Comments accepted through April 20
FRANKFORT, Ky. (April 12, 2016) — The Kentucky Department of Education (KDE) is seeking feedback on its request for a federal waiver from measuring Kentucky’s speaking and listening content standards, which are part of the state’s reading/language arts academic content standards.
As part of the peer review of state assessment systems, the U.S. Department of Education (USED) has communicated that a state my request a limited waiver of the requirement that its assessment system cover the full range of its academic content standards for reading/language arts, if the standards include speaking and listening, as the Kentucky Academic Standards do. The standards may be accessed here.
“Speaking and listening skills are critical for our children’s future success and are important components of our academic standards, curricula and classroom experiences,” Education Commissioner Stephen Pruitt said. “However, our assessment system and those of other states have not yet developed appropriate ways to measure these skills on large-scale state assessments.”
The waiver would not exempt educators from teaching the speaking and listening standards, only from testing these specific standards. Kentucky is requesting the waiver through the 2016-17 school year.
USED will continue to work with states to develop best practices with respect to assessing speaking and listening on large-scale assessments and to monitor state progress toward measuring these standards. This waiver would not remove other requirements regarding the state’s assessment system, including the requirement to provide appropriate accommodations to all students, including students with disabilities and English learners.
The Kentucky Department of Education waiver request letter is posted on the KDE website. KDE
welcomes public comment prior to submission of the letter. Comments and feedback may be sent to Mary Ann Miller, executive director of the Kentucky Board of Education, at [email protected]. Comments will be accepted until the close of business on April 20.
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