State Commissioner of Education Randy Watson was quoted last week by the Kansas Reflector, saying, “A lot of research says if you’re not at that grade level by the time you hit third grade, it’s really hard to catch up, and most do not. In fact, more fall further behind.”
He’s right. The odds of a student closing the gap is very low, but his statement also raises an important question.
Watson and others at the Kansas State Department of Education (KSDE) are also on record, saying it is inaccurate to say that any students are below grade level based on state assessment results.
So, we asked Dr. Watson to explain the apparent conflict in those positions:
“If the state assessment doesn’t indicate that any students are below grade level, how do KSDE and school districts determine whether students need help to catch up to grade level?”
A week later, Watson still has not responded and likely won’t because it would expose another attempt to mislead parents and legislators.
Level 1 is Below Grade Level
When the current performance level descriptors (PLDs) were first introduced in 2015, Levels 2-4 were defined as being at or above grade level. There was no description for Level 1 in the adjacent graphic that KSDE shared with the Legislature in 2015, but it obviously is below grade level since everything above it is at or above grade level.
Level 2 is at grade level, but unlike the students in Levels 3 and 4, those students do not have ”the academic preparation, cognitive preparation, technical skills, employability skills and civic engagement to be successful in postsecondary education, in the attainment of an industry-recognized certification or in the workforce, without the need for remediation.” Hence, students in Level 2 are at grade level but need some degree of remediation.
As awareness grew that many students were below grade level, KSDE scrubbed ‘grade level’ from the descriptors in 2018. Nothing else changed; KSDE simply reworded the PLDs in a pathetically weak attempt to conceal reality. The official explanation of Level 1 now is: “limited ability to understand and use the skills and knowledge needed to be academically prepared for postsecondary success.”
All students are now magically at grade level in KSDE’s world, but one-third have limited ability to read and do math. In baseball terms, it’s like saying everyone is a Hall of Fame hitter, even though many of them hit below .200 (one hit for every five attempts).
Parsing words and pretending that a serious student achievement problem doesn’t exist demonstrates that academically preparing students for life after high school is not the priority of the Kansas Department of Education, and that won’t change unless the State Board of Education takes charge and puts students first.
