ELLY GRIMM
• Leader & Times
After a brief tease at a previous meeting, the USD 480 school board heard the district’s Kansas Assessment Program (KAP) results at its most recent meeting Monday evening.
“One thing I do want to have the board know is the 2023-2024 KAP summative assessment was on a different scale with different Performance Level cut scores. Therefore, they advise not to compare results from this year to last year,” Assistant Superintendent of Academics Dr. Maria Gomez-Rocque said. “Then, to give some definitions, a scale score is a mathematical conversion of the total number of points a student earned on an assessment into a score along a predefined scale, and the scale spread on the KAP assessments range from 400 to 700. Scale scores compare a student’s performance to the expectation of the grade level and subject area. The subject areas we’re tested on are English Language Arts (ELA), math and science. Students performing at Levels 3 and 4 are reaching those expectations, while students performing at Levels 1 and 2 are still working toward reaching proficiency. And again, this is for grade level standards. This year, we are making comparisons to state outcomes due to the 2025 KAP assessment having different Performance Level cut scores. School buildings can make comparisons to the district and to the state.”
Gomez-Rocque then talked about the district’s ELA cut scores.
“Students in grades 3 through 8 and 10th grade get tested with ELA, and as stated before, the lowest score would be a 400 and the highest score would be a 700,” Gomez-Rocque said. “The Level 2 cut scores for all the grade levels tested was 510, while the Level 3 cut scores for all the grade levels tested was 540. The Level 4 cut scores is where we saw variety – the 3rd grade cut score was 609, the 4th grade cut score was 607, the 5th grade cut score was 600, the 6th grade cut score was 593, the 7th grade cut score was 600, the 8th grade cut score was 594, and the 10th grade cut score was 588.”
Gomez-Rocque then talked about the district’s math and cut scores.
“Again, students in grades 3 through 8 and 10th grade get tested with math, and as stated before, the lowest score would be a 400 and the highest score would be a 700,” Gomez-Rocque said. “The Level 2 cut scores for all the grade levels tested was 510, while the Level 3 cut scores for all the grade levels tested was 540. The Level 4 cut scores is where we saw variety – the 3rd grade cut score was 570, the 4th grade cut score was 579, the 5th grade cut score was 599, the 6th grade cut score was 596, the 7th grade cut score was 603, the 8th grade cut score was 594, and the 10th grade cut score was 600. With the science cut scores, with only have results from the 5th graders and 8th graders, and again, the range is 400 to 700. The Level 2 and Level 3 cut scores remained the same at 510 and 540, respectively, and with Level 4 cut scores, the 5th grade cut score was 582 and the 8th grade cut score was 569. So there’s no confusion, the Grade 11 science assessment didn’t have the range of scores needed to complete standard setting and establish cut scores, and more information about those assessments will be shared when we get that information.”
Gomez-Rocque then talked about proficiency level descriptors used with the KAP tests.
“Students performing at Level 1 show a limited ability to demonstrate their knowledge and skills of grade-level standards, and students at Level 2 show a limited ability to demonstrate their knowledge and skills of grade-level standards,” Gomez-Rocque said. “Students performing at Level 3 show a proficient ability to demonstrate their knowledge and skills of grade-level standards, and students performing at Level 4 show an advanced ability to demonstrate their knowledge and skills of grade-level standards.”
With that in mind, Gomez-Rocque then shared those results for ELA.
“Again, students in grades 3 through 8 and 10th grade get tested with ELA, and we had a total of 2,312 students who tested” Gomez-Rocque said. “With the 3rd graders, we had 47 percent of students perform at Level 1, 25 percent of students perform at Level 2, 25 percent of students perform at Level 3, and 2 percent of students perform at Level 4. With the 4th graders, we had 41 percent of students perform at Level 1, 33 percent of students perform at Level 2, 22 percent of students perform at Level 3, and 3 percent of students perform at Level 4. With the 5th graders, we had 52 percent of students perform at Level 1, 26 percent of students perform at Level 2, 21 percent of students perform at Level 3, and 1 percent of students perform at Level 4. With the 6th graders, we had 45 percent of students perform at Level 1, 36 percent of students perform at Level 2, 18 percent of students perform at Level 3, and 1 percent of students perform at Level 4. With the 7th graders, we had 51 percent of students perform at Level 1, 29 percent of students perform at Level 2, 17 percent of students perform at Level 3, and 4 percent of students perform at Level 4. With the 8th graders, we had 56 percent of students perform at Level 1, 28 percent of students perform at Level 2, 15 percent of students perform at Level 3, and 1 percent of students perform at Level 4. Finally, with the 10th graders, we had 44 percent of students perform at Level 1, 34 percent of students perform at Level 2, 18 percent of students perform at Level 3, and 4 percent of students perform at Level 4.”
Gomez-Rocque then shared results for math.
“Again, students in grades 3 through 8 and 10th grade get tested with math, and we had a total of 2,341 students who tested” Gomez-Rocque said. “With the 3rd graders, we had 48 percent of students perform at Level 1, 35 percent of students perform at Level 2, 12 percent of students perform at Level 3, and 5 percent of students perform at Level 4. With the 4th graders, we had 44 percent of students perform at Level 1, 39 percent of students perform at Level 2, 14 percent of students perform at Level 3, and 3 percent of students perform at Level 4. With the 5th graders, we had 49 percent of students perform at Level 1, 33 percent of students perform at Level 2, 14 percent of students perform at Level 3, and 3 percent of students perform at Level 4. With the 6th graders, we had 42 percent of students perform at Level 1, 37 percent of students perform at Level 2, 20 percent of students perform at Level 3, and 1 percent of students perform at Level 4. With the 7th graders, we had 49 percent of students perform at Level 1, 38 percent of students perform at Level 2, 10 percent of students perform at Level 3, and 2 percent of students perform at Level 4. With the 8th graders, we had 52 percent of students perform at Level 1, 37 percent of students perform at Level 2, 9 percent of students perform at Level 3, and 2 percent of students perform at Level 4. Finally, with the 10th graders, we had 57 percent of students perform at Level 1, 31 percent of students perform at Level 2, 11 percent of students perform at Level 3, and 1 percent of students perform at Level 4.”
Gomez-Rocque then shared results for science.
“Students in 5th, 8th and 11th grade get tested with science, and we had a total of 633 students who tested, but again, we do not yet have the 11th grade results yet,” Gomez-Rocque said. “With the 5th graders, we had 47 percent of students perform at Level 1, 33 percent of students perform at Level 2, 16 percent of students perform at Level 3, and 3 percent of students perform at Level 4. Then, with the 8th graders, we had 66 percent of students perform at Level 1, 21 percent of students perform at Level 2, 9 percent of students perform at Level 3, and 4 percent of students perform at Level 4.”
Gomez-Rocque then talked about how the KAP results are used and also about the future.
“We use these scores to help identify students’ relative strengths and areas for improvement, determine the students’ progress toward meeting state curriculum standards, and compare the students’ performance to that of other students in the school, district, and state,” Gomez-Rocque said. “Then, for each testing subject area, the district is able to examine performance to offer opportunities for educators to reinforce the Kansas learning standards. We will be working on doing instructional mini-tests, which are questions and item types students will encounter on the KAP assessment that help build experiences for the interim and summative assessments. These mini-tests allow educators to receive data on student performance for current grade level, previous, and future standards.”
After some more questions, Gomez-Rocque’s presentation was concluded.
In the meeting’s new business, the board approved a Memorandum of Agreement between USD 480 and Baylor University and a requisition to Pur-O-Zone in the amount of $14,571.84 for custodial supplies. The board also approved the purchase of an Anatomage Table and accompanying software and hardware for $119,390 as well as a bid from ByteSpeed in the amount of $71,740.00 for 75 vape detectors. All matters were approved 5-0, with Board President Brad Carr and board member Kaylee Lopez absent for the evening.
