Paducah Sun, Sept. 29, 2011

Elementary students to face exit exam
By Rebecca Feldhaus

Donald Shively, assistant superintendent of instructional programs, hopes to soon have a draft of a fifth-grade exit exam that children must pass before advancing to middle school. Shively has met with elementary and middle school principals and teachers as well as parents to determine the basic skills students need before moving to sixth-grade.

Discussion groups met in July. Because this is the first year the district has taken such a measure, Shively said fourth-graders will take the test this year to prepare for next year’s test. Though he called the exam a work in progress, teachers in the middle school are drafting test questions based on their own expectations and information given them by elementary school teachers.

If the board approves the measure, Shively wants to continue testing fourth-graders on basic skills before they get to their fifth-grade exit exam. He said children need early remediation to ensure they have basic skills such as reading comprehension and multiplication factors.

With the implementation of Senate Bill 1 this school year, teachers already face myriad changes in standards and assessment. Steve Ybarzabal, principal at Clark Elementary School, said the advantage to this specific testing would be timely access to student progress.

“We’re just getting test data from last spring now,” Ybarzabal said, “whereas this (test) will be pretty immediate. We won’t lose the summer if we need to work with those students.”

Ybarzabal sees the assessment as an opportunity to address needed remediation earlier.

Vicki Conyer, principal at Morgan Elementary School, said the test is meant to test basic skills. The new national core content adopted along with SB 1 should prepare students with the basic information. Additional state testing will continue as a way to match Kentucky’s students against the rest of the country.

“We’re looking to see where our students are at this point: any data we can get to better equip our students for middle school,” Conyer said.

With parents already giving input, Shively hopes they will remain supportive of the district’s plans. Though the district would like to avoid any student failing the exit test, there will be policies to work with parents who challenge their child’s need to pass the test.

Shively said board policy and an outlet for parent discussion and potential appeal will accompany any change in student requirements. He’ll bring the plan to the November board of education meeting for discussion.