The Kansas State Board of Education has renewed the accreditation status of all the state's public schools as well as every private school that participates in the program regardless of student performance on statewide tests.

The Lawrence Journal-World reports that this is the fourth year in a row that the board has automatically renewed those accreditations.

The accreditations were renewed this year because the state is expecting to shift to a new accreditation model that will put less emphasis on annual test scores. Instead, it will focus on a wider range of factors such as students' college performance or their ability to find jobs after graduation.

The state board has been working toward the change since 2011, shortly after it adopted new curriculum standards known as the Common Core.