new state assessment system uses both cognitive and noncognitive indicators to measure student competence in the learner outcomes at grades 4, 8, and 12. Cognitive indicators include portfolio review, performance events, and short essay responses. Noncognitive indicators include nontraditional measures such as successful transition from high school to post-secondary education, the military, or work, as well as traditional indicators such as retention and dropout rates.
Cognitive scoring rubrics identify whether a student is scoring at the novice, apprentice, proficient, or distinguished level. These four levels of Kentucky's new assessment system “are based on clear and consistent standards of performance that apply throughout the state” and that “emphasize the developmental nature of learning” (Kentucky Department of Education 1992).
All students participate in the regular assessment system except those students identified as severely impaired. An alternate portfolio review tied to the outcomes has been developed for students in this category.
When the Department of Education released the results from the first round of testing in September 1992, only 10 percent of Kentucky's students met the new world-class standards by scoring at the proficient or distinguished level.
School Accountability
In January 1993, using the results from the state's new authentic assessment system, the Kentucky Department of Education assigned a baseline score, called an accountability index, and a threshold, a two-year target for improvement, to each of Kentucky's 1,360 schools. The accountability index is a number ranging from 1 to 100 and is based on six components: assessment scores for reading, writing, mathematics, science, and social studies; and a number representing a score for the combined, noncognitive indicators. Most schools received an accountability index somewhere in the 30s. The new accountability system does not compare districts but instead provides a school baseline score and a target for improvement for each school. Comparing CTBS scores from school districts with less money to so-called “property-rich” districts was one of the reasons for the class action equity suit leading to the Supreme Court decision. The new system also lessens the role socioeconomic status has in predicting school success (Fowler and Walberg 1991).
The goal is for each school, over the next 20 years, to have an accountability index of 100. This will mean that the numerical scores on the cognitive and noncognitive indicators average to be 100, demonstrating that the school is functioning at the proficient level. Recognizing that schools will need time to reach the desired goal of proficiency, the Kentucky Department of Education devised a formula to compute the amount of improvement a school must make every two years.
The two-year goals, the thresholds, are determined by subtracting where the school is now (accountability index) from 100 (the goal) and dividing that number by 10 (representing 10 two-year periods or 20 years). For example, a school with an accountability index of 36 would compute the threshold score it needs to achieve in two years by subtracting 36 from 100 (64), dividing that number by 10 (6.4) and adding it to the present accountability index (42.4). In two years, the school would need to score a 42.4 in order to have achieved its target.
Every two years each school will receive a new accountability index and a new threshold. This means that the school must continue to improve student achievement, as measured by the state assessment system, every two years.
To complicate the task, the assessment system will change over the next three years. At present, the assessment system evaluates student competence on 29 of the 75 learner outcomes. Over the next three years, the system will be expanded to include all 75 learner outcomes. Designing formulas to determine accountability that can stand the challenge of litigation while changing over time is a psychometrician's nightmare, but one the Kentucky Department of Education is attempting to accomplish.
The Muscle of Systemic Change
- left alone, schools will not systemically change;
- change must be statutorily mandated;
- assessment drives instruction;
- sanctions and rewards are required to force change; and
- sanctions and rewards must be linked to assessment.
The system of sanctions and rewards is linked to whether a school achieves its threshold, exceeds it, or falls below its baseline score. Schools achieving above their threshold score receive financial rewards (Funds for rewards are currently held in state escrow accounts). Schools failing to achieve their target will be required to develop school improvement plans with assistance from the Kentucky Department of Education. Schools that fall more than 5 percent below their baseline score will be labeled “schools in crisis.” After learning that the school is in crisis, parents may transfer their children to other schools. To assist the school in improvement, the Department of Education will assign a “distinguished educator” with statutory powers to enforce sweeping changes, including staff removal.
Nongraded Primary School
Another top-down change initiated by the 1990 reforms was the Primary School Program. The State Department of Education identified seven critical attributes of primary schools: developmentally appropriate educational practices, multi-age/multi-ability classrooms, continuous progress, authentic assessment, qualitative reporting methods, professional teamwork, and positive parental involvement. In September 1992, all elementary schools in Kentucky were required to begin piloting a nongraded primary, extending from kindergarten until students are ready to enter 4th grade. Full implementation is mandated for the 1993–94 school year.
The Primary School Program is based on the belief that all children can learn, although they do not all learn at the same rate or in the same way. Designed to prevent student failure at the primary level, the program provides students with the “gift of time.” A portfolio review process is used to determine when students have successfully mastered the skills required to pass on to 4th grade.
Many parents are unsure about the program, fearing their children will be used as some sort of guinea pigs, but initial reports from the districts indicate enthusiastic support from teachers, despite the heavy workload. Early implementation efforts have focused on the expanded use of educational strategies such as cooperative learning, teaming, and learning centers; manipulative mathematics programs; and integrated language arts. As the keystone to the successful restructuring of Kentucky's schools, the nongraded primary could change the rest of the school system.
Setting the Stage for Bottom-Up Change
With the infrastructure in place, attention is now shifting to individual schools and bottom-up restructuring. The real accountability embedded in Kentucky's reform is accountability for what students learn in the classroom. Making the necessary classroom changes to enable 80 percent of the students enrolled in school to reach world-class standards is something no state has ever accomplished before. It will depend on bottom-up restructuring.
The persons most responsible for classroom accountability are the classroom teachers. To prepare them to initiate the changes mandated by KERA, all teachers are completing inservice in areas such as primary school, performance assessment, site-based decision making, motivating students from diverse cultures, and research-based instructional practices. Between 1990 and 1994, 26 days of professional development will be provided to all teachers in the state. In addition, eight regional service centers have been established to support professional development activities. All principals and superintendents are also taking part in training sessions.
More than tinkering with the present textbook-driven curriculum will be required. Creative, risk-taking educators will need to develop strong parental support, motivate and inspire dysfunctional families and children, and empower children to reach the intellectual and interpersonal standards they are capable of achieving. If bottom-up restructuring is possible, the dedicated professional teachers in Kentucky will prove it can be done.
