LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Lucy Roy-Bachman is a seventh-grade student in the Jefferson County Public School District.
“I’ve always just kind of enjoyed going to school,” she said.
This week, while her classmates are taking tests, she'll sit quietly at her desk. If a teacher asks her why she's not participating, she said she'll respond, “This test is broken and it’s part of a broken system.”
Lucy said the test does not accurately depict student progress and after the year they’ve had, she said the stress is unnecessary.
The Kentucky Department of Education (KDE) agrees with the second part of her statement.
“This is why we did not support the decision to have testing. However, the funding is crucial for our schools and for our districts,” Toni Konz Tatman, Kentucky Department of Education’s chief communications officer, said.
In February, the US Department of Education sent out a letter, allowing states flexibility in their assessments while underscoring the urgency of new test results.
KDE said this has tied their hands and canceling K-PREP could risk millions in Title 1 funding.
“It’s an essential source of funding for our schools and districts,” Tatman said.
Sarah Stalker, Lucy’s mother, said this is not a JCPS problem or even a Kentucky problem but something larger. She believes schools across the country are dealing with similar issues.
Stalker said Lucy is not her first child to say no to this exam. Aside from the pandemic, she and her daughter said the test was flawed to begin with.
"I think we are guilty as just being human of doing the same thing over and over and sometimes we know it’s not the right thing or it's not the most helpful thing but it’s...the way we've always done it."
Trouble at home, depression, anxiety – those are not circles to be filled on a test.
While the state says this is not the only metric used to measure students' progress, Stalker points out, K-PREP results have partially determined what high school a student like Lucy could get into.
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