– Educators don’t agree It was the underlying fundamental issue that eventually led to the dubiously overreaching Kentucky Supreme Court decision that threw out all of the laws in Kentucky dealing with the operation of public schools. That issue – is funding for Kentucky’s public schools equitable? Nearly twenty years later, people still don’t agree…
Sponsored by more than 20 different Kentucky and national groups, organizations and businesses, the Bluegrass Institute’s Tax Freedom Day on April 18th brought around 1,000 people to Lexington, Kentucky to express their concerns about the country’s current fiscal direction. This first set of video highlights features comments from three of the event’s great speakers and…
It didn’t happen in Kentucky, but a 10-year old student was able to order extra copies of the secret Pennsylvania public school assessments to be sent to his local school district. The tests were shipped even though the boy listed his home address in the request he faxed to the testing company that produces the…
The Bluegrass Institute has an emphasis on the particularly pressing needs for parents of students with learning disabilities to have greater school choice options. Our reports, Enable the Disabled, and The Most Left Behind of All stress some of the issues and problems that confront these parents when their children are trapped in public schools.…
Senate Bill 1 is on the books, so the focus on improving Kentucky’s public education system shifts away from the legislature. Now, the Kentucky Board of Education, the Kentucky Department of Education, and the critical academic course content review committees required in Senate Bill 1 move to center stage. Of these three groups, the course…
Two years ago, before the demise of our old Blog, I wrote about a dubious “Policy Notes #23” release from the Kentucky Long Term Policy Research Center (KLTPRC). The KLTPRC was making a pretty squirrely analysis of some data, trying to evaluate KERA by ranking some of Kentucky’s education data against other states. One of…
– Kentucky’s statewide student data system continues to cause problems I’ve mentioned the problems before, and now the Kentucky Department of Education’s (KDE) Infinite Campus student tracking system continues to have severe teething pains, this time in Boyd County. This multi-million dollar effort was supposed to make it easier for parents to access their children’s…
It looks like the new commissioner of education, whoever that might be, will have a chance to fill a key position at the Kentucky Department of Education right away. Elaine Farris, the department’s deputy commissioner for learning results and current acting interim education commissioner, has announced she is leaving to become the superintendent of the…
The Kentucky Chamber of Commerce has an Op-Ed in Monday’s Herald-Leader that generally praises Senate Bill 1, which replaces CATS testing with something much better. However, the Chamber repeats the same fretting about the temporary suspension of Kentucky’s own school accountability program while we take the time to get the new assessment right. Frankly, I…
– But, will it lead to better educated students? The Fulton Leader reports that two more Kentucky teachers have achieved certification from the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards. Supposedly, that means these teachers have achieved superior competency in the classroom. But, does it really? I wrote about this controversial program only a few weeks…