Kansas board sees split praise as state releases revamped assessment reports after cut‑score reset

The Kansas State Board of Education on Sept. 9 heard the first statewide release of student score reports and related materials produced after the board adopted new cut scores for the Kansas Assessment Program.

The Kansas State Department of Education and contractors at the University of Kansas announced that district- and building-level reports, individual student reports and an educator portal were available to authorized users, and that public-facing summaries and parent access would follow within weeks. The release includes concordance tables that map 2024 scores to the new 2025 scale and Lexile/Quantile links that KSDE says will help families and teachers match students with reading and math resources.

Why it matters: Board members and KSDE staff framed the release as the start of a transition from a disputed, hard‑to‑interpret scale to a system they say is better aligned with classroom standards, screeners and ACT concordance measures. District leaders and assessment professionals told the board the new performance-level descriptors will help teachers interpret results and plan instruction; several speakers asked KSDE to keep working on user guides to help parents and educators interpret the data.

KSDE director Beth Fultz told the board staff underestimated the work required to produce student- and district-level reports after the cut-score decision and apologized for the delay: "I was overly ambitious… I apologize for overpromising." She said the secure educator portal went live the morning of Sept. 9 and that public report cards were likely to go live in October following final agency checks.

District leaders and teachers praised the cut-score process and the materials. Matt Smith, superintendent of USD 208, said the cut‑score review "reflects commitment to accuracy, transparency, and fairness" and that Kansas educators should be able to "trust that state assessments are a true reflection of their students' progress toward long term success." Michael Dome, assistant superintendent in USD 266 and a participating teacher in the review panels, said the change is already helping classroom conversations: "It's helpful that the descriptors… no longer focus on post‑secondary success, but now they focus on standards and students' proficiency towards those standards." Cindy Couchman, Bueller USD 303 superintendent and member of the cut‑score panels, told the board, "These new cut scores do not lower expectations. They do not change the rigor of the standards. What has changed is its alignment with classroom gates."

What KSDE released and when - Educator portal and secure school/district downloads: available Sept. 9 (secure KU/KSDE authenticated access). KSDE staff said district test coordinators and approved building users can download student files, participation reports, and assessment performance indexes immediately. - Parent portal and public report cards: KSDE said parent connections will be uploaded by districts and parent portal access will be available the week following the board meeting; a broader public report-card release is expected in October. - Concordance tables: KU analysts created tables to show the most similar 2024 score point for each 2025 score on the affected assessments so districts can make approximate historical comparisons. As KSDE staff and KU emphasized, the concordance is a tool to help users compare old and new scales; it is not a precise one‑to‑one conversion across grades or subjects.

How to use the new materials - Performance-level descriptors (PLDs): KSDE and KU published PLDs keyed to standards for each grade and subject; staff demonstrated the resource during the board presentation and urged teachers and parents to consult the PLDs as they interpret reports. - Lexile and Quantile: KSDE has mapped scale scores to Lexile (reading) and Quantile (math) measures and included links to MetaMetrics resources so families and teachers can find book and skill matches tied to a student's scale score. - Concordance caveats: KU staff emphasized that the 2024→2025 concordance represents the most similar score points based on sample distributions and is not a backward-looking conversion (KSDE staff told the board the tables are intended to move the system forward onto the new 2025 scale).

Concerns raised and next steps - Parents and public commenters at the meeting again raised concerns about device use and student screen time; KSDE officials said district-level decisions and local communications remain central, and that the department will continue producing guidance on device use. - Several board members asked for continued tutorials and user-friendly explanations for parents. KSDE staff committed to walkthroughs for board members and public-facing guidance.

KSDE said it will continue to refine reports based on user feedback and will add the alternate assessment (DLM) students into the statewide summaries so the public report card reflects all student groups. Staff also noted that some records (for students who take the alternate assessment) are added to the combined public statistics after KU submits the DLM files to KSDE.

Ending: Board members thanked teachers who served on the cut-score panels and KSDE staff for the reporting rollout. KSDE managers told the board they will follow up with training webinars and materials for parents and educators and will return with additional technical updates if districts request targeted clarifications.