If any members of the Kentucky legislature’s Interim Joint Education Committee doubt the country faces serious education problems, they kept those doubts to themselves today as Dr. William E. Kirwan presented stunning evidence of how far the United States has fallen in education worldwide. Kirwan’s evidence was stark – the US has lost significant ground…
It’s been a long time coming, but the Prichard Committee for Academic Excellence’s blog is starting to sound a lot like our site. In the past few days, the Prichard blog has posted such items as “Joe Brothers’ Mighty Question” and “Achievement gaps remain severe.” The first item contains Kentucky Board of Education chair Joe…
– But, will Jefferson County teachers listen? The story started on October 1, 2009. That’s when the Wall Street Journal reported the National Education Association’s president, Dennis Van Roekel, testified to the US House of Representatives that his huge union wants its local affiliates to eliminate restrictive contract language that interferes with, if not totally…
I posted a short audio outtake from this week’s meetings of the Kentucky Board of Education earlier, but here, thanks to Andrew Liaupsin at the Kentucky Education and Television Services, is a set of links to the entire meeting on line archives for the KBE Meetings on 10/7/2009 and 10/8/2009. If you don’t have a…
The last two days of meetings at the Kentucky Board of Education have been a real breath of fresh air, and ideas. Some of the most important comments may have come from Dr. Terry Holliday, the new commissioner of education. He talked about having to really reach out for new ideas to combat the chronic…
We blogged over a week ago about obvious errors in the new Kentucky NCLB test report for students with learning disabilities. That problem, originally reported in two regional papers that only identified the issue in a single school district each, was today confirmed to be more widespread by Associate Commissioner of Education Ken Draut in…
– KY Board of Education Chair Joe Brothers to Jefferson County educators The Kentucky Board of Education heard update reports on what was going on in four of Kentucky’s most problematic school districts. The report from one of those districts, Louisville’s huge Jefferson County Public School District, included some really stunning moments. Betty Graham, principal…
There’s another chance to attend a local area tea party before the bad weather hits. The Northern Kentucky Tea Party organization is holding one this Saturday at the Boone County Fair Grounds. Here is the link to the organization’s Web site. And, here is a news announcement which includes scheduled speakers. Get directions to the…
– And about effective education spending in general Add the Messenger-Inquirer’s editorial staff to the group of Kentuckians who are finally getting the message – high school dropouts cost this state plenty, in many ways. And, just throwing money at the problem isn’t the answer. The newspaper opines’ in “Editorial: Education is a community investment”…
– But, how bad? The 2009 report of the second year of testing for Achieve’s Algebra II exam are in, and this year Achieve also reports on the first year of testing with its Algebra I exam. Only a small proportion of the Kentucky kids who were tested did well on the Algebra II exam.…