703 KAR 5:060. Interim assessment and accountability process.

      RELATES TO: KRS 158.645, 158.6451, 158.6453, 158.6455

      STATUTORY AUTHORITY: KRS 156.070, 158.6455

      NECESSITY, FUNCTION, AND CONFORMITY: KRS 158.6453 requires the Kentucky Board of Education to promulgate an administrative regulation to provide for an interim assessment process that ensures all student assessments, data collection, and reporting necessary for compliance with the federal accountability and proficiency requirements under No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, 20 U.S.C. 6301 et seq., or its successor. This administrative regulation establishes procedures for the interim assessment process for 2008-2009, 2009-2010, and 2010-2011.

      Section 1. Student Assessments. (1) Criterion-referenced tests developed to measure Kentucky-specific standards and meet the requirements of federal accountability shall be administered in:

      (a) Reading at grades 3 through 8 and 10;

      (b) Mathematics at grades 3 through 8 and 11;

      (c) Science at grades 4, 7, and 11;

      (d) Social studies at grades 5, 8, and 11; and

      (e) Writing on demand at grades 5, 8, and 12.

      (2) Norm-referenced test shall be administered in reading and mathematics in grades 3 through 7 during the 2009-2010 and 2010-2011 academic years.

      (3) Readiness examinations shall be administered for high school in grade 8; for college in grade 10, and the ACT examination in grade 11.

      (4) Alternate assessments for students with the most severe disabilities shall be administered to students eligible to participate with an alternate assessment.

      (5)(a) A test window for each interim period assessment shall be established by the Kentucky Department of Education annually.

      (b) Schools shall develop a testing schedule within the state-established testing window that ensures that the criterion-referenced test is administered in six (6) days during 2009-2010 and 2010-2011.

      (c) Four (4) additional days may be used for makeup testing. The norm-referenced test must be administered one (1) week before or after the criterion-referenced test.

      (6) Testing security and procedures are defined in 703 KAR 5:070, 5:080, and 5:160.

      Section 2. Data Collection. (1) Nonacademic data shall be based on all grades within a school building generating appropriate data as follows:

      (a) Attendance rates, primary through grade twelve (12) as collected in the Superintendent's Annual Attendance Report (SAAR);

      (b) Retention rates, grades 4 through 8 as collected in the state Nonacademic Data System;

      (c) Dropout rates, grades 7 through 12 as collected in the state Nonacademic Data System;

      (d) Graduation rates, grades 9 through 12 as collected in the state Nonacademic Data System; and

      (e) Successful transition to adult life for the graduating students as collected in the state Nonacademic Data System.

      (2)(a) Graduation data collected for the 2009-2010 school year shall be included in the nonacademic data release in the aggregate and disaggregated by ethnicity-based student groups.

      (b) The Kentucky Department of Education shall use the Averaged Freshmen Graduation Rate (AFGR) definition from the National Center for Education Statistics as the calculation.

      (c) The AFGR reported in 2010-2011 shall be used to report publicly nonacademic data and to make Adequate Yearly Progress determinations as defined by No Child Left Behind.

      (d) At the school and district levels, the definition of AFGR shall use the membership of grades 9 and 10 from the Growth Factor Report as the average class size.

      (e) The aggregate average class size with AFGR shall require a minimum of ten (10) in a student population as sufficient size for reporting.

      (f) To meet the AFGR requirement in 2010-2011, schools and districts must attain:

      1. A graduation rate that is equal to or greater than the annual 2010-2011 reporting goal of 82.32 percent; or

      2. A graduation rate that closes the gap between the previous year's graduation rate of a school or district and the graduation rate goal of ninety (90) percent by at least ten (10) percent per year.

      (3)(a) KDE shall generate and report with the nonacademic data release an adjusted graduation rate for Kentucky that includes standard diploma graduates completing in more than four (4) years and students with severe disabilities that earn a certificate of attainment.

      (b) The adjusted graduation rate shall be for local district use and shall not be used in federal accountability.

      Section 3. Reporting. (1) Results from all state-required assessments shall be reported publicly after the completion of data quality control processes.

      (2) Scores from alternate assessments shall be included in reporting so that the data from an alternate assessment completed by a student eligible to participate with an alternate assessment are included in the same manner as the data for a student participating in the regular components of the assessment program at the elementary, middle, or high school levels.

      (3)(a) Annual determinations of Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) shall be made for federal reporting under No Child Left Behind, 20 U.S.C. 6301 et seq.

      (b) Annual AYP status for schools and districts shall identify Title 1 schools and districts for federal school improvement and non-Title 1 schools and districts as eligible for state assistance.

      (c) During the interim assessment process, the following calculations shall be used in generating AYP reports.

      1.a. To meet the other academic indicator at elementary and middle school levels, schools and districts shall demonstrate improvement on the state-required assessments for science, social studies, and writing on demand.

      b. Improvement shall be defined as an increase in the current year aggregate percentage of students scoring proficient and above compared to the prior year or performance at or above the state aggregate percentage or a decrease in the aggregate percentage of students scoring at the Novice level for all five (5) state-required content areas combined.

      c. The calculation shall apply the confidence interval used with the reporting of reading and mathematics in No Child Left Behind Adequate Yearly Progress determinations.

      d. Students included in the calculation for other academic indicator at elementary and middle schools shall be those students enrolled for any 100 instructional days of the current school year being reported.

      2. For the calculation of safe harbor for schools or districts that have not met the reading or mathematics annual measurable objective, the performance of total students or subpopulations not meeting the annual measurable objective shall be improved by reducing the percentage of students scoring below proficient by ten (10) percent.

      (4)(a) A data review window shall be available to schools and school districts for fourteen (14) days following the official release of Annual Yearly Progress determinations to the public.

      (b) Schools and districts shall submit a request for a data review with a Web-based application provided and directed by the Department of Education.

      (c) The submitted request shall outline specific data changes needed and provide supporting documentation and evidence for the changes.

      Section 4. Schools Not Conforming to the Standard Grade Configuration. (1) If a school does not have grades end of primary/3, 4 and 5 at the elementary level, grades 6, 7 and 8 at the middle school level, or grades 9, 10, 11, and 12 at the high school level, the school shall be combined with the school or schools having the missing grade(s) its students previously attended or would subsequently attend, forming a single school accountability unit for federal accountability purposes.

      (2)(a) A school or school district may request a waiver from the standard configuration of schools (elementary, middle, or high school) from the Kentucky Board of Education specifying other combinations of schools and assessment data if all students in an accountability grade are included and all schools are accountable for reading and mathematics assessments.

      (b) A waiver request shall be received by the Kentucky Department of Education by June 30 of the year prior to the year for which the waiver is requested.

      (c) A condition for the granting of a waiver shall be that each affected school and school district shall not use the school configuration for which it sought a waiver as a basis of a subsequent data review.

      Section 5. Schools Having More than One (1) Federal Accountability Level. If a school has more than one (1) federal accountability level, the school’s data shall be the aggregated average of data for the school. (25 Ky.R. 2243; Am. 2603; eff. 6-7-99; 34 Ky.R. 2247; eff. 6-6-2008; 36 Ky.R. 2109-A; 37 Ky.R. 359; eff. July 2, 2010.)