Latest news with #KristeyWilliams
Yahoo
4 days ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
Kansas task force debates use of graduation rate to gauge student success
Sen. Renee Erickson, second from left, a Wichita Republican who leads the Kansas Legislature's school finance task force, said Kansas should retain use of high school graduation statistics to measure student achievement despite criticism it was unclear earning the diploma meant students were prepared for college or the workforce. (Kansas Reflector screen capture from Legislature's YouTube channel) TOPEKA — Disagreement exists on the Kansas Legislature's task force reworking the state's public school finance formula about the importance of high school graduation rate as a measure of student success. A member of the task force pointed to alleged manipulation of student records at Wichita Southeast High School as evidence of why a district's annual graduation rate shouldn't be viewed as a significant metric, while others defended graduation rates as an evaluation tool when determining whether districts prepared students for the workplace or college. Rep. Kristey Williams, an Augusta Republican, said the Wichita school district had touted a 5.1 percentage point surge in its graduation rate in 2024 to 84.3%. Wichita Southeast's graduation rate climbed 12.5 percentage points in 2024 to a record-high 86.3%. Southeast's principal was replaced last week amid reports of suspected grade fixing that may have been associated with helping students meet graduation requirements. 'I wouldn't use graduation rates,' said Williams, who didn't see a meaningful correlation between graduation rate and student success. 'If we want to baby sit, that's one thing. If we want to have a safe place for them, that's one thing. But that doesn't mean you're learning anything.' Frank Harwood, a deputy commissioner of the Kansas State Department of Education, said one potential incident of administrative misconduct shouldn't justify dismissal of graduation rates as a means of measuring school districts. 'When you look at any industry, including the Legislature, there are bad actors,' he said. 'It doesn't mean you should throw out that metric all together. I'm not saying graduation rate is the best indicator, but I think it is an indicator that we can't just ignore.' The Kansas State Board of Education made elevating the state's high school graduation rate a feature in its 'Kansans Can' agenda and in terms of school district accreditation. The state board's graduation-rate goal was set at 95%. Kansas' adjusted cohort graduation rate, which tracked student graduation within four years and took into account transfers, has ranged from 86% to 89% during the past decade. In 2022-2023, more than 90 of the state's 287 school districts graduated 100% of students. Twenty school districts had graduation rates below 80% during that academic year. The Wichita district's graduation rate was at 79.2% during that period, while the Kansas City, Kansas, district came in at 73.4%. Sen. Renee Erickson, a Wichita Republican serving as chairwoman of the Legislature's school-finance task force, said Kansas should continue to include graduation rate in a set of evaluation metrics. She said the state needed to develop a definition of what a high school diploma revealed about students. Erickson said employers had reported a high school diploma didn't guarantee a quality worker. University or college officials indicated high school graduates didn't necessarily have skills to succeed in higher education, she said. 'I have post-secondary folks in my office frequently and they're saying, 'They're not prepared for our level of work,'' the senator said. 'I'm not blaming. I'm just telling you, if you can't acknowledge that, we've got a problem.' Task force member Pat Pettey, a Democratic senator from Kansas City, Kansas, said it would be folly to drop the graduation rate as an indicator of a school district's ability to prepare students for the future. 'I still am a strong supporter of graduation rates because having a high school diploma is a key to opening the first door to get a job. I don't believe it is the key, but if they don't have that they're not on a trajectory to be economically successful,' Pettey said.
Yahoo
4 days ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
Kansas task force debates use of graduation rate to gauge student success
Sen. Renee Erickson, second from left, a Wichita Republican who leads the Kansas Legislature's school finance task force, said Kansas should retain use of high school graduation statistics to measure student achievement despite criticism it was unclear earning the diploma meant students were prepared for college or the workforce. (Kansas Reflector screen capture from Legislature's YouTube channel) TOPEKA — Disagreement exists on the Kansas Legislature's task force reworking the state's public school finance formula about the importance of high school graduation rate as a measure of student success. A member of the task force pointed to alleged manipulation of student records at Wichita Southeast High School as evidence of why a district's annual graduation rate shouldn't be viewed as a significant metric, while others defended graduation rates as an evaluation tool when determining whether districts prepared students for the workplace or college. Rep. Kristey Williams, an Augusta Republican, said the Wichita school district had touted a 5.1 percentage point surge in its graduation rate in 2024 to 84.3%. Wichita Southeast's graduation rate climbed 12.5 percentage points in 2024 to a record-high 86.3%. Southeast's principal was replaced last week amid reports of suspected grade fixing that may have been associated with helping students meet graduation requirements. 'I wouldn't use graduation rates,' said Williams, who didn't see a meaningful correlation between graduation rate and student success. 'If we want to baby sit, that's one thing. If we want to have a safe place for them, that's one thing. But that doesn't mean you're learning anything.' Frank Harwood, a deputy commissioner of the Kansas State Department of Education, said one potential incident of administrative misconduct shouldn't justify dismissal of graduation rates as a means of measuring school districts. 'When you look at any industry, including the Legislature, there are bad actors,' he said. 'It doesn't mean you should throw out that metric all together. I'm not saying graduation rate is the best indicator, but I think it is an indicator that we can't just ignore.' The Kansas State Board of Education made elevating the state's high school graduation rate a feature in its 'Kansans Can' agenda and in terms of school district accreditation. The state board's graduation-rate goal was set at 95%. Kansas' adjusted cohort graduation rate, which tracked student graduation within four years and took into account transfers, has ranged from 86% to 89% during the past decade. In 2022-2023, more than 90 of the state's 287 school districts graduated 100% of students. Twenty school districts had graduation rates below 80% during that academic year. The Wichita district's graduation rate was at 79.2% during that period, while the Kansas City, Kansas, district came in at 73.4%. Sen. Renee Erickson, a Wichita Republican serving as chairwoman of the Legislature's school-finance task force, said Kansas should continue to include graduation rate in a set of evaluation metrics. She said the state needed to develop a definition of what a high school diploma revealed about students. Erickson said employers had reported a high school diploma didn't guarantee a quality worker. University or college officials indicated high school graduates didn't necessarily have skills to succeed in higher education, she said. 'I have post-secondary folks in my office frequently and they're saying, 'They're not prepared for our level of work,'' the senator said. 'I'm not blaming. I'm just telling you, if you can't acknowledge that, we've got a problem.' Task force member Pat Pettey, a Democratic senator from Kansas City, Kansas, said it would be folly to drop the graduation rate as an indicator of a school district's ability to prepare students for the future. 'I still am a strong supporter of graduation rates because having a high school diploma is a key to opening the first door to get a job. I don't believe it is the key, but if they don't have that they're not on a trajectory to be economically successful,' Pettey said.
Yahoo
23-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
House committee examines state's elevated error rate in processing food aid applications
Rep. Barbara Ballard, D-Lawrence, Rep. Kristey Williams, R-Augusta, and Rep. Bob Lewis, R-Garden City, take part in the first meeting of the House Select Committee on Government Oversight on Wednesday at the Capitol. The inaugural meeting of the 13-member committee focused on financial issues tied to the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program, or SNAP, serving nearly 100,000 households in Kansas. (Tim Carpenter/Kansas Reflector) TOPEKA — The payment error rate for Kansas' determination of eligibility for food assistance grew to more than 12% in 2023 to exceed the national average and surpass levels in four state's neighboring Kansas. The U.S. average that year was 11.6% and the border states ranged from 7% in Nebraska, 8.6% in Colorado, 10.5% in Missouri and 10.6% in Oklahoma. Kansas' problem with processing applications from low-income families, older adults and people with disabilities in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, was brought to the attention of Gov. Laura Kelly in a February 2024 letter from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The Kelly administration received another letter in early April from the USDA pointing to SNAP processing deficiencies in Kansas. The notices took issue with the state's SNAP payment error rate as well as the timeliness of application processing and procedural error rates that failed to comply with basic federal requirements. State officials told the House Select Committee on Government Oversight the error rate in terms of eligibility and benefit determinations for SNAP ranged from 3.8% to 7.1% from 2017 to 2019. In each of those three years the state outperformed the national average. USDA didn't track state-by-state performance in 2020 and 2021 due to distortions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. However, officials with the Kansas Department for Children and Families, which administers SNAP statewide, said the payment error rate climbed to 12% in 2023 before improving to 10.1% in 2024 and slumping to 11.6% in 2025. 'I know government is different from business, but typically a payment error is pretty critical,' said Rep. Francis Awerkamp, a St. Marys Republican. 'Most businesses, as far accounts payable, your error rate you kind of want it to be around zero. This is a $400 million-plus program looking at an 11% error rate. From my perspective, that is a high percentage.' Carla Whiteside-Hicks, director of economic and employment services for DCF, said the rate was most frequently tied to DCF personnel making data entry mistakes when handling applications for SNAP. For example, she said, mistakes were made in calculation of an applicant's income or rent. Another area in which inaccuracies surfaced was in the interpretation of self-employment income by an applicant, she said. 'Those are the three that are the most common,' said Whiteside-Hicks, who would prefer the error rate stabilized at 3%. 'As they enter this data — this is an application form where I'm asking questions and entering data — we're making errors on some of the most basic elements of the application such as income, rent and self-employment,' Awerkamp said. 'How would you approach correcting these errors?' Whiteside-Hicks said DCF's effort to minimize mistakes centered on improving training of staff and upgrading training materials used by about 200 state workers responsible for processing SNAP applications. She said regional offices involved in the application process had historically struggled to hire staff. 'It takes at least a year to become proficient as an eligibility worker,' Whiteside-Hicks said. Rep. Will Carpenter, R-El Dorado, said the status report on processing SNAP applications should prompt the Legislature to examine how other states dealt with processing requests for food aid. 'Are there states that contract their eligibility out as a piece versus having in-house employees?' he said. Tanya Keys, deputy secretary at DCF, told legislators SNAP provided a monthly benefit that averaged $189 per person or $392 per family in Kansas. As of last year, Kansas provided SNAP benefits to 97,000 households. In terms of eligibility for SNAP, she said, Kansas had placed in law a part-time work requirement or training participation requirement for adults 18 to 54 without children. That criteria could be waived for an adult caring for children, a person with a disability or an individual at least 60 years of age. Keys said one-third of SNAP participants in Kansas were enrolled in the program for less than six months and two-thirds were in the program less than one year. House Speaker Dan Hawkins, R-Wichita, authorized the House Select Committee on Government Oversight to monitor the functioning, transparency and accountability of government agencies. He granted the 13-member committee subpoena power to investigate potential misconduct. 'This committee's work will help ensure that public funds are used efficiently and that government actions align with the best interests of the citizens of Kansas,' Hawkins said. During the first meeting of the committee on Wednesday at the Capitol, Augusta GOP Rep. Kristey Williams, chair of the bipartisan panel, said topics of inquiry weren't set in stone. 'We are not here to create drafts of bills, but we are here to really shine a light on any issues that are of high importance,' she said.
