FRANKFORT, Ky. — Educators have long depended on standardized testing to measure students’ attainment of the material taught. But one such test is receiving more credibility as instructors and administrators strive to get students ready for life after high school.

The Kentucky Occupational Skill Standards Assessment (KOSSA) has been around for some time, but with the help of a legislative mandate to increase efforts to get students college- and career-ready, the test is more valuable than ever.

According to information from the Kentucky Department of Education’s (KDE), Senate Bill 1 passed in 2009 addresses what will be tested, how subjects will be tested, when tests are given, what should comprise the public school accountability system and more.

The KOSSA was developed to match industry standards and is recognized by industry as a benchmark for what a student needs to know to get a job in a particular field, according to Brandon Davis, an agriculture education consultant for KDE and state FFA advisor.

“About 15 years ago there was a desire to work with industry to determine what students in Career and Technical Education (CTE) classes should know,” he said. “From that idea industry and agriculture teachers or career and technical teachers in different areas got together and said, ‘Here’s a list a list of things you should know,’ and thus formed a set of standards.”

From those standards came the KOSSA exams that students take after completing a career major to see if they are proficient in those majors, added Davis. Speaking of agricultural education, he explained in order to take a KOSSA exam, a student must be enrolled in or have completed at least three courses within their chosen Career Pathway.

“KOSSA exams measure what a student has learned over the course of his or her enrollment in an agricultural education program,” he explained.

Davis said KOSSA exams will be offered in nine areas this year: Agribiotechnology; Agribusiness; Agriculture Power, Structure and Technical Systems; Agricultural Education, Communications and Leadership; Environmental Science and Natural Resources; Food Science; Horticulture; Production Crop; and Production Livestock.

Support from industry remains a necessary ingredient in the educational mix that moves students from high school to the job market or college. Students who pass the KOSSA earn a Kentucky Skill Standards Certificate, which is endorsed by Kentucky Farm Bureau and signed by the governor.

Matt Chaliff serves as an educational consultant for KDE and is the executive secretary for Kentucky FFA. He said the test not only measures what a student knows as it relates to their classroom activities, but how well a teacher is relaying those standards.

“The benefit to teachers is, what they teach in their ag education programs, if aligned to the standards, is exactly what industry wants students to know and when they graduate, they graduate ready to work in that industry,” Chaliff said. “The benefit is the same for the student. They are getting the knowledge and skills they need to actually be successful in a real-world job. They are actually learning what industry says they need to know to be successful.”

An articulation agreement exists between Kentucky’s secondary ag-education and its universities and colleges that have agriculture programs. Those schools include Eastern Kentucky University, Morehead State University, Murray State University, the University of Kentucky, Western Kentucky University and Kentucky Community and Technical College System Campuses in Henderson, Hopkinsville, Madisonville, and Owensboro.

Any student who has taken three courses, has at least a “B” in all of those and has passed the KOSSA gets three hours of college credit.

The exams were recently sent to schools as approximately 3,000, or 75 percent of Kentucky high school seniors involved in agriculture education, prepare to participate in testing. Chaliff said in the course of a student’s school career, they could take two or as many as three different KOSSA exams.

Davis said the testing window is the month of February, and after the exams are completed they are returned to the department to be scored. “There are two parts to the test: a multiple choice section and then a scenario-writing section for most of the exams,” he said. “The multiple choice section is scored electronically and the scenarios are actually scored by teachers in that particular area.”

In addition to ag-ed, most CTE programs have a KOSSA exam and nearly 20,000 students will be eligible to participate in this month’s testing.