A long awaited audit of the Fayette County School system, which serves Lexington, Kentucky, has finally been released and some of the findings are incredibly troubling. According to the first news release from the Lexington Herald-Leader, the auditor’s findings include: • Weaknesses in budget and financial-management processes, • Administrative and management salary increases that outpace…
It was a “how’s that again” moment. I was just informed that when Indiana dropped the Common Core State Standards, the US Department of Education told the Hoosiers they had to introduce new tests right away to keep their No Child Left Behind waiver. As mentioned in this recent Education Week article, Indiana was not…
Rick Hess is a regular blogger for Education Week, and his “Straight Up” blog there gets lots of attention. So, we surfed right on over when BIPPS reader Prof. Gary Houchens alerted us that Hess had posted a new, rather long blog with his reactions to the new APUSH course, as lots of writers now…
The huge ruckus over the revision to the Advanced Placement US History (APUSH) course that launched in our schools at the beginning of the new term continues with this shot from Stanley Kurtz at the National Review Online. I’m beginning to think the new APUSH course would have been far less problematic if it had…
The extraordinary saga of Kentucky Commissioner of Education Terry Holliday finally having his fill of federal overreach into state education matters continues with this recent news release from the Kentucky School Boards Association. Reports the KSBA: “Kentucky Education Commissioner Terry Holliday is going to take his frustration to Washington, D.C. for a face-to-face discussion with…
While the Common Core State Standards were not created by the federal government, actions with federal grants through Race to the Top competitions and waivers from the No Child Left Behind law have made it obvious that the federal government has more or less hijacked those standards. New evidence of the federal takeover arose recently when…
Charges similar to ones being made by Kentucky’s education commissioner I wrote several days ago about claims from Kentucky Commissioner of Education Terry Holliday that the US Department of Education (USED) is overstepping its bounds and violating laws by trying to dictate education policy to Kentucky. It looks like Kentucky isn’t the only place where…
We got a very extensive list of questions from reader Rob Mattheu, who writes the Louisville School Beat Blog, concerning our “Lewis vs. Solomon: Does Kentucky need charter schools?” online debate. Mattheu’s detailed questions deserved more space than a comment would allow, so I am turning this into a separate blog, addressed to Mr. Mattheu…
Kentucky’s Education Commissioner Terry Holliday was recently named the 2014 Policy Leader of the Year by the National Association of State Boards of Education (NASBE). Certainly, examples like the commissioner’s recent actions in speaking out sharply about federal overreach into the states’ rights area of control over education show that while we at the Bluegrass…
Kentucky was the first state to adopt the Common Core State Standards and the first to implement tests in math and reading that were aligned to those standards. And, those standards have proved increasingly controversial. So, it makes sense that the Kentucky Commissioner of Education has pushed up his original plan to revisit those standards…