As we move into the new legislative session, with a bill on charter schools already being prepared, it is interesting to note findings from a fairly recent report about charter school performance in the National Assessment of Educational Progress. It is important to note that the NAEP is not really an ideal tool to look…
We are off in a new year, and the education landscape is already looking “lively.” The year started right off with me getting that “where did I see that name come up?” feeling. This feeling was triggered by the Herald-Leader’s January 2, 2014 article, “Danville superintendent leading the way away from standardized testing.” The newspaper…
The final Unbridled Learning accountability classifications for Kentucky’s public schools were released on September 27, 2013. That September release was already very late. Under the score reporting provisions of Senate Bill 1 from the Kentucky 2009 Regular Legislative Session: “Beginning with the 2012-2013 school year, the reporting requirement in this subsection shall be no later…
The New York Times recently published a remarkable article, “Why students do better overseas,” which has been picked up by many other news services and is causing a stir. The Times focuses on the top performing school system in Finland and what makes that country’s schools superior. Several points are raised, but here is perhaps…
Jefferson County math scores on federal testing look problematic New scores for major urban school districts from the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) were released today, and it looks like more trouble for Louisville and Jefferson County. I put this first table together using the NAEP Data Explorer statistical significance test tools. It shows…
There is considerable interest in the performance of Kentucky’s “Priority Schools” under the state’s new school accountability program called Unbridled Learning. These schools were originally designated “Persistently Low-Achieving Schools” based on their absolutely bottom in the state CATS testing results in reading and math before Unbridled Learning took over in the 2011-12 school term. Because…
About 1/3 of the schools getting massive federal funding didn’t improve Conversion to charter schools outperformed other models Several years ago, the US Department of Education started the massively funded “School Improvement Grant” or SIG program to identify and improve what came to be known as the nation’s “Persistently Low Achieving Schools” (recently renamed “Priority…
Corrupts validity of reading results Even though Kentucky notably improved its exclusion rate for students with learning disabilities from the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) reading assessments in 2013, a new report from Education Week points out that the Bluegrass State still excludes far more of these special students than is typical across the…
It was one of the big surprises when Common Core State Standards first came out. Fox News commentator and former governor of Arkansas Mike Huckabee, widely regarded as a conservative, backed the new standards. He even pushed them. For example, the Washington Times reported in June that Huckabee had just written a letter (online here)…
The Star Press up in Indianapolis reports that Indiana is dropping the GED as an alternative program to earn a high school credential. The state will only offer McGraw-Hill’s competing TASC (Test Assessing Secondary Completion) as a way for high school leavers to get a credential. Apparently, as this online Power Point says, TASC will…