Kentucky's Science Test Undergoes Revision; Education Commissioner Stephen Pruitt Wants Feds to Back Off

The Kentucky Education Commissioner, Stephen Pruitt, is planning to roll out a new science test to be implemented statewide and warned the federal department to back off.

The test will be issued in a pilot program in the spring of 2017 and a new accountability system will also be released for the school year 2017 to 2018. However, Pruitt pointed out that the changes he wants to make is beinng meddled by the U.S. Department of Education. The federal department wants Kentucyk to change the science test earlier but Pruitt claims it is not yet aligned with what students are learning now in the classroom, Lexington Herald Leader reported.

Presently, Kentucky is giving students a science test that was previously approved by the U.S. Department of Education. However, it is not included in Kentucky's accountability system. Pruitt noted that Kentucky was given two options by the federal department, one of which is to give the old science tests or to label the scores of the students with Distinguished, Proficient, Apprentice or Novice.

This idea does not sit well with Pruitt as he said that the test given now do not measure the four performance levels but it measures how students compare to other students.

Aside from that, the U.S. Department of Education also wants the state to identify the lowest performing schools for the new accountability system using the data from the old accountability system. Pruitt also subjected to that noting that it is not fair to identify a school as low performing using the old accountability system then incorporate it in the upcoming new system.

The latest comments of Pruitt came after he sent a letter to U.S. Education Secretary John King. Pruitt said that the federal agency's constant "constant bureaucratic tinkering, pontification and dictatorial edicts" will not affect Kentucky's new program. The No Child Left Behind program of the federal agency will be replaced with Every Student Succeeds Act.

Science tests statewide require students to be tested in order to ensure that they are learning. Pruitt thinks that these tests have become merely a compliance with no value to both the parents and the students.