(FRANKFORT, Ky.) -- Fewer than five percent of Kentucky's 12th-graders may retake a portion of the Kentucky Core Content Test (KCCT) due to an inadvertent release of secure test items, the Kentucky Department of Education announced today.
The secure items were on one form of the writing on-demand test given to 12th-graders. The items were released inadvertently as part of a project to give eligible students with disabilities the opportunity to take the 2003 KCCT through an online system.
"This is primarily a management issue," said Kentucky Education Commissioner Gene Wilhoit. "At some point, there should have been checks to ensure that secure items were not released for public view, and those checks did not occur. We are working closely with our staff and eCollege to tighten up the controls."
The department worked with eCollege of Denver, Colorado, to develop the online assessment, which enables students with disabilities who meet specific criteria to take the 2003 KCCT online. The assessment was field-tested in November 2002 with previously released test items; however, the questions on one form of the 12th-grade writing on-demand test were drawn inadvertently from the secure pool of testing items for the 2003 administration.
The KCCT is comprised of six test forms. Schools receive all six forms and provide those to students randomly.
Each spring, during a two-week testing window, every student in Kentucky's public schools participates in a state-required assessment. Students in grades 3 (end of primary), 6 and 9 take the CTBS/5, a national norm-referenced test. Students in grades 4, 5, 7, 8, 10, 11 and 12 take the Kentucky Core Content Test (KCCT).
This year, schools were given three options when setting their two-week testing windows: April 21 through May 2; April 28 through May 9; or May 5 through May 16. Twenty-six school districts selected the first option.
Students who took the identified writing on-demand test form during the 2003 administration will take another form of the writing on-demand test. Their scores will be included in their schools' accountability indices. Schools that have not yet begun administering the 12th-grade on-demand writing portion of the test have been instructed to remove the specific form affected.
Statewide, nearly 500,000 students participate in state-mandated assessments, with approximately 37,000 in grade 12. Based on direct contact with the 26 school districts who have already begun the 2003 KCCT administration, the retest could affect fewer than 1,800 students in those districts' high schools.
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