I recently wrote about the claim that Algebra II supposedly is a high school graduation requirement in Kentucky but large numbers of Kentucky’s high school students are getting diplomas even though only a small percentage are scoring proficient or more on Kentucky’s Algebra II End-of-Course exam. For example, in 2015 Kentucky reported its “on time”…
Dr. Wayne Lewis, the Executive Director of Education Programs at the Kentucky Secretary of Education’s Office, provided the Northern Kentucky Tea Party a great briefing on charter schools last week. There was time for many audience questions about charter school issues in Kentucky, which Dr. Lewis, who has very extensive charter school experience, handled in…
Vector A.R.C. (Assessment of Readiness for College) is looking for volunteers to participate in Beta testing of its new Vector A.R.C. college readiness test. This will happen during the Great Home School Convention – Midwest coming up during March 31–April 2, 2016. The convention will be held at the Duke Energy Convention Center, 525 Elm…
WDRB reports that two days ago the NAACP put the Jefferson County Public School District (JCPS) on the hot seat for continuing minority achievement gaps and small, but excessively slow progress in general. WDRB 41 Louisville News One of the speakers at the meeting, Kathryn Wallace said, “Yes, there is progress. It’s just not coming…
CNY Central.com just reported that the state of New York just announced, less than a month before it starts this year’s Common Core State Standards aligned testing, that it is making significant changes to those tests to try to encourage better participation. New York’s tests will now have fewer questions and students won’t face time…
Several days ago the Daily News in Bowling Green published an editorial praising the Kentucky Department of Education’s reported rapid rise in numerous Kentucky school districts of high school graduates considered college and/or career ready. I know there are major concerns regarding the validity of these statistics and contacted the Daily News editor to discuss…
The Kentucky Department of Education (KDE) has announced a series of “Town Hall” meetings on education that will be held around Kentucky over the next month or so. Per the KDE’s news release, the purpose of these meetings is: “…to gather feedback from Kentuckians on how they define school success.” The news release continues: “The…
There are a lot of challenges with using the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) to evaluate charter school performance in large US cities. While about 20 major urban districts now participate in the NAEP, the student sample sizes are often too small for racial minority charter school populations to get a score report. Even…
A new bill to bring charter schools to Kentucky, Senate Bill 253, was passed in a nine-to-two vote by the Kentucky Legislature’s Education Committee yesterday amidst expected union pushback and an amazingly frank charge from Hal Heiner, Kentucky’s Secretary of Education, that the Kentucky Education Association is standing in the way of the best policies…
We hear a lot today about how student-centered instructional approaches are get primary emphasis in our classrooms today as a result of Common Core State Standards. Things like problem solving group work and higher order thinking skills development are all the rage. But, do all those current education ideas really work well? For all kids?…