Call to Order and Roll Call
The Education Assessment and Accountability Review Subcommittee met on Monday, June 14, 2010, at<MeetTime> 3:30 PM, in Room 131 of the Capitol Annex. Representative Kent Stevens, Chair, called the meeting to order, and the secretary called the roll.
Present were:
Members: Senator Jack Westwood, Co-Chair; Representative Kent Stevens, Co-Chair; Senators Vernie McGaha, and Ken Winters; Representatives Bill Farmer, Mary Lou Marzian, and Harry Moberly Jr.
Guest Legislator: Representative Derrick Graham
Guests: Wayne Young, Kentucky Association of School Administrators.
LRC Staff: Sandy Deaton, Audrey Carr, Janet Stevens, Henry Smith, and Janet Oliver.
Approval of Minutes
Representative Moberly made a motion that the minutes of the May 14, 2010, meeting be approved. Senator Westwood seconded the motion and the motion was adopted by voice vote.
Consideration of Administrative Regulation
Mr. Kevin Brown, Legal Counsel for the Kentucky Department of Education, explained recent changes to Administrative Regulation 703 KAR 5:180 (and E), Intervention system for persistently low-achieving schools. He said the regulation was promulgated to administer the provisions contained in House Bill 176, passed by the General Assembly in January 2010, and the emergency clause was added to meet federal Race to the Top application timelines. A subsequent in-depth review of the regulation revealed that several technical changes and a few substantive changes were needed. Mr. Brown said that the Kentucky Board of Education approved the changes at its last meeting.
The substantive changes included extending the timeline for districts to choose an intervention option from 30 to 45 days after receipt of official notification; adding clarifying language to ensure that district school-based council members receive timely notification of appeals options available to the district; incorporating the federal definition for the restaffing option concerning the measurement of effectiveness of staff; and added language to define the process to be used by the commissioner of education to replace school council members if called for in the leadership assessment process.
Senator Westwood made a motion that the changes to Regulation 703 KAR 5:180 (and E) be approved. Representative Moberly seconded the motion and the motion was adopted by voice vote.
2009 Office of Education Accountability (OEA) Annual Report
Ms. Marcia Seiler, Director, Office of Education Accountability, explained that the annual report provides a summary of OEA activity for calendar year 2009. The report includes information on investigations, research, and monitoring activities related to assessment and accountability. The number of investigations conducted during 2009 was not out of the ordinary. A written complaint is required before an investigation is initiated and other agencies, i.e., KDE, the Attorney General’s Office, and others, are contacted as needed. OEA also completed all research reports as set forth in the study agenda approved by the Education Assessment and Accountability Review Subcommittee (EAARS), with the major research project of the year being a study of mathematics, which resulted in several recommendations. All OEA reports completed and approved by EAARS are available on the LRC Website. Ms. Seiler recognized Keith White with her office, whose primary responsibility is to monitor assessment and accountability activities.
Dr. Ken Chilton, Director of Research for OEA, provided a brief overview of the District Data Profiles Report for School Year 2008-2009. He said the report is a user friendly compilation of data collected from various sources on the 174 school districts with an individual profile for the entire state and includes student demographics and performance data, staffing data and related information, and district expenditure and revenue data.
Ms. Seiler reported that an in-depth study of district fund balances is currently being conducted and results will be provided to the subcommittee later in the year. She said next year’s profiles will include, if data are available, the number or percent of students entering ninth grade with at least one course in Algebra; the percent of students who attended college following high school graduation; and the percent of students who needed remediation courses upon entering college.
Representative Derrick Graham asked if copies of the report could be made available to teachers and other school personnel. Ms. Seiler said the profiles are available online and that she would work with KDE to publicize the availability of the report to school personnel.
Representative Marzian said she was appalled at the high percentage of students participating in free and reduced price lunches and the possibility that a high correlation may exist with low graduation rates and test scores. Senator McGaha commented that many schools are diligent in getting students qualified for free and reduced price lunches since it is financially advantageous for the school but very little oversight and auditing is done to ensure that students continue to be qualified. Ms. Seiler responded that KDE’s Division of Nutrition and Health Services actually monitors the program and that she would obtain information on the division’s auditing and monitoring process and report back to the subcommittee. Representative Stevens commented that, having been a principal, he was familiar with the process of verifying eligibility and that no penalty existed even though a student may have become ineligible.
Representative Marzian made a motion that the OEA Annual Report and the District Data Profiles Report be approved. The motion was seconded by Senator Westwood and approved by voice vote.
There being no further business before the committee, the meeting adjourned at 4:00 PM.