FRANKFORT — Gov. Steve Beshear said Wednesday he will veto a Senate bill which would replace Kentucky’s school accountability test with a standardized, multiple choice test – in the unlikely event the bill reaches his desk.

“Public education is not yet where it needs to be – no question about that,” Beshear said. “But this bill does not help get us there and it should be defeated.” Later, he said he would veto the bill if it passes the legislature.

Senate Bill 1, sponsored by Senate President David Williams, R-Burkesville, would replace the Kentucky Core Content Test and CATS system of accountability testing with a norm-referenced national test. Norm referenced tests utilize a preselected group of students – the “norm” – against which other students are tested. Under Williams’ bill, students would continue to compile writing portfolios but they would no longer be part of the assessment process. Supporters, including members of the Republican Senate, contend norm-referenced tests provide clearer indications of student progress, year-by-year progress, and cost less and take up less class time. The bill isn’t thought to have much support in the Democratic House.

Critics, including Beshear on Wednesday, say the type of test proposed in SB 1 does not require students to explain what they know and apply that knowledge to problem solving. Kentucky’s test is a “standards based” test, measuring student proficiency against standards for various grades and ages.

Beshear’s Education Cabinet Secretary Helen Mountjoy, who served on the state Board of Education which approved the current test, said norm-referenced tests “measure student learning a lower level.”

Brent McKim of the Jefferson County Teachers Association and Bob Sexton of the Prichard Committee on Academic Excellence said norm-referenced are deliberately designed to ensure half of the students taking the test score below the norm and half above. Usually, McKim said, proficiency on such tests is determined to be in the 70th percentile.

“It is statistically impossible to get all students to 70,” McKim said. “It sets up students to fail.”

One goal of the Kentucky Education Reform Act, passed in 1990, is that all students reach proficiency by the year 2014.

Williams said Beshear has never talked to him about the bill and never called him to discuss it.

“It’s almost bizarre the position he takes,” Williams said.

He disputed statements about norm-referenced, multiple choice tests made at Beshear’s press conference and said testimony before the Senate Education Committee refutes those statements and shows “that instructional days and literally hundreds of millions of dollars are wasted on the CATS test.” He said the bill has broad support among teachers and parents, although Sharon Oxendine, Kentucky Education Association President, and McKim, spoke against the bill at Beshear’s press conference.

Williams and co-sponsors Sen. Dan Kelly, R-Springfield, contend there are now norm referenced tests which avoid the “bell curve” effect of traditional standardized tests – which create a pattern where a small number of students score poorly or at the high end with most falling into the middle “curve.” And they say CATS doesn’t provide parents with a clear picture of how their children are progressing academically year to year or against children in other states.

The bill is currently in the Senate Education Committee, chaired by Sen. Ken Winters, R-Murray. Last week, two Russell Independent School District teachers - Tim Decker, an art teacher at Russell Middle School, and Jason Chapman, an orchestra teacher in grades two through 12 – told that committee that the CATS testing system drives classroom activities and drives some students away from the arts.

Beshear said neither KERA nor CATS are “sacred cows” and might be improved.

“But SB 1 hasn’t even allowed the most recent changes (to the test), made two years ago, to have an opportunity to prove its worth yet,” Beshear said. “Nor has the bill undergone rigorous vetting.”

Ronnie Ellis writes for CNHI News Service and is based in Frankfort. Reach him at rellis@cnhi.com.