During the first day of its two-day meeting, the Kentucky Board of Education (KBE) got good news about the high school graduation rate in Kentucky for the 2010-11 school year. The rate improved a bit. A news release from the Kentucky Department of Education and associated documents have more details, as summarized in this table.…
The chickens will soon come home to roost for Kentucky’s state assessment program, substantiating years of Bluegrass Institute research and comments. We’ve consistently shown you evidence over the years that the scores from the Kentucky Core Content Tests (KCCT) used for CATS accountability were seriously overstating the real performance of the state’s public school students.…
High school dropouts are a major problem all across Kentucky. Nearly one out of four students fails to earn a high school diploma within four years of high school entry. Even if we count all students who eventually get either a diploma or a certificate of completion, Kentucky’s public schools still loose one in five…
I didn’t see any media coverage, but the Kentucky Legislature launched a new “2012 Task Force on Student Access to Technology” on July 24, 2012 to determine the state of the state in digital learning in our classrooms and how we can enhance that. One task force goal will be to develop legislation to enhance…
It’s the kind of teacher professional development I like to hear about – something actually useful. In this case, teachers in the Corbin Independent School District got two days of training on some really useful digital tools like Google Docs and Google Earth along with examples of how to use those in their own classrooms.…
Parents, not bureaucrats, should have the right to choose where their children attend school. The only consideration should be if the gaining school district is willing to accept the child. There should be no way that a losing school district can stand in the way of a child’s better education just for selfish, ‘adult’ reasons.…
Problem hints at much more serious issues The Courier-Journal reports that the almost all of 19 new teachers who will be at the Thomas Jefferson Middle School in Jefferson County this year are highly inexperienced. Ten of the new teachers have no working experience in the profession. Only three of the 19 have enough experience…
A couple of days ago, I discussed problems in a new report from a group at Harvard University that claims Kentucky made some of the best progress in the nation on federal testing between 1992 and 2011. Earlier today, I talked about that report live on WLLV radio in Louisville. Some of the test results…
Richard Innes, education analyst for the Bluegrass Institute, will be host Pastor Jerry Stephenson’s guest from 10:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. today on The Values Coalition radio show on WLLV 1240 AM in Louisville. Innes will discuss the Bluegrass Institute’s recent Policy Brief on white-black academic achievement gaps in Kentucky’s largest school system and flaws…
Here’s a video from our Milton Friedman event in 2010. This video is of Pastor Jerry Stephenson sharing some inspiring words about school choice and the ideals Milton Friedman! Be sure to come this year to the event honoring Mr Friedman in Louisville at the University Club of U of L @ 08am on 07/31/12.…