Jim Waters, president the Bluegrass Institute, will guest host “The Pulse” on Lexington’s NewsRadio 630 WLAP-AM Friday, May 11, from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. (EDT).
Call in to join the conversation at (859) 280-2287
Click here to listen live.
Taking liberty to the airwaves: BIPPS on WLAP
May 10, 2012 By Leave a Comment
NAEP Science for Kentucky: Not as good as others will try to say
May 10, 2012 By Leave a Comment
The 2011 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) Grade 8 Science Assessment results have been released, and when you look at overall scores across states, Kentucky is ahead of the national average.
Sadly, that isn’t true for by far our largest student group, our white students.
This first map (created with the Main NAEP Data Explorer) shows how our white students, who comprised 84% of the students in Kentucky in 2011, compared to white students in other states around the country. States and jurisdictions shown in green outscored our white kids by a statistically significant amount. States in tan tied us, and only four states shown in salmon color got scores statistically significantly below our whites.
Our educators always want to play the poverty card, so here is another map that shows results only for white students who were eligible for the federal free and reduced cost lunch program.
Quote of the day: What Washington (and Frankfort) needs
May 10, 2012 By Leave a Comment
“Washington needs statesmen, not horse traders. Our country needs principled leaders who will stand up and say no to trillion-dollar deficits.” –Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky, in the Washington Times
Video explains new school assessment and accountability program
May 10, 2012 By Leave a Comment
As I write this, testing with the new Kentucky Performance Rating for Educational Progress (K-PREP) program is under way in the state’s public schools. K-PREP is completely different from the past CATS program and its Kentucky Core Content Tests, and those differences have generated a lot of questions, and not a little confusion, among both education professionals and parents.
In an attempt to clarify what is, and is not, in K-PREP, Kentucky Commissioner of Education Terry Holliday and his staff put together a 28-minute video that overviews the new program and deals with some of the more commonly raised questions about how K-PREP is going to operate.
You can view this video by clicking here.
Where are those charter schools?
May 9, 2012 By Leave a Comment
We talk frequently about charter schools here at the Bluegrass Institute, so I thought you might like to see where they are most frequently found. This list comes from US Department of Education data collected by the National Center for Education Statistics.
Notes to the table
As an additional note, I calculated the percentages in the far right column. The source table is on line here.
It should be noted that Mississippi had a charter school law that expired in 2009 and then was re-enacted in 2010, hence only one charter school was in operation there at the time the table was compiled.
Also note that many of the Louisiana charters are located in the New Orleans area. Louisiana used the flexibility and entrepreneurial ability of charter operators to rapidly rebuild after Hurricane Katrina. As we have noted elsewhere, those charters are contributing to some important growth in Louisiana’s ACT performance.
Kentucky Energy Equation – EPA finds tag team partner in attacks on Kentucky energy
May 9, 2012 By Leave a Comment
It looks like the the Environmental Protection Agency has found itself a tag team partner in its efforts to unilaterally bankrupt Kentucky coal companies.
Earlier this month, the US Department of the Interior sent a letter to Kentucky’s Energy and Environmental Cabinet threatening to force federal control over Kentucky’s bonding program for surface coal mining operations if the Commonwealth did not raise bond amounts to the liking of the unelected bureaucrats in Washington D.C.
Before starting a new surface mining project, a company must submit a bond to the Commonwealth to be returned in full once the relevant land has been restored to its former conditions. Apparently federal regulators believe Kentucky’s bonds aren’t satisfactory, and are once again threatening state sovereignty and Kentucky’s right to regulate its own internal commerce.
Just how do D.C. bureaucrats know the appropriate bond levels for Kentucky coal miners better than Kentuckians do? How are the subtle trade-offs between one state policy or another lost on the local citizens of the Bluegrass State, but so easily grasped by the far and away politicians in Washington?
Apparently that all-important local knowledge of the costs and benefits of such a change in the bond program are of no concern to the those in the Department of the Interior who wrote condescendingly to Kentucky’s Energy and Environmental Cabinet:
“I appreciate the complexities of the matter and recognize the deficiencies developed over the past decade or more will take a concerted effort over time to resolve. Nonetheless, it is time to make actual progress.”
Like a parent chastising a petulant child, the feds dismissed the state’s concerns with such a new bond program and are insisting on their way or the highway – a threat to be backed by the force of federal government if necessary.
This is yet another grievance for Kentuckians to discuss at the Environmental Protection Agency’s public hearings scheduled for June 5th and 7th in Frankfort and Pikeville respectively.
Freidman Foundation: Moms Say Kids Need School Vouchers
May 9, 2012 By Leave a Comment
The Friedman Foundation for Educational Choice just released results from a new poll of adults which includes something rather special, a separate set of data on what moms want for their kids.
Here’s a survey question about school vouchers and what moms and non-moms responded.
So, what else do moms want? Freidman’s press release says:
• 71 percent of moms said they believe school vouchers should be available to all families regardless of income or special needs
• Only 30 percent of mothers said that vouchers should be based on “financial need” compared to 71 percent of moms who said they should be available to “all families
• 65 percent of moms graded their area public schools “A” or “B” compared to 83 percent of moms who gave the same high marks to parochial or private schools
You can find the full documentation for this survey here. It’s an interesting read.
Technical roadblocks to digital learning
May 9, 2012 By Leave a Comment
While digital learning is certainly an untapped goldmine for education, it is not without its technical challenges. These roadblocks are part of what keeps digital learning from moving forward quickly and significantly.
In this installment of our digital learning video series, education analyst Richard Innes discusses these technical roadblocks.
School data quality: Still a big problem
May 8, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Honest principal in Nevada points to gross error in data for his school
US News and World Report’s (USN&WR) annual ranking of high schools came out only a few hours ago.
Already, controversy is brewing about this dubious ranking program.
This time, part of the problem is that some of the data stored at the US Department of Education is clearly just plain wrong.
Principal Jeff Horn at the Green Valley High School in Nevada says there is a serious error in the enrollment data USN&WR used to show his school ranking 13th best in the nation.
That federal database shows Green Valley High has 477 students and 111 teachers, for a pupil teacher ratio of just 4 to 1. Apparently, that incredibly low ratio didn’t set off any alarms at USN&WR. It should have.
The actual enrollment at the school is 2,850 students, which (IF the teacher count is accurate) works out to a 26 to 1 ratio. Also, the incredibly low enrollment figure apparently messed up the USN&WR calculation of ‘pass rates’ on Advanced Placement tests. Per the magazine, the school’s ‘pass rate’ was 100 percent (another questionable number). The real pass rate is 64 percent.
The Kentucky story
USN&WR also ranks what are supposed to be the top 10 high schools in each state, including Kentucky.
I have problems with USN&WR’s #6 choice of Ballard High School and the #8 choice, the Eastern High School in Louisville.
In the 2010 Kentucky Core Content Test in mathematics, both of those schools had big black versus white proficiency rate gaps. Eastern’s was more than 30 points. Ballard’s was MUCH WORSE – an enormous 50 point difference! Check for yourself in the Kentucky Department of Education’s Gap to Goal Excel Spreadsheet for “Statewide,” “All Districts,” available here.
Blacks are getting left behind in these schools, but USN&WR’s superficial analysis apparently won’t show you that.
Unfortunately, the Kentucky Department of Education does not report disaggregated 11th grade ACT college entrance test results by race, but Eastern doesn’t make the top 10 for its overall average ACT composite score in 2010, and Ballard didn’t do as well as Eastern.
Stay tuned for more about the issue of racial performance gaps in Louisville’s schools. We are getting ready to release a paper on that shortly. Busing fanatics in that city and elsewhere won’t be pleased. Neither will anyone who really wants to see the achievement gaps reduced.
The free education movement in digital learning
May 8, 2012 By Leave a Comment
We have talked a lot about the power of digital learning in our recent video series. 
A growing movement of reputable colleges and universities offering free courses online has just recently seen some big publicity. Harvard, Stanford, University of Michigan, and the University of Pennsylvania are among many of the universities that are offering free online courses for anyone who wants to take advantage. The courses are anywhere from 4 to 12 weeks and cover subjects as diverse as genome science and finance. Upon completion, students receive a certificate.
The opportunity is billed as being advantageous to those who want to pad their resume, further their career or even just expand their knowledge base.
This is just the beginning. Online and digital learning will surely be on the rise for years to come. It would be ideal if this innovation could be applied to Kentucky’s public schools. Imagine the advantages for students who could further study specific areas of interest, take advantage of long distance learning, and gain skill sets not currently offered by traditional brick and mortar schools!
What will it take to move this forward in Kentucky?
