Was there cheating on the Kentucky Core Content Tests (KCCT)? I wrote a few days ago about a new report, “Kentucky State Testing for Education Accountability: An Examination of Security-related Threats to Making Valid Inferences and Suggested Best Practices” from the Kentucky Legislative Research Commission (LRC). This report examines the current situation with testing security…
Fox News reports that a hard-hitting documentary, ‘The War on Kids,’ will air this Sunday, May 6, 2012, at 8 and 10 PM on the Documentary Channel (Direct TV Channel 267, check listings for other services). I have not seen this film, but according to Fox, the documentary takes a dim view of things like…
Testing is underway right now in the Bluegrass State’s public schools with the new Kentucky Performance Rating for Educational Progress (K-PREP) state assessments. Unfortunately, because the results are now more important than ever, there is also an increase in temptation for some of our educators to cheat. Lots of people know it. Many honest people…
Is your Blue Ribbon School really top-notch? The Atlanta Journal-Constitution (AJC) continues its article series about cheating on school tests with a new piece. This one is on cheating in what are supposed to be the supreme schools in the land, the US Department of Education’s Blue Ribbon Schools. Pulling no punches, the newspaper reports:…
The Courier-Journal reports that new audits have been performed for six Jefferson County schools that were part of the first group of 10 schools in Kentucky to be declared “Persistently Low-Achieving Schools.” The audits, which the Courier obtained through an open records request (Why? The audits are available to all on the Kentucky Department of…
Let’s put some action behind the words I found it somewhat ironic that Commissioner of Education Terry Holiday’s most recent blog discusses schools supporting our military families. Certainly, it is important for our schools to help military dependent children who move into Kentucky. A military child’s life is often disrupted by sudden move and by…
Maybe there never was more than an uneasy cease fire Education Week reports (subscription?) that activities to implement the Common Core State Standards in actual classrooms are re-igniting the long simmering war over how to teach reading. At issue: a reading instructional technique called “Pre-Reading.” This involves classroom activities to get students ready for reading.…
It’s strange, but true, per the Floyd County Times article, “May Valley group seeks Martin annexation records.” Apparently, teachers at May Valley Elementary School are upset because they have to pay an occupational tax on their salaries but argue the school where they work does not get any services for those taxes from Martin City,…
An interesting article from Education Week (subscription required?) says, “Study Supports Essay-Grading Technology.” Can computers really do this? Can machines to this better than humans? Any decent word processor today includes things like grammar and spelling check tools, which are important mechanics in any good paper. But, those tools don’t evaluate whether the meaning conveyed…
This past Friday, Kentucky Commissioner of Education Terry Holliday reconfirmed the Bluegrass State’s commitment to using technology in our schools. You can read his comments, which include information about a number of interesting technology tools, here. By the way, one subject the commissioner didn’t cover was using digital learning to make summer course offerings more…