We are hearing a lot these days about public schools concentrating on SEL – Social and Emotional Learning. Like other education reforms before it, SEL makes many promises. But, there are concerns that this relatively new program might not be in the best interests of students or parents. In fact, Robert Holland writes in the…
Proposed Social Studies Standards won’t fix it, either It’s really sad. The Herald-Leader just reported how our state flunked a U.S history test in its article, “So why was Ben Franklin famous? Kentuckians flunk test of U.S. history knowledge.” The article is based on a recent report from the Woodrow Wilson Foundation that shows Kentucky…
It’s a real puzzle. The pending revision to Kentucky’s public school social studies standards acknowledges on Page 8 that: “…all public middle and high school’s curriculum shall include instruction on the Holocaust and other cases of genocide….” That’s a legal requirement right out of Section 1, Paragraph (1) (a) (3) in House Bill 128 from…
More evidence that Kentucky needs to improve the current school council program and offer parents something else – say school choice – that might really get them interested I just got challenged by a local school board and former school council member regarding the VERY low participation of parents in elections for school council members…
We are starting to get questions about how to respond to the really poor social studies standards revision that is currently going through the process of adoption through regulation. The public comment period for the regulation that incorporates the standards by reference, 704 KAR 8:060, Kentucky Academic Standards for Social Studies, has started and is…
Nuclear weapons are a hot news topic right now. On February 1, 2019 the New York Times reported the US cancellation of a Reagan-era treaty with Russia following a history of violations. Today, NBC News reports that NATO is concerned and considering new options. For sure, the Iran Nuclear Deal has been a recent hot…
New standards for Kentucky’s instruction of social studies were approved by the Kentucky Board of Education on February 6, 2019. As I pointed out in a previous blog, based on comparisons to standards from Massachusetts and Indiana, two states with highly regarded standards, a lot of specific material is stunningly missing in the new Kentucky…
Continuing our discussion of concerns about the social studies standards revision approved by the Kentucky Board of Education on February 6, 2019, we created some comparisons to social studies standards from Massachusetts and Indiana, two states which – among other acknowledgments – have in the past received high marks for their history coverage from the…
I reported in a recent blog about the Kentucky Board of Education voting on February 6, 2019 to approve some highly problematic standards for the state’s public schools. But, I think before going into more details about the specific issues with those newly approved standards, it would be worthwhile to explain what high quality education…
Yesterday, the Kentucky Board of Education voted unanimously to adopt new social studies standards. That’s leading to a lot of people scratching their heads and wondering what the board was thinking, because the standards that got approved are clearly problematic. I’ll be looking at a number of issues with these standards in future blogs, but…