by Kirsten Clark, @kirstenlmclark –
(Photo: File Photo)
In a tersely worded letter to U.S. Education Secretary John King, Kentucky Education Commissioner Stephen Pruitt decried the federal agency’s “constant bureaucratic tinkering, pontification and dictatorial edicts” in the roll-out of the federal education policy replacing No Child Left Behind.
“We kind of needed to fire a shot over the bow,” Pruitt told a supportive Board of Education during a meeting Wednesday.
The disagreement between the education departments is two-pronged, Kentucky Department of Education spokeswoman Nancy Rodriguez explained, with the federal agency taking issue with Kentucky’s science assessment and additionally requiring Kentucky’s new accountability system – or at least parts of it – to be in place sooner than initially expected in order to identify the state’s lowest performing schools for turnaround supports in the 2017-18 school year.
Under the new Every Student Succeeds Act, the state department has been working on changes to the state’s accountability system, which measures school and district success, anticipating the new system would be ready by the 2017-18 school year, a timeline acknowledged by the U.S. Department of Education.
The May 16th letter, obtained by The Courier-Journal, references a conversation between Pruitt and U.S. Department of Education senior adviser Ann Whalen, in which the federal staffer informed Pruitt changes to the state’s science assessments and accountability system had to be made in time for the 2016-17 school year — which starts in a matter of months.
According to the letter, Whalen informed Pruitt parts of the state’s new accountability system had to be in place in the upcoming school year so that the state could identify its lowest performing schools in 2016-17 to receive turnaround support in 2017-18, when all other communications indicated otherwise, Pruitt wrote.
“No state will be able to implement a new system that takes full advantage of ESSA by the 2016-17 school year,” Pruitt wrote. “… If this is the true intent of (the U.S. Department of Education), you will be forcing states to continue the status quo of their current systems, or giving states no option but to only implement minor tweaks to existing systems.”
He continued, “Existing state systems are already being held together with ‘duct tape and baling wire,’ … If we are forced to implement an inferior accountability system, it will strike a devastating blow against the integrity of this agency and our state as a whole.”
Whalen also called on Kentucky to make changes to its statewide science assessment, Pruitt wrote.
In 2013, Kentucky adopted new science standards and, as a result, needed to develop a new assessment that aligned with those standards, Rodriguez said.
The federal education department agreed to a proposal by then-state Education Commissioner Terry Holliday: while the state developed that assessment, Kentucky students would take a norm-referenced science assessment – where students could see how they performed relative to the rest of the state – but they would not receive performance level labels like “novice,” “proficient” and “distinguished,” as they do with reading and math.
Since that time, federal guidelines and personnel have changed, Rodriguez said, although Kentucky has continued to administer the science test as it had been given permission to. Last month, Whalen informed Pruitt the state was no longer in compliance with federal guidelines and had two options: administer the old test, which is not aligned to the current standards, or continue administering the norm-reference test but create performance levels.
It wouldn’t be beneficial for student to administer a test on standards other that what they are learning, as in the first option, Pruitt told board members. And if officials opted for the second option, Rodriguez explained, “it would give an impression that (Pruitt) didn’t believe would be an accurate one.”
The U.S. Department of Education sent the following statement from Press Secretary Dorie Turner Nolt, although a spokeswoman declined further comment or clarification:
“Like educators, parents, and many others, we’re eager to implement a new, broader vision of accountability that goes beyond just test scores as soon as possible. That said, in order to provide time for the transition, our proposed regulations call for new systems to be in place in 2017-18, not 2016-17. We welcome comment on this timeline as we work together to implement this new, broader vision of accountability as swiftly and smartly as possible.”
As of Thursday afternoon, Rodriguez said the U.S. Department of Education has not responded to Pruitt’s letter, which was copied to Gov. Matt Bevin, Sen. Mitch McConnell and other key players.
During the Wednesday Board of Education meeting, Pruitt said he may travel to the nation’s capitol in the coming weeks to testify on behalf of the state department. He acknowledged to board members that Kentucky is indeed out of compliance with federal guidelines, but said implementing changes within a shortened time frame just to become compliant is not “what’s right for kids in the Commonwealth.”
Reporter Kirsten Clark can be reached at (502) 582-4144. Follow the Courier-Journal’s education team on Facebook at Facebook.com/SchooledCJ.
