Tighter standards are coming I commented earlier on the grim reality for recent Kentucky high school graduates who go on to our postsecondary system with inadequate preparation. Chances are low that they will ever win a coveted degree, especially for students entering two-year degree programs. Because of the low odds, some stark realities are about…
The statistics are sobering. Unprepared students entering Kentucky’s four-year postsecondary institutions face poor odds they’ll ever graduate. That point was made by this graph presented to the Kentucky legislature’s Interim Joint Education Committee yesterday by Kentucky Council on Postsecondary Education president Robert L. King. The orange bars on this graph show the odds of a…
The Jefferson County plan for busing students hither and yon has now collected a new set of complaints; this time it’s a 34 page report from the NAACP. Some highlights: • The NAACP is upset that some parents who objected to long bus rides for their children apparently were successful in getting their children reassigned.…
Fayette County: Pay attention! Bluegrass Institute’s syndicated columnist Jim Waters’ latest column discusses how talk without effective action still leaves black students at the back of the education bus in Kentucky. Jim’s article focuses on Louisville, where only 22 percent of the black high school students were proficient in math in 2009 Kentucky Core Content…
Yesterday, I discussed the fact that new high school graduation rate data from Education Week shows that Kentucky’s “official” graduation rate for the Class of 2007 is more than 10 points higher than the rate Education Week is estimating (based on a more accurate formula than Kentucky currently uses). Today, let’s examine graduation rates for…
According to statute, terms of service for the majority of the 11 members of the Kentucky Board of Education expired in April. However, Governor Steve Beshear has yet to name the seven replacements. The governor could rename existing members or select new faces. The character of the board could change radically as a result. Kentucky…
Education Week’s research unit just released “Diplomas Count 2010.” You can use one of the many web pages in the release to find graduation rates for individual states, including Kentucky. I show those EdWeek rates here along with the available graduation rate data from the latest Nonacademic Data Report From the Kentucky Department of Education…
The National Education Association has lost a legal battle to have the federal No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB) declared an unfunded mandate. On June 7, 2010 the US Supreme Court refused to hear the union’s appeal of a lower court ruling on the case, which found NCLB was not an unfunded mandate.…
Retired military personnel who run Junior ROTC programs in our public schools are a unique breed of educator. Not only do they fit a very different mold from most teachers, but their salary and benefits package largely comes from the US military. That last fact makes it problematic for them to join a union. But,…
State Board of Education unimpressed As the Courier-Journal reports today the Robert Frost Middle School in Jefferson County lost its appeal to keep its School Based Decision Making Council (often called the “Site Base Council”) self-governance authority. This state board decision follows a March ‘Leadership Assessment’ audit that says Frost’s council, “…does not have sufficient…