Education Week just reported on an astonishing study of the proportion of high schools in each state that offer high school physics. With all the “Happy Talk” we’re hearing from educators about getting kids ready for careers in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM), and given that physics is essential to enter those STEM careers,…
Now that I explained in an earlier blog why you cannot get a good picture of Kentucky’s true performance on the ACT college entrance test versus other states by only looking at overall average scores, let’s examine how the Bluegrass State’s white students stacked up against whites in the 17 other states where 100 percent…
Before we get into comparisons of the data between Kentucky and elsewhere on the just-released 2016 high school graduates’ ACT scores, I need to point out again why it’s important to break the data out by race when you compare relative state-to-state performance in education, ACT scores most definitely included. To explain why you have…
The ACT scores for 2016 high school graduates were released today. Thanks to heightened interest in the state’s achievement gap issues due to Common Core (see here, here and here for some examples), I decided to look at the trends in white minus black achievement gaps on this college-entrance test first. This table summarizes what…
Last week I started this blog series, which shows why we’re concerned at BIPPS about the quality of high school diplomas being awarded in Kentucky. I looked at two separate indicators of diploma quality in each of Kentucky’s 168 school districts that have high schools. One approach analyzed the variation between high school diploma award…
What do you think about this? Whirlpool Corporation installed clothes washers and driers in a small number of schools with lots of disadvantaged kids – and attendance and grades went up. Could boosting school attendance and grades in high needs schools really be this simple? Someone needs to try it in Kentucky! GE, are you…
The Wall Street Journal often takes an interesting look at public education topics. In this editorial, it is clear that the Journal is impressed with the performance of charter schools in New York. It is also interesting to read the reader comments for this article. It seems like there is a lot of understanding that…
As I mentioned in yesterday’s blog, if it did nothing else, a recently released, rather disappointing report about For All Kids, How Kentucky is Closing the High School Graduation Gap for Low-Income Students did focus attention on how Kentucky’s low-income students are faring. So, my Part 3 blog in this series took a look at…
If it did nothing else, a recently released, rather disappointing report about For All Kids, How Kentucky is Closing the High School Graduation Gap for Low-Income Students did focus attention on how Kentucky’s low-income students are faring. So, for Part 3 of our blogs about the problems with Kentucky’s high school diplomas, let’s take a…
In his weekly e-mail to district and school personnel Kentucky Commissioner of Education Stephen Pruitt made it clear that while the state’s social studies standards won’t change for the 2016-17 school year, he and his staff are still working on what he refers to as “Social Studies Standards for the Next Generation.” He also says…