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Bill Would Add to Student Tests: High School, College Readiness Would Be Focus

Posted on: Monday, 13 February 2006, 12:00 CST

By Joy Campbell, Messenger-Inquirer, Owensboro, Ky.

Feb. 13--Students who will be eighth-graders in two years may be required to take a high school readiness exam, and all high school juniors could be taking the ACT test as part of the Commonwealth Accountability Testing System.

Those are two provisions in a bill filed by Sen. Dan Kelly, a Springfield Republican and the Senate floor leader. Senate Bill 130 has already cleared that chamber's Education Committee and is on its way to the Senate floor.

"This bill is going to address the serious problem we have in Kentucky that too few students go to college and that too many going to college aren't prepared," Kelly said in presenting the bill in committee.

The provisions would take effect no later than 2008-09 if the bill passes.

The bill, as amended in committee, requires that a high school readiness test be given in eighth grade and the ACT test be given in the 11th grade as a college readiness exam.

SB 130 also would mandate the WorkKeys test for students who don't plan to attend college. WorkKeys assesses students' readiness for the 21st century work force.

The price tag for all of the mandated readiness tests would be about $1 million. Under the bill's amended version, students who plan to attend college would pay for the ACT test and have the scores sent to colleges they want to attend.

Students who aren't planning for postsecondary education could take the test and ask that their scores not be sent to colleges. The state would pay for their ACT test fee, but then they would be required to take the WorkKeys test.

Too many students are having to take remedial college courses, Kelly said. The cost for that is nearly $25 million per year, according to information from the Kentucky Council on Postsecondary Education.

The bill would pave the way for earlier remediation for students with low test scores, supporters said. Students who have not been planning to go to college but who score high on the ACT may choose to reconsider their career options.

"What's behind this push may be as important to examine as the bill," said Jana Beth Francis, director of assessment, research and curriculum development for Daviess County Public Schools. "Taking the ACT encourages students to look at postsecondary options. By putting this in schools, it places even more emphasis on it."

Some Kentucky districts already require sophomores to take the PLAN test by ACT, which is a practice exam for the real deal.

"Daviess County gives PLAN to our sophomores, and we pay for it," Francis said. "It helps to accomplish one of the missions -- to get every child focused on postsecondary opportunities and in making a successful transition."

When teachers and administrators get PLAN results, they talk to students about where they might want to go to college, she said.

In committee, SB 130 received support from the Kentucky School Boards Association, the Kentucky Council on Postsecondary Education and the Kentucky Chamber of Commerce.

Illinois and Colorado have implemented similar programs and are tracking positive results, according to committee testimony from Brenda Jackson, president of the state school boards group. She hopes the provisions will provide incentives for more students to take a precollege curriculum and school boards to develop a more rigorous standard curriculum.

The bill helps to provide career guidance for all students, whether that is for the work force or college, according to David Adkisson, president of the Kentucky Chamber of Commerce.

The bill also can help to better link and align high schools and colleges, said Jim Applegate, a member of the state postsecondary council.

At least one local lawmaker also has endorsed it.

"By integrating the ACT into our high school assessment program, we hope students will gain a personal stake in school reform," Sen. Jerry Rhoads, a Madisonville Democrat, told his constituents in his weekly column. "By taking the ACT, students can access how prepared they are for college."

Educators will have time to help students in those areas in which the scores are too low. The goal is to have students more ready for success in college.

"I think the ACT is good for high school students; it's a nationally recognized measurement of achievement, and paying for it is certainly not a bad thing," said Pat Ashley, the former assistant superintendent for instruction for Owensboro Public Schools. "If it's just providing the opportunity to take the ACT, I would be in favor of that. ..."

Ashley said a goal of K-12 education is to have graduates who are college-ready and there will be students for which taking the ACT will open doors for scholarships they may not have even considered.

SB 130 is headed to the Senate for a floor vote.

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Copyright (c) 2006, Messenger-Inquirer, Owensboro, Ky.

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Source: Messenger-Inquirer

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