Another local board of education is choosing the cowardly way out of their responsibility to the voters (subscription), hiding behind a terrible, anti-voter law passed during this year’s legislative session. That voter-hostile law allows (but does not require) local boards of education to conduct the meat of their annual superintendent evaluations in secret. This secret…
The Alliance for Excellent Education has just posted new estimates that if we could cut the Jefferson County Public School System’s disastrous dropout rates for African-Americans by 50 percent, that there would be a benefit to those kids of color of $4.3 million. A similar cut for the city’s Latino and Asian students would save…
An article in yesterday’s Courier-Journal highlights exactly why I am increasingly against a new law that allows school boards to evaluate their school superintendent in secret. Says Debbie Wesslund, chair of the Jefferson County Board of Education: “It doesn’t matter what we say or think individually, it matters what we say or think as a…
Logan already did the initial blog about the new school energy managers program, but this news release provides some interesting insight into what is going on. Check out the background of the new energy manager for Pulaski, Casey and Rockcastle County schools. This makes me wonder what these energy managers are really going to be…
Over the past few days, I’ve been commenting on KET’s Monday night show on charter schools (which is on line here). One of the more interesting comments came at 41 minutes and 41 seconds into the on line broadcast version when show panelist Phil Moffett said: “The real reason that the public schools don’t do…
The Prichard Committee for Academic Excellence has pushed statistical nonsense about the real performance of our public school system on and off for years. Sadly that trend is continued within this recent Op-Ed from Prichard head Robert F. Sexton. The Kentucky Long Term Policy Research Center (KLTPRC) has been shut down, but that doesn’t stop…
KET’s Monday night show on charter schools provided plenty of examples of how opponents of charters will grasp at almost any straw to fight introducing these highly successful public schools in Kentucky. One of the more outrageous of those examples occurred about 48 minutes into the program (which is on line here) when Brent McKim,…
Per our alert yesterday, last night’s Kentucky Tonight show on KET was all about charter schools. It brought together State Representatives Brad Montell, R-Shelbyville and Carl Rollins, D- Midway with Jefferson County Teachers Association president Brent McKim and Bluegrass Institute board member Phil Moffitt to hassle it out about charter schools. Of course, as is…
Professor Diane Ravitch from Columbia Teachers College and now New York University amassed a considerable reputation over the years as an education historian. Lately, however, she has been missing the target, as her recent comments to the National Education Association’s annual conference attest. (Click the ‘Read more’ link below to learn more) Below is a…
A new law in Texas looks like it might be worth discussion everywhere else, as well. The Dallas News reports that under the new statute, every public college and university in Texas must post: •A detailed syllabus listing each course requirement, recommended textbook, test and lecture topic for every undergraduate classroom course. •A curriculum vitae…