Ky. Officials Propose Expanding New Testing System to All Grades

A month liter agreeing to a $29.5-million contract to develop Kentucky's new assessment system, state officials have proposed expanding it into an $80-million program.

Kentucky's 1990 education-reform law, which called for the new assessment system, mandated that the state test every student in grades 4, 8, and 12 every other year. The results of the tests, which eventually will be completely performance-based, will be used to determine rewards and sanctions for schools. ('See Education Week, May 8, 1991.)

The state board of education in July selected Advanced Systems in Measurement and Evaluation Inc., a small New Hampshire-based firm, to...