Third-grade reading proficiency is at 87% in Indiana, a phenomenal increase of five points over a year ago. In Kansas, only 52% reached that level in the latest testing available. While the Hoosier State seeks to build on that momentum, the Sunflower State has decided to lower its proficiency standards to give a false impression of improvement.
An article in The 74 Million by former Florida Governor Jeb Bush discusses Indiana’s commitment to increasing reading scores by borrowing from successes in his state and in Mississippi:
“In Florida, the introduction of comprehensive literacy reform in 2002 marked a turning point. Over the following decade, the state saw NAEP fourth-grade reading scores improve by the equivalent of one and a half grade levels.
“Mississippi’s literacy law, which was inspired by Florida’s success, integrated educator professional learning, added literacy coaches in the state’s lowest-performing schools to help transfer knowledge into practice and required early screening to catch students who struggled with reading. The state’s third-grade retention policy ensured students did not advance if they were not reading on grade level.
Other efforts included summer reading camps, monitoring student progress at least three times per year to catch students before they fell behind, and allowing some students to advance to the next grade for good cause on a case-by-case basis. These reforms helped elevate Mississippi from 49th in the nation in fourth-grade reading proficiency in 2013 to ninth.”
The former governor concluded by saying Indiana has set a high proficiency bar for itself:
“Indiana has set a goal that by 2027, 95% of third graders will be reading proficiently, and the state has charted a clear path, proving what’s possible when policymakers enact evidence-based strategies to support students.”
Kansas dumbs down standards for false proficiency gains
But in Kansas, leadership appears to be lacking at the State Board of Education (SBOE) and Department of Education (KSDE), writes Dave Trabert, CEO of the Kansas Policy Institute, owners of The Sentinel.
The elected state board is supposed to dictate policy the KSDE, but Trabert notes sometimes those directives are difficult to follow:
“State Board Chair Cathy Hopkins commented on a Kansas Policy Institute discovery that school districts were not complying with the Every Child Can Read Act, saying, ‘What was put out is that the law was broken, which is completely untrue. That report is due to the legislature in January. So on/by June 30, districts are asked to provide information, which then gives KSDE staff time to put all that data together, make sure they have the data that is required and work on that until that report is then given to the legislature in January after they start session.
“KSDE lawyers either gave her bad advice or sat silently while Hopkins made an inaccurate statement.”
Trabert adds that state law is unequivocal in assigning responsibility for public education in Kansas:
KSA 72-3622 says, “On or before June 30 of each school year, each school district shall report to the state department of education:”
- The number of third-grade students in the school district,
- The screening and assessment data from at least the preceding two school years that the school district is using as a baseline to evaluate student progress in literacy; and
- The percentage of students who are proficient, moving toward proficiency, or deficient, with percentages provided for all students and student subgroups.
“Shall report” is not a suggestion; it’s a legal obligation placed on school districts, and it cannot be waived by the State Board of Education. The results of that reporting are not provided to the Legislature until the next session begins, but districts are legally required to report to KSDE by June 30. Our investigation found that reports for only 229 of the state’s 286 districts were provided, and none of them contained all of the required information.
“Part of the blame for not meeting the June 30 deadline falls on the Department of Education. It provided the fill-in-the-blank forms to districts, and the forms did not request all of the data stipulated in the law.
The State Board of Education is supposed to run the Department of Education. Instead, it seems that the Department runs the Board, which accepts excuses for blatant legal violations and takes no action.”
Confusion at the top of the education establishment in Kansas is particularly frustrating, given that an estimated 150,000 Kansas students have a limited ability to read:
An interesting, informative, and interactive chart is available online here, provided by the Program for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC) and the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES). Readers can access literacy data from various age groups in their counties.
