Beech Tree News Network

Kentucky students took the Kentucky Summative Assessment (KSA) in the Spring of 2021. Previously these tests were called Kentucky Performance Rating for Educational Progress (K-PREP). The tests were developed by Kentucky teachers and align with the Kentucky Academic Standards in each content area. As current standards had been measured in operational state assessments, the KSA name has been applied.

KSA is the annual summative assessment given in grades 3 through 8, 10, and 11 to Kentucky public school students. KSA provides content area assessments, including reading and mathematics (grades 3 through 8 and 10), science (grades 4, 7, 11), and writing (grades 5, 8, 11). 

These assessments are Butler County Schools’ measure of student proficiency and progress on the state content standards. These standards establish goals for what all students should know and be able to do in each grade. For the first time, the KSA was given online with only a small percentage of students taking it on paper.  For the Spring of 2021 and due to the pandemic, schools were not required to test all students.  However, all districts were encouraged to test all students and report participation rate. Butler County students had a 97.8% participation on the KSA assessment, which is one of the highest participation rates across the state with the state average being 82.1%.  This assessment goes beyond multiple-choice questions. It includes extended response where students create a response and technology-enhanced items where students interact with the computer to demonstrate critical thinking and problem-solving skills.

When considering Butler County Schools’ performance, it is important to consider the learning contexts and experiences during the 2020-2021 school year as many students faced unprecedented challenges because of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19). Here are a few examples of the learning contexts and conditions our district had that may have influenced our students’ results:  

• Butler County students had 61 days of hybrid instruction (A/B Schedule). 

• Butler County Schools had 67 days of Non-Traditional Instruction (NTI) days with 35 being state forced shutdown.  The remaining 27 were the Wednesdays of our hybrid schedule and 5 were weather days.

• Butler County students had 36 full in-person days to end the school year starting March 15, 2021.  

• Butler County Schools had 31.1% students that chose to have all of their instruction virtually.  Butler County High School was 39.6%.  Butler County Middle School was 37.6%.  Morgantown Elementary School was 20.1%.  North Butler Elementary was 20.1%. 

This annual assessment provides critical information about student learning, but no single assessment should ever be the sole factor in making an educational decision. It is important to remember that assessments provide only one measure of student learning, but when combined with grades, classroom activities, unit quizzes and tests, and district-level assessments, the end-of-year assessments can help provide a more complete picture of our students’ abilities over the course of the school year and path toward academic success on these content standards.

For KSA, students will still receive a performance level (distinguished, proficient, apprentice, and novice) for each of the content area assessments.  These levels indicate performance on groups of items that measure similar skills. Parents will soon receive “The KSA Individual Student Report” which will contain more information about the performance levels in each area for their individual child.

State assessments are one of several strategies to better understand how students performed academically as part of Butler County Schools COVID-19 academic recovery efforts. The data provides a point-in-time “temperature check” that allows districts to better track and address student’s academic needs.

To view the performance and participation for the entire Butler County School district, or one of our individual schools, you can visit the Kentucky Department of Education’s School Report Card website at www.kyschoolreportcard.com  This site contains academic performance data, school safety data, student opportunities data, as well as data in many other areas for all of Butler County Schools.