This week’s public release of a flurry of student test data has
local school officials focusing on the positive while they work
to eliminate the negative. Under the new K-PREP system of
accountability, student testing data from ACT, Inc. is being
used in several different ways to gauge the success of school
districts. It’s proving to be a long and involved process, and
as often confusing to teachers and administrators as it can be
confounding for parents. “It’s as complicated a system as I’ve
ever seen,” said Sheila Smith, assessment coordinator for
Middlesboro Independent Schools. Under this system students are
being tested in the eighth, tenth and eleventh grades. Schools
are now being held accountable for the progress of students at
each step as measured by the EXPLORE (eighth grade), PLAN
(sophomore) and ACT (junior) tests. But that progress is
measured in different ways. While each of these tests attempts
to measure student knowledge in the same subject areas of
English, math, reading and science; a larg