There is an interesting back-and-forth going on in the Herald-Leader about the impacts of the Kentucky Education Reform Act of 1990. First to chime off was Nina McCoy, who teaches biology, anatomy and physiology at Sheldon Clark High School in Inez. She is a nationally board certified teacher with 30 years of experience. In other…
In a lengthy article, Education Week shares growing concerns that student data security and sharing is highly problematic. The newspaper asked two data security experts to look at policies for three leading student data suppliers, and the findings were certainly disturbing. Some issues include: • Use of tracking and surveillance technologies that allow third parties…
Kentucky auditor says, “School finance officers across Kentucky may lack skills for their jobs” A new report from a new news agency, the Kentucky Center for Investigative Reporting (KYCIR), says Kentucky Auditor of Public Accounts Adam Edelen says there are serious qualification short-comings in many finance officers in Kentucky’s public school districts. A study recently…
I want to stress at the outset that I didn’t come up with this title about the latest federal move regarding the Common Core State Standards. This comes from a blog written by the well-known liberal education historian Dr. Diane Ravitch. She is no conservative! However, Ravitch is actually picking up on – and agreeing…
BIPPS staffers have been speaking around the state about our observations on the Common Core State Standards and the Next Generation Science Standards and thought it was time to pull some overall thoughts together for our blog readers. You can find our full statement on education standards including the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) and…
It looks like a second, statewide charter-like school is about to open, this time on the campus of Morehead State University. The new school at Morehead, the Craft Academy for Excellence in Science and Mathematics, will offer a resident campus for top-performing high school juniors and seniors, much like an existing school at Western Kentucky…
Essential changes are coming to Kentucky’s public school assessment and accountability program. A mandatory need for changes to Kentucky’s assessment program and its Unbridled Learning school accountability program is being precipitated by an announcement from the ACT, Inc., that the organization’s EXPLORE and PLAN tests will be discontinued in 2015. Thus, Kentucky can count on…
I wrote earlier about the Grissom Award that Dr. Dewey Hensley just won. This year, there actually were two Grissoms awarded and the second one also went to a group we’ve talked about. Not long ago, the Franklin-Simpson High School caught our attention when they boldly decided to really make their high school diploma mean…
The Bluegrass Institute already knew Dr. Dewey Hensley was a star. Several years ago we blogged about remarkable performance at the J.B. Atkinson Elementary school in Louisville. Atkinson had been Louisville’s poorest performing elementary school when then principal Dewey Hensley took over. In a few years, Atkinson had made remarkable progress. Renamed the J.B. Atkinson…
The New York City Independent Budget Office just released an interesting report on charter school student mobility. Here are some of the findings: • On average, students at charter schools stay at their schools at a higher rate than students at nearby traditional public schools. About 70 percent of students attending charter schools in school…