The National Center for Education Statistics just released a report on how states are gaming their state tests to look good under No Child Left Behind. The comparison metric was the National Assessment of Educational Progress.

Here is a Wall Street Journal graphic sourced to the US Department of Education which shows those states that are playing games by setting the state standard for proficiency below what the NAEP calls “basic” performance (which is only partial mastery of reading).

Note that Kentucky is one of the many states, shown in light blue, that are “cheating” on this measure.

Of course, this is old news to our readers. We developed our “NAEP Ruler” several years ago to show the exact same thing.

Now, what was that again about those high Kentucky testing standards?

Gov. Beshear wants us to ‘get fired up’ about education. You’ll forgive us, governor, if we’re having a hard time getting ‘fired up’ about an education system wretchedly failing to prepare Kentucky students for the competitive rigors of the 21st century global marketplace.

Click here to read the latest Bluegrass Beacon column.

– No, we didn’t say that

The Bluegrass Institute gets accused in some quarters of being overly negative about our public education system.

But, the quote above didn’t come from us.

That quote is from Bill Gates, former head of Microsoft and current head of a major, privately funded effort to improve education.

Gates was discussing some of the things his education foundation is doing to try to improve education in the United States.

Gates also said, “We’re doing all kinds of experiments that are different. The Race To The Top (the federal department of education’s new stimulus funding program) is going to do many different ones.”

After several years of working with education programs, Gates is figuring it out.

Despite educators’ claims that they know how kids learn and that they have the “research that shows,” the truth is that most education research isn’t very reliable. As a consequence, education ideas that are often presented to the public as proven programs are really just experiments. No one has credible research on a lot of those fad ideas.

The real, scientifically researched knowledge base about what truly works for kids is very thin. In fact, such scientific research that does exist often shows none of the current fad programs in use perform for kids. For example, here is the rather uninspiring report about a reading program called “Accelerated Reader” from the federal government’s What Works Clearinghouse.

Mixed effects, by the way mean that sometimes the program works worse, sometimes better, than other treatments.

Anyway, it is absolutely essential, this time, for us to establish some very solid metrics to see if the next educational experiments with our kids really perform, or not.

Kentuckians need to keep this in mind as we work on Senate Bill 1 and other efforts to really try to improve our education system.

Our new education commissioner, Dr. Terry Holliday, looks like a good man to spearhead this effort. His Baldrige award (see the comprehensive application here) for the education reform work he did in North Carolina shows Holliday should be able to set up a good program to evaluate what does, and does not, work for Kentucky’s public school students. We need to give Dr. Holliday a chance to work some magic in Kentucky without a lot of self-important education types who think they know, but don’t, getting in the commissioner’s way.

It’s time to stand up for liberty.

In 1792, the animating spirit of each Kentuckian was that of personal independence and open liberty. Where is that spirit today? Oppressive bureaucrats increasingly threaten this spirit of self-reliance with more and more burdensome taxes, fees, regulations, promised bailouts, czars and take-overs. We’re promised safety and security, fair pricing and equal service. But free people are not equal and equal people are not free.

Since 2003, the Bluegrass Institute is the only organization in Kentucky championing policies that limit the scope of government through real transparency and accountability. Maybe you’ve heard Jim Waters on the radio, read his commentaries or heard him speak at one of Kentucky’s many tea parties. Perhaps you’ve attended one of our events like the viewing of The Call of the Entrepreneur at the Kentucky Theater in Lexington or maybe you receive our email updates and blog posts. Maybe you’ve contributed an article to FreedomKentucky.org or looked up your school district’s check register. Maybe you’ve monitored your legislator’s votes on KentuckyVotes.org. Now we are asking you to take an extra step and become a partner with us in the battle to secure our liberty and empower Kentuckians to take back their freedoms with the same tools our pioneer ancestor used— information, tenacity and resourcefulness.

In 1792 it was a step through the Cumberland Gap toward freedom and today it is a step toward liberty. Take that step by contributing $17.92 at Kentucky1792.org or give $17.92 per month for one year and help the Bluegrass Institute reach our goal of 1792 new partners devoted to strengthening liberty in Kentucky! Or, if you are able, give a gift of $179.20 or $1792. In return we ask you to become involve by committing to one monthly action request so when someone asks, “What else can I do?” You can tell them what you’ve done.

• Call a radio program.

• Host a coffee & capitalism meeting at your favorite diner or coffee house. We’ll bring the coffee mugs!

• Bring a guest to hear a BIPPS speaker.

• Contribute an article to FreedomKentucky.org.

• Read a book like “The Road to Serfdom”.

• Submit an op-ed to your local newspaper on how a policy will restrict your liberty.

• Recruit other 1792 Pioneers via your social networking contacts on Twitter and Facebook.

• Write and educate your legislators or their staff on policy issues that limit your liberty.

The Goal

Our goal is to reach 1792 donors who will contribute $17.92. What better way to commemorate the legacy of Kentuckians and the rugged individual spirit that is our inheritance today? Saddle up and lets get moving!

Helen Mountjoy is resigning from her position as Kentucky Education Secretary effective November 30, 2009.

Mountjoy has been a key player in the implementation of KERA for many years, first as an outspoken member and later chair of the Kentucky Board of Education, and then as Education Secretary since 2007.

Mountjoy’s surprise announcement, coming just days after another key presence in Kentucky education policy, Senator Dan Kelly, announced he was leaving the state legislature, greatly expands the suddenly growing power vacuum on both sides of the issues in the state’s education policy making group.

Mountjoy staunchly defended many of the Progressive Education theories and concepts that were adopted in KERA’s early days. For example, she strongly supported keeping the now failed KIRIS and CATS assessments right up to the point that the legislature voted to disband each of those highly criticized school testing programs.

Given the fact that the real power in education in Kentucky rests with the Kentucky Board of Education and the Kentucky Council on Postsecondary Education, Mountjoy’s influence as education secretary was certainly reduced from her days on the board of education. However, even in the education secretary position, Mountjoy remained actively involved in trying to shape the conversation.

The governor’s recently announced Transforming Education in Kentucky Task Force is viewed in some quarters as a Mountjoy effort to influence the discussion on KERA’s future direction. In fact, it is reported that Mountjoy will continue to function as the governor’s “point person” on this effort after she leaves official office. That raises a question about possible limits on the authority of whoever replaces Mountjoy as Kentucky Education Secretary, further muddying the waters about who will become the new key players in what now could become a profoundly altered education policy landscape.

Kentucky could lose out on Race to the Top funding and thousands of students could lose out on a better education without charter schools.

Click here to listen to the 90-second audio commentary.

Do you care about your children’s education?

Come and join us to hear Virginia Walden Ford tell her story on Friday, November 6 at 7 p.m.

The rally will be held at the Midwest Church of Christ 2115 Garland Ave. Louisville, KY 40211. Everyone is invited to attend.

Come together, Be inspired….Get informed.

– Top district in state may have to house students in trailers

A huge failing in the Seeking Excellence in Education in Kentucky (SEEK) formula for school funding is that it has failed to equitably support school districts with rapidly increasing enrollment. A number of those rapid growth districts are located in Northern Kentucky.

Now, nky.com, a Web service from the Kentucky Enquirer, reports that students in one of Kentucky’s top performing school districts, the Fort Thomas Independent School District, may be housed in trailers next year.

At least one other Northern Kentucky district, the Boone County Public School District, already houses students in makeshift facilities. I confirmed that with the district’s superintendent, Randolph (Randy) J. Poe, last week at the governor’s TEK Task Force news conference.

What really makes this an unfair situation is that while Northern Kentucky taxpayers already pay much more in local school taxes than most other regions of the state, Northern Kentucky also provides an inordinate percentage of the overall tax revenue that Frankfort collects. So, the fact that Northern Kentucky districts aren’t getting adequate support dollars to properly house their students is an easy to understand lesson – some regions of the state are simply bleeding other areas with inequitable collection and distribution of state tax money.

For those who can see beyond their own noses, this serious failing in SEEK poses a threat to the entire state. School districts like Fort Thomas have been very successful at attracting highly educated fathers and mothers to Kentucky. Those well-educated parents help boost the entire state’s economy in many ways, not the least being the fact that they generally supply more tax dollars.

But, highly educated parents are less likely to move into any school district that has serious overcrowding and substandard classroom facilities.

So, down state selfishness and greed threatens more than Northern Kentucky school systems – it threatens the entire state’s ability to grow and expand in a national and world economy that demands higher education every year from those who want to successfully compete.