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Some educators still don’t get it about reading kids Kentucky’s reading tests

EducationBy Richard Innes December 22, 2011

A front page article, “New test system criteria presented,” from the Fulton Leader (subscription) says the Fulton Independent School District’s school board heard about changes in Kentucky’s new assessment program on December 13, 2011.

One topic was the new change to the rules for Kentucky’s state reading assessments. The newspaper reports:

“Students with Individual Education Plans (IEPs), who might normally have an aide read them the questions, would no longer have that assistance.”

Well, that broad statement is not correct. The only prohibition on reading will be for assessment elements that are specifically intended to test reading (the new state reading assessments for grades 3 to 8 and English II in high school). If an IEP calls for it, readers will still be allowed for other areas like math and science.

At first, I thought it was just the newspaper that got it wrong – until I read a quote about the new reading policy from Superintendent Tammy Smith saying, “I expect some lawsuits from that.”

Really?

Why would anyone expect lawsuits over a better testing policy for reading and comprehending printed text? After all, this policy is already in place in the vast majority of states (42 of them, according to a discussion at the December 2011 Kentucky Board of Education meeting).

People sue over all sorts of nonsense, of course, but with examples from the federal government and 42 states to point to, a suit in this area does not seem likely to go very far, even if someone is unwise enough to try it. After all, it’s hard to see how a court would support a policy that can lead to schools not having to expend any effort to try to teach reading to a child with learning disabilities.

Does Kentucky need another taxpayer-supported university?

News, Smaller GovernmentBy Jim Waters December 21, 2011

Should the private University of Pikeville become a state-run institution?

Not surprisingly, Paul Patton, the school’s president and former Kentucky governor, thinks so.

The Lexington Herald-Leader reports that Patton believes “the move would benefit Eastern Kentucky by lowering the cost of attending Pikeville, making higher education accessible to more people. The annual cost to attend Pikeville now is more than $16,000, compared with $6,500 to $7,000 at state-supported regional universities.”

Hmmmm. This from the “comment” section of the newspaper in response from a writer with the username “mysticheadlice”:

“Might I ask why it would be so much cheaper as a state school to attend? Am I to conclude that either the quality would go down OR the taxpayers of the state would be footing the bill to the tune of 9 or 10 thousand dollars per student??? Someone needs to explain this discrepancy.”

I think the conclusions offered by “mysticheadlice” are spot-on.

Jefferson County posts audit report on school district

EducationBy Richard Innes December 21, 2011

The Jefferson County Public School District has published the report on operations in the central district office on line.

Find that here.

You can also listen to a half-hour discussion of the report here.

and a follow-on discussion here.

Here is a tip of the hat to Jefferson County’s new superintendent Donna Hargens for getting this audit completed. Now, it will be up to her and the Jefferson County Board of Education to act on the recommendations.

Another school district using digital learning to fight high school dropouts

EducationBy Richard Innes December 21, 2011

Shelby County Public Schools is turning to digital learning to recapture high school dropouts and help them finish their high school studies. The Sentinel news has the details in “Shelby County School Board: Shelby dropouts now have new way to finish.”

Thanks to digital learning, students who need to work, or who just didn’t thrive in a traditional classroom setting, now have another, self-paced alternative to completing their high school diplomas.

In time it will be interesting to see if district-specific efforts like Shelby County’s or area-wide efforts like the Barren Academy of Virtual and Expanded Learning, which accepts students from anywhere in Kentucky, produce a better track record. I hope the Kentucky Department of Education insures our new state assessment program generates data, both academic and fiscal, on these varied digital learning approaches so we can determine which works best and most efficiently.

Kentucky’s largest school district needs serious overhaul

EducationBy Richard Innes December 20, 2011

Drifting from central mission

Hiring displays nepotism-like biases

A tough indictment of the Jefferson County Public School District’s central office was handed out today, and it substantiates many Bluegrass Institute concerns.

The Courier-Journal’s “Audit calls for overhaul of JCPS central office” story has more details, but here are some highlights (lowlights?):

• A total of 36 central office jobs need to be eliminated, with 31 new positions established with different job descriptions.

• Administrative recruitment and selection is biased with favoritism toward friends or relatives in JCPS.

• The teachers’ contract with the Jefferson County Teachers Association stands in the way of getting proper staffing into low-performing schools.

• Teacher experience varies dramatically from an average of 20 years in upscale schools to a low of only 5 years in the high-poverty schools. That means many high-poverty teachers are still probationary.

This is what happens when school systems are run as monopolies where parents have no real choices on where their kids will attend school. The bureaucracy builds itself a comfy, cozy nest and forgets, as one of the auditors who created the new report puts it, the “central mission.”

The Bluegrass Institute has pointed out for years that Kentucky has one of the very worst ratios of teachers to other education staff of any state in the nation. It looks like Jefferson County has helped contribute to that undesirable statistic.

It’s time we stopped running our schools as cushy public works projects for adults and start to operate some high quality educational programs for our kids. It’s also time for some of our politicians to look themselves in the mirror and ask how they can continue to kowtow to the teachers union’s ‘adult interests’ while kids continue to be badly left behind.

Iron Lady

Increase Free Markets, Transparency and AccountabilityBy Jim Waters December 20, 2011

There’s a new movie out about Margaret Thatcher appropriately called “The Iron Lady” starring Meryl Streep. Should be interesting seeing how Hollywood tells this story! Back in May of 2010 Bluegrass Institute hosted an event with Author John Blundell, who wrote a great book about Thatcher (see below). Also go watch the trailer here.

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