West Kentucky Community & Technical College will return state funding after the school inaccurately reported adult education testing scores.
The Paducah Sun reports:
West Kentucky Community & Technical College will send $137,324 in funding back to the state after school officials inaccurately reported student testing data. The discrepancies with adult education standardized testing scores could result in the college losing its contract to provide the program, officials said. WKCTC, the provider of the McCracken County Adult Education program, is required to return the money to Kentucky Adult Education, said Reecie Stagnolia, vice president of the state program. Officials have yet to set a timeline for the college to pay back the money.
An audit of WKCTC revealed inaccuracies with student academic level gain percentages across three years that allowed the college to receive money it was not qualified to collect. The test scores were from Test for Adult Basic Education, which students must take to establish a baseline education level for teachers to plan around. After 30 to 60 hours of instruction students take another test to measure their progress. If more than 54 percent advance, the college is eligible for incentive funding. WKCTC reported a 55 percent level gain.Officials identified the testing discrepancies because of consistent patterns of circles and shading on bubbled answers as well as a consistent pattern of grade level progress. WKCTC President Barbara Veazey says the college will still submit a bid for the adult education program when bidding begins in January.
