Ky. Senate Panel Approves State Test Overhaul

By Millicent Lawton

The engine driving Kentucky's landmark school reforms should not be scrapped but needs a major overhaul, a state legislative committee has decided.

By a 10-2 vote, the Senate education committee approved a bill last week that would not only change the state tests students take, but also erase several years' worth of judgments about school effectiveness that have been made based on the test scores. Even the most troubled schools would, in effect, see their slates wiped clean--immediately.

The action represented a bipartisan compromise, legislators said, and was brokered in the face of public and political sentiment--as well as expert testimony--that has been building against the assessment system and the rewards and penalties that have...