Education Week just reported that Kentucky has lost out (again) on a Race to the Top federal education funding competition. This time it was for the Early Learning Grants. The RTTT Early Learning Grants, which will average around $55.6 million to each of the nine states that won the competition, will help develop improved early…
The Mountain Advocate reports (subscription) that the geothermal climate control system in Knox Central High School is really messed up. Instead of great savings, the school has been pouring money into heating “14 million and 400 cubic feet of earth” for the past seven years. An engineering firm ran tests on some of the 192…
Education Week reports (subscription?) that the Washington, DC based Center on Education Policy (CEP) claims US Secretary of Education Arne Duncan’s prediction that 82 percent of our schools would fail to make Adequate Yearly Progress last year was way off. Per the CEP’s report, the real NCLB failure rate was much lower, only 48 percent…
Education Week reports in “More Students With Disabilities Heading to College” (subscription) that more kids with learning disabilities are going on to postsecondary education. Amazing as this might first appear, this shows that if these special kids are taught properly, they can lead much more productive lives. One theme in the article is that these…
We told you so. Kentucky’s high schools are losing a lot more kids than you have been told. The Kentucky Office of Education Accountability (OEA) presented “Analysis of Kentucky Career and College Readiness using the P20 Database” to the Kentucky Legislature’s Education Assessment and Accountability Review Subcommittee today. It was a first look at what…
Education Week is carrying an Associated Press article that cites explosive growth in public charter school enrollment across the nation. According to the AP: “The growth represents the largest increase in enrollment over a single year since charter schools were founded nearly two decades ago.” The article says more than 500 new charters were opened…
The Kentucky Board of Education did a worthwhile thing yesterday, voting unanimously to improve the way our schools provide testing accommodations to students with learning disabilities. The new rules bring us in line with policy in the vast majority of states (42 of them, according to comments made by Associate Commissioner Ken Draut at the…
A report on digital learning, commissioned by the Kentucky Department of Education and created by OpenEdSolutions was released on December 8, 2011 at the Kentucky Board of Education meeting. The new report The new study makes recommendations for improvement in 11 broad areas: 1. All students should be eligible for digital learning 2. Authorize multiple…
It’s been way too long in coming, but it looks like the right thing is finally going to be done. The Kentucky Board of Education adopted new testing rules today that no longer allow reading tests to be read to students with learning disabilities. With this action, the board sends a solid message to teachers…
The Indiana Public Charter Schools Association just signed on to a new partnership with the Association of American Educators (AAE) to insure teachers in that state’s charter schools have good representation and protection without the encumbrances the standard teachers’ unions in this country create. Indiana’s charter school teachers can join the AAE for the low…