Defining success way down for Kentucky schools

It's hard not to be skeptical of the task force set-up ostensibly to review all-important education assessment in state schools.

Officials say the study group will start examining the CATS program sometime in July. But if you listen to Kentucky Association of School Superintendents President Roger Marcum, they have already started on the wrong foot.

Marcum told the Lebanon Enterprise newspaper the manipulated, malignant, and moribund CATS has been "a success."

Really Roger? How so? I mean, what's your favorite part: the fact data applies to schools and not individual children, the fact teachers say the tests are getting easier every year, the fact there is no legitimate way to compare our results with those of other states, the fact that results get to schools too late each year to be of any value to curriculum planners, or is it the fact CATS costs millions of dollars more than a more valid assessment tool?

I'm just curious.


I'd love to see someone from the education establishment try to answer these questions, but it won't happen. They simply can't do it well enough to convince anyone who is looking at the facts.