(FRANKFORT, Ky.) -- Kentucky has received a $5.8 million grant to develop and implement a longitudinal student testing data system.
The grant is from the Institute of Education Sciences, which provided grants to Kentucky and 13 other states for longitudinal data systems. The other states and their grant amounts are as follows:
- Alaska -- $3.5 million
- Arkansas -- $3.3 million
- California -- $3.3 million
- Connecticut -- $1.5 million
- Florida -- $1.6 million
- Maryland -- $5.7 million
- Michigan -- $3 million
- Minnesota -- $3.3 million
- Ohio -- $5.7 million
- Pennsylvania -- $4 million
- South Carolina -- $5.8 million
- Tennessee -- $3.2 million
- Wisconsin -- $3.1 million
Longitudinal data is collected for an individual student or group of students over a period of time, usually from grade level to grade level. Currently, Kentucky does not produce longitudinal data through the Commonwealth Accountability Testing System (CATS), but will work during the next year to develop and implement the Kentucky Instructional Data System (KIDS). KIDS will provide educators and researchers with the tools to follow individual and group student achievement over time.
Established by the Education Sciences Reform Act of 2002, the Institute of Education Sciences is the research arm of the U.S. Department of Education. Its mission is to expand knowledge and provide information on the condition of education, practices that improve academic achievement and the effectiveness of federal and other education programs. Its goal is the transformation of education into an evidence-based field in which decision makers routinely seek out the best available research and data before adopting programs or practices that will affect significant numbers of students.
##