Monday, March 01, 1999
Curriculum review under way
Ky. aims to match tests with teaching
BY ANDREA TORTORA
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Parents, educators and the public started reviewing Kentucky's basic education curricula this week to make sure they're on par with national standards.
The revision of what Kentucky calls its Core Content for Assessment is being conducted to make sure the new state assessment test planned for 2001 will match what is being taught in the classroom.
The pressure to complete the review is intense. The state Education Department set an August deadline so teachers will have time to implement curriculum changes and test makers will know what kinds of questions to create.
“If we go ahead and develop this new test and later on find out that it isn't aligned with the core content, that wouldn't be right,” said Jeff Mando, a state board of education member from Villa Hills.
Some educators think the review might be so rushed that it won't receive all the public input it deserves.
For instance, school superintendents received an e-mail on Feb. 10 from Gene Wilhoit, deputy commissioner for learning support services. Mr. Wilhoit asked for the names of teachers and parents who might serve on a review committee. Those names had to be submitted two days later, on Feb. 12.
“It looked like a rushed kind of job, cobbled together and not thought out,” Beechwood Schools Superintendent Fred Bassett said.
Bryan Blavatt, Boone County Schools superintendent, said he is concerned about the turn-around time.
“Sometimes these things come down so quickly and there is never enough time to prepare,” Mr. Blavatt said.
The state board admits the process is on a tight time line. The e-mail went out the day the board voted to conduct the review, as recommended by a panel of national experts. To complete the roster of meetings and extensive public input, the board wanted the education department to get started early.
“The purpose of this is not to rewrite or start from scratch,” said Jim Parks, education department spokesman. “It's to make some updates, do some fine tuning.”
The core content was unveiled in 1997 after teachers asked for more specific guidelines on what they should be teaching. Under the 1990 Kentucky Education Reform Act, the state created “education frameworks” that set the standard for the Kentucky Instructional Results Information System (KIRIS) test. Teachers said the frameworks did not help them prepare students enough for the KIRIS exam.
This 1999 review is also a time when educators can suggest changes to the core curricula. For example, the core content for arts and humanities includes a provision for 11th-grade literature that seems out of line with what is being taught.
The core content says students will be tested on world literature and American literature, including the Torah, Koran and the Bible and authors Homer, Plato, Chaucer, Dante, Machiavelli, Shakespeare, Dickinson, Wordsworth and Steinbeck.
But many high schools teach American authors in the junior year and world authors in the senior year. Advanced Placement English classes also focus mostly on American authors. In other words, students could be tested in the 11th grade on work many may not have read.
These kinds of concerns are what the review will address, Mr. Parks said. Committees could decide the 11th-grade test curriculum covers too much material or does not fit with what is now being taught in classrooms, and decide to make changes.
One of major criticisms Kentucky's testing received from experts is that there were too many changes made to the test and the state curriculum. A national panel said the state should make changes in all subject areas at the same time so a stable system exists for as long as possible.
At the same time, Kentucky will also be reviewing its standards. Committees will determine, for example, what it really means to be proficient in eighth-grade science or what it means to give an apprentice answer in 11th-grade math.
“All we're doing is a review,” Mr. Mando said. “You could go through this process and come out with a consensus that we don't need to make any changes. But we don't know that until we do the review.”
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