Unlike Kentucky, which is still part of a vanishing number of states with no charter schools, California has had this innovative school option for many years. And, the leading newspaper in the Golden State’s biggest city has figured it out. In “Give charter schools their due” the LA Times says: “Charter schools have been the…
His article came out several months ago, but Professor Tony Rothman’s Scientific American article, “Look East, Young Man” is still worth a Thanksgiving weekend read. The bottom line: math skills of entering students at one of the nation’s premier universities are slipping, UNLESS they are overseas students. This has profound implications for not just our…
I have assembled the many blogs I created after the release of the new K-PREP scores into one convenient and indexed reference document. You can find the K-PREP Data Sourcebook by clicking here. As I generate more data, I plan to update this reference in the future.
We close out our first look at achievement gaps from Kentucky’s new K-PREP assessments with a discussion about the high school level data. First, it is important to understand that, unlike the K-PREP tests for elementary and middle schools, high school K-PREP reading and math data does not come from Kentucky’s own, state-developed tests. Instead,…
One of the biggest concerns about the new K-PREP program is a loss of the level of protection afforded to minorities under the now waived No Child Left Behind school accountability program. While the new Unbridled Learning accountability program does include an element that looks at achievement gaps, it does so by lumping all minorities…
In Kentucky’s new Unbridled Learning school accountability program, the East Carter County High School was the lowest scoring Grade 9 to Grade 12 high school to make it into the “Proficient” school accountability classification. Here are some quick stats for this school: Oh, Yeah, the proficiency gap for biology for males and females in this…
This time, it’s with the Feds! Without question, the “Academy as Shawnee” is one of the state’s most troubled high schools. Shawnee was one of the very first schools in the state to land itself on Kentucky’s Persistently Low-Achieving Schools list back when the program first started several years ago. The school’s high school graduation…
K-PREP science at all school levels As we discussed in an earlier blog about the new Kentucky Performance Rating for Educational Progress (K-PREP) tests in social studies, we also find disturbing evidence that the new K-PREP science assessments for elementary and middle schools are nothing more than warmed over CATS Kentucky Core Content Tests (KCCT).…
K-PREP high school science As with the other high school tests, K-PREP science scores for our high school students also do not come from a state-developed test. Instead, the high school science score is derived from performance on a new end-of-course exam in high school biology developed by the ACT, Inc., as part of the…
K-PREP high school reading Continuing our examination of proficiency rate reporting from the new Kentucky Performance Rating for Educational Progress (K-PREP) tests, we now examine the high school reading evidence. K-PREP test data in reading for our high school students does not come from a state-developed tests. Instead, the reading score is derived from performance…