Kenai Peninsula students overall made gains in reading and math according to newly published standardized testing data. It's the first data that allows year over year, apples-to-apples comparisons since the state board of education lowered test standards last year.
Each year, Alaska students take multiple standardized tests that measure different things. The Alaska System of Academic Readiness, or AK STAR Assessment, measures what students should be able to do according to grade-level standards set by the state. That’s different from the NWEA MAP Growth test, which measures what students can do, as compared to other students.
Cindy McKibben is the district’s intervention and assessment coordinator. She says the new data that the state education department published is positive for the district. It shows the proportion of tested students considered proficient increased compared to last school year – by 2% in English Language Arts and by 3% in math. Compared to other large Alaska school districts, she says that’s a big deal.
“Kenai was the second highest in both ELA and math,” she said.
Superintendent Clayton Holland says the results are cause for celebration and reflect hard work by district students and staff. He says the results drew attention from Department of Education and Early Development Commissioner Deena Bishop, too.
“I had the text this morning coming in here, which is timely given this work session, from Commissioner Bishop: ‘Really nice work on your student learning. Exclamation, exclamation, exclamation, exclamation. You kicked butt in the state,’” he said.
Kenai Peninsula students consistently score higher on standardized tests than the statewide average. But a majority are not considered proficient.
Of the 3,821 third through tenth graders tested on the Kenai Peninsula, 63% were identified as needing support or approaching proficiency in English Language Arts. That’s lower than the statewide rate.
Similar trends are observed in math scores. Almost 40% of Kenai Peninsula students who took the AK STAR Assessment are considered proficient in math, compared to 32% statewide.
McKibben, the district assessment coordinator, says this year’s data are newly granular in a way that’s useful for educators.
“We as a district can now scroll down and see which grade levels might be having more trouble than others, and then, of course, can dive all the way down to which classrooms, which schools, which grades, which teachers, which students,” she said. “So having this dynamic report available now will only make us stronger as a district.”
Some school board members, like Homer representative Tim Daugharty cautioned against drawing broad conclusions from the new data.
“The test scores are only as good as the way the data is presented, and so before we start saying that we're not meeting the grade, make sure that you know what you may be talking about,” he said.
Not every student takes standardized tests. Home-school students, for example, aren’t required to take any. And within the Kenai Peninsula School District, more than 1,000 students are enrolled in Connections, the district’s home-school program.
Student performance on standardized tests has been a hot topic in the Alaska Legislature in recent years amid a push for more funding for K-12 schools. After the latest results were published, state officials were quick to say there’s room for improvement.
