It’s amazing. In the space of just two days, Kentuckians have been treated to not one, but two separate examples of how hard it is to find really incisive research about how our commonwealth’s public school system truly performs. The first example came during Monday’s “Kentucky Tonight” show on KET: At 5 minutes 30 seconds…
As mentioned in the first blog in this series, I had a chance to participate on August 13, 2018 on KET’s Kentucky Tonight program on education, and it was an interesting time. Three minutes into the broadcast, show guest Dr. Steven Gordon mentioned that in a new report he co-authored with BIPPS Scholar Dr. John…
I had a chance to participate last night on KET’s Kentucky Tonight program on education,and it was an interesting time. Three minutes into the broadcast, show guest Dr. Steven Gordon mentioned that in a new report he co-authored with BIPPS Scholar Dr. John Garen that they found test score gains in Kentucky had only been…
One of the more important features of the impending revision to Kentucky’s public school assessment and accountability program is the ending of the state’s current Priority Schools program, which started life back in 2010 as the Persistently Low-Achieving Schools program. Since its inception in 2010, a total of 47 schools have entered Priority/Persistently Low-Achieving status,…
The American Federation for Children reports the Supreme Court of Puerto Rico just issued a ruling that their hurricane-ravaged island’s new law expanding charter schools and vouchers to private schools is legal and constitutional. This throws cold water on a Puerto Rican teachers’ union effort to have the new school choice law declared unconstitutional. The…
A new article in Kentucky Forward talks about “Pew Trusts: It’s hard to manage your credit when you’ve never been taught about ‘interest.’” The article mentions a new Kentucky law that will finally require our schools to teach students something about credit and finances – beginning in 2020 – but that comes awfully slowly since…
It’s August, and Kentucky Department of Education News Release 18-115 reminds us that school buses are already rolling in some Kentucky school districts and soon will be on the road in every district in the state. So, it’s a good time for drivers, parents and students to refresh on the laws regarding stopped school buses.…
Regarding possible state management of the Jefferson County Public School District: “This should give the people of Jefferson County the most concern. You look at the findings of that audit, which, again, I’ve not heard anyone refute. They are incredible. They’re incredible. There are things going on in the classroom in that district with students…
We in Kentucky constantly hear about how important preschool is, but the reality might be something different. Certainly, as we’ve pointed out before, the studies done on the Head Start program indicate that any benefits fade out by the end of the third grade. More recently, an examination of a program in Tennessee added similar…
Education financials are all over the map Across the country we hear strident complaints from teachers and other educators about supposed under-funding of the nation’s public education system. Supposedly, funding is lower now than it was back in 2008 before the Great Recession started. The latest entrant in the “we demand more dollars” fray is…