TOPEKA (KSNT) – The Education Budget committee is pushing to keep tabs on at-risk programs in Kansas schools.

The committee held a hearing for House Bill 2650 Tuesday, which would implement a student accountability plan for student groups considered to be ‘at-risk’. If passed, the plan would go into effect for the upcoming 2024-25 school year.

The idea is to use evidence-based instruction to improve academic achievement within at-risk groups. According the proposal, school districts would first be required to set an improvement goal for a subgroup of students to hit. Then, their progress would be tracked over a four-year period.

“Making sure that we are looking at how they’re progressing over a four-year time frame,” Representative Kristey Williams (R), the K-12 Education Budget Committee chair, said. “So, I’m really excited about making some good changes and not having school districts do busy work and submit reports that don’t mean anything.”

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The Kansas State Board of Education (KSBE) is looking to get 75% of all students in the state to achieve a proficiency of a level three or four on state assessments in English language arts (ELA) and mathematics by 2030.

Implementing such improvement goals within districts is their plan for reaching that percentage point.

If selected student subgroups reach their district’s desired goal during the set period, the district will repeat the process with another set of students. However, if student subgroups repeatedly fail to meet their district’s goal, the KSBE would ultimately determine the amount of at-risk funding aid for that district.

Much of the pushback during Tuesday’s hearing of the bill was concerned with the funding piece, and what’s best for students long-term. House Democrat Valdenia Winn expressed her disapproval of the approach.

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“The money is a very large about of money,” Winn said. “And we’ve got to zero-in on strategies on teachers, on parents, on a lot of factors. This is not the way.”

Winn told 27 News the idea of reducing funding based on student performance isn’t fair. But, she added the one thing most people can agree on, is the accountability factor in helping students learn.

Legislators will continue to fine tune their approach in the coming weeks.

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