Kansas legislators drill into state Board of Education's tweak to district accreditation rules

TOPEKA — House and Senate education committee members chiseled away at the Kansas State Board of Education’s latest revision to school district accreditation rules and regulations, alleging objective measures were dropped in favor of subjective language not effective in promoting student achievement.

Rep. Kristey Williams of August and Sen. Renee Erickson of Wichita did their best Tuesday to define changes in the past year to the Kansas Education Systems Accreditation Model as destructive to the process of evaluating districts. They argued it would be beneficial to consider clear statistical evidence of kindergarten readiness, graduation rates or post-secondary success of students when deciding on renewal of district accreditation.

In the new standards, only assessment of social-emotional development was concretely affiliated with accreditation of the 286 public school districts in Kansas.

“We’re hearing the state board say achievement is important,” said Williams, chairwoman of the House Education Committee. “When we see things like the rules and regulations and the changes that were made, achievement is absent. It’s hidden. It’s buried. I don’t know if that’s intentional or unintentional.”

Read more: https://kansasreflector.com/2021/12/01/kansas-legislators-drill-into-state-board-of-educations-tweak-to-district-accreditation-rules/