– California knows, Why Doesn’t Kentucky? Two years ago, California’s public education system began to get honest high school graduation and dropout data after switching to a high quality student tracking system. Two days ago, the state got its second set of trustworthy data, and it showed that only 68 percent of California’s students graduate…
– Wall Street Journal Op-Ed ‘Gets’ It Echoing a local problem that repeats itself across the nation, a Wall Street Journal article points to a sharp difference in the actions of public sector and private sector unions in this country. Private sector unions recognize what is going on with the economy and are taking steps…
As the Obama administration and congress try to undo the highly popular Washington, DC school voucher program, they are getting push back from a surprising source – the liberally oriented Washington Post. Writes the Post, “Senate hearing offers good reasons for preserving the District’s education experiment.” Check the article for comments about how the DC…
In a surprise move, the Kentucky Board of Education is bringing Mr. Kevin Noland, the former Kentucky Department of Education chief legal counsel, out of retirement to serve as Interim Commissioner Of Education. Mr. Noland served as interim commissioner several times before and therefore won’t face much of a learning curve for many of the…
– Having trouble raising taxes A pair of May 5th articles in the Cincinnati Enquirer and its northern Kentucky edition show how public education’s seemingly insatiable desire for money is running up hard against reality. In the first article, the Enquirer reports that school tax issues faced a tough public this month when school tax…
As Kentucky’s public high school class of 2009 prepares to walk the graduation aisle, it is sobering to contemplate how many of these students are fully prepared for the next challenges in their young lives. Last year, the public school Class of 2009 established a historic first when every student, regardless of postsecondary education intentions,…
A rare event is taking place in Kentucky. Another extraordinarily poor performing school’s Site Base Decision Making Council (SBDM) is going to lose its governing authority. This time, it’s the Two Rivers Middle School in Covington that is finally up for some long overdue changes. But, how effective will the changes be? In February 2007…
I’m still locked out of the Prichard Committee’s Blog, so I can’t compliment Susan Weston on her interesting calculation of the percentage of students who are held back in ninth grade and then go on to finally get a regular diploma. Susan estimates that only about 17 percent of the kids who are retained (held…
A new federal study on four reading comprehension programs for fifth grade students came to a disturbing conclusion. Three of the programs had no effect, and the fourth actually had a negative effect. Education Week reports (subscription), “that Project CRISS, developed by Creating Independence Through Student-Owned Strategies; Read About, produced by Scholastic Inc.; and Read…
– Don’t hold your breath The Education Week newspaper reports (subscription) that it is proving difficult to track the first round of education stimulus money now flowing out of Washington. So far, Ed Week says most state “recovery” Web sites contain no information about actual funds that have flowed to them from the federal government.…