Education Report Out
There's a new education report out that compares Kentucky students CATS scores vs. the NAEP test scores. It depends on how you look at whether the report paints an optimistic or pessimistic view of Kentucky's public schools.
KERA critic Dick Innes insists that the report shows Kentucky 4th and 8th graders aren't improving when tested against a national test. And Innes says a comparison of the kids scoring "proficient" on the CATS test is exorbitant compared to the NAEP's rating of kids who are "proficient." But that's also the case in most other states I looked at. Innes also says the results show school districts who complain about the number of "english as second language" students bringing their scores down have nothing to complain about because the number of ESL students in Kentucky (1.5%) is way below the national average. Only 8.5% of Kentucky parents are taking advantage of tutoring for their kids, compared to 14.5% nationwide. But a bigger percentage of Kentucky students (78%) are making yearly progress than the rest of the U.S. (70%).