Members of the Kansas State Board of Education voted this week to approve new cut scores for the spring 2025 state assessments for English language arts, math and science.  

The new cut scores were necessary after the 2015 Kansas Assessment Program tests were revised after 10 years. Board members had voted on the changes to the 2025 tests’ performance level descriptors in May. The descriptors clarified expectations on students knowledge and skills of grade level academic standards.

Beth Fultz, director of the Kansas State Department of Education’s Career, Standards and Assessment Services, said the emphasis on new performance level descriptors drove the discussions and ultimately the decisions of the 140 Kansas educators to set the recommended cut scores earlier this summer.

Fultz told board members after collecting 10 years of data, it was determined students who previously were scoring on Level 2 of the reading assessment were more accurately performing at Level 3. Those data points included individual student performance on state assessments measured against ACT performance, AP coursework, dual credit, graduation rates and postsecondary success. When all of this data was reviewed, Kansas assessment performance standards were found to be misaligned. The cut scores recommended by educators who convened in June more accurately measure student performance, she said.

“We are not reducing the rigor (of the tests),” Fultz said. “It is an adjustment that aligns with other measures of student outcomes.” 

“We want the highest expectations for our kids,” Kansas Education Commissioner Dr. Randy Watson told board members. “I think we’re getting that.” 

Because of the differences in the 2024 and 2025 tests, a concordance table will be provided to the State Board no later than October so they will be able to compare scores between the two years.  

In other action, board members approved the graduation standards for KESA 2.0 accreditation that go into effect for the 2026-27 school year.  

The KESA 2.0 graduation rate is calculated by taking the total number of graduates from the five most recent graduating classes and dividing by the total number of students in the four-year cohort in each of those classes. 

The KESA graduation standards’ performance categories beginning in the 2026-27 school year include the following:  

• Districts and school systems will be considered to have exceeded performance expectations if they have a graduation rate of 95% or higher. 
• Districts and school systems will be considered to have met performance expectations if they have a graduation rate of 88% to 94.9% and the KESA graduation rate doesn’t decrease more than 2% from one KESA graduation cohort to the next the following year. A “meets performance expectations” designation can also be achieved by having a lower than 88% KESA graduation rate but the rate increases from one cohort to the next. 
• Districts and school systems will be identified for improvement toward performance expectations if they have a KESA graduation rate between 88% and 94.9% and the rate decreases more than 2.0% from one KESA graduation cohort to the next. A KESA graduation rate below 88.0% and a rate that doesn’t increase from one cohort to the next can also identify a district or school system for improvement toward performance expectations.   

Some of the other items taken up by board members during their August meeting included: 

• Approval of their board goals that fall into the categories of quality school improvement, quality leadership development and policy, regulation and alignment. 
• Approval of appointments to the Professional Practices Commission (PPC) for the junior high/middle school principal, elementary school principal and classroom teacher vacancies. 
• Approval of the 2025-26 McKinney-Vento federal homeless children and youth grants.  
• Hearing several presentations on the KSDE and Kansas Board of Regents structured literacy initiatives. 
• Hearing an overview of the board’s statutory, regulatory and constitutional authority and the timeline for updating the Kansas Assessment Program. 

The State Board will meet Sept. 9-10, in the first floor board room of the Landon State Office Building, 900 S.W. Jackson, in Topeka.