KENTUCKY (WFIE) -
Parents in Kentucky will soon be getting their child's state testing scores, and officials say many parents may be surprised to see lower scores because of new standards from the state.
State Officials say there's a handful of factors causing this drop, but one local school district says these changes will likely benefit them in the long run.
For years, Kentucky schools have been measured by the CATS model, or Commonwealth Accountability and Testing System. But in a few weeks, results will be available from the first round of K-Prep testing.
"The commissioner has explained to all the superintendents that we can expect a much lower score," said Dawson Springs School Superintendent Charles Proffitt.
One key difference is the scale in which the tests are scored.
The CATS model was on a scale of 0 to 140. K-prep is 0 to 100.
Proffitt says this alone will affect the overall scores.
"We've been told to expect approximately 30-percentage points lower just because of the construction of the assessment," he said.
The new K-Prep model is based on making sure students are college and career ready.
Teacher Sasha Fight says the transition has been smooth because they're constantly finding new ways to assess their students.
"Be it as simple as 'Do you understand?' 'Can you explain back to me what we've learned today?', asking students before they leave you classroom as a type of exit slip," Fight said.
Fight says something that's helping teachers keep up is a new program called the Continuous Instructional Improvement Technology System.
"We can access our core standards, the benchmarks that we're pushing students towards to make sure that we meet and far exceed them," said Fight.
Proffitt says the new model will also be able to measure students progress year after year.
"Now we're able to look at their growth and we're getting accountability points for that growth per student now," he said.
The state expects the scores to be open to the public sometime before the end of the month.
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The new K-Prep model is based on making sure students are college and career ready.
