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…
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…
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…
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…
Jim was interviewed on DRIVE TIME on 930 WKCT out of Bowling Green. He gets good and fired up talking about Race to the Top Funding, the State wide smoking-ban, & a little bit of State Pension. It’s a great listen! Jim Waters on 930WKCT 12/16/11 by Bluegrass Institute
The NY Times ran an anti-digital learning article on December 12, 2011 that has stirred up a hornet’s nest – mostly about Times reporting. You can read some of the better criticisms here.
Education Week just reported that Kentucky has lost out (again) on a Race to the Top federal education funding competition. This time it was for the Early Learning Grants. The RTTT Early Learning Grants, which will average around $55.6 million to each of the nine states that won the competition, will help develop improved early…
The Mountain Advocate reports (subscription) that the geothermal climate control system in Knox Central High School is really messed up. Instead of great savings, the school has been pouring money into heating “14 million and 400 cubic feet of earth” for the past seven years. An engineering firm ran tests on some of the 192…
Education Week reports (subscription?) that the Washington, DC based Center on Education Policy (CEP) claims US Secretary of Education Arne Duncan’s prediction that 82 percent of our schools would fail to make Adequate Yearly Progress last year was way off. Per the CEP’s report, the real NCLB failure rate was much lower, only 48 percent…
Education Week reports in “More Students With Disabilities Heading to College” (subscription) that more kids with learning disabilities are going on to postsecondary education. Amazing as this might first appear, this shows that if these special kids are taught properly, they can lead much more productive lives. One theme in the article is that these…