The 2017 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) results for Grade 4 and Grade 8 mathematics and reading have finally been released, and it is time to examine a key problem in Kentucky’s schools – the chronic achievement gaps between the state’s white and black students. Here is how the NAEP Grade 4 Reading assessment…
As I discussed earlier today, some folks have been raising concerns about the accuracy of the 2017 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), for which scores just released to the public today. The concerns gained added weight several weeks ago when the Louisiana superintendent of education wrote a letter outlining a contention that NAEP’s switch…
Other JCPS gaps stay the same But, the NAEP itself might have problems This graphic from the 2017 NAEP report’s web page shows JCPS is one of the very few large school districts in the county where white minus black achievement gaps actually grew by a statistically significant amount between 2015 and 2017 in Grade…
The two tables below were assembled from tools in the National Center for Education Statistics’ NAEP web site. They don’t tell a good tale for Kentucky public education. Generally, after allowing for the statistical sampling error in NAEP, the state’s scores remained flat though the drops in several cases were probably right on the edge…
My first foray into the 2017 NAEP results is for Kentucky’s historic worst performance area – Grade 8 Math. This comparison map, generated with the new NAEP Data Explorer web tool shows the state’s white eighth graders were outscored by a statistically significant amount by white eighth graders in almost all the states in the…
One of the first to report, US News is already online saying that “NAEP Shows Little to No Gains in Math, Reading for U.S. Students,” NAEP being the federal National Assessment of Educational Progress. But, echoing concerns I discussed several days ago, in what might become one of the biggest credibility challenges NAEP has ever…
Thanks to information in the Postsecondary Feedback Reports from the Kentucky Center for Education and Workforce Statistics (KCEWS), Kentuckians have access to some interesting salary data for the state’s college graduates. The following table extracts data from several Postsecondary Feedback Reports issued in 2014 that show how much Kentucky bachelors’ and graduate degree winners in…
Uh, Oh! There are disturbing indications that there could be some interesting problems brewing for the validity of scores from the 2017 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), especially for state level results. According to a Chalkbeat article, Louisiana Superintendent John White, as is usual with state education leaders, has already gotten an advanced look…
Surprise NPR published an interesting ranking of the average teacher salaries across the 50 states a few days ago. I think the findings will surprise many in Kentucky. Below is an extract from a graphic in the NPR article that shows the top-ranked states for teacher salaries as of 2016. Surprise! After adjusting for the…
Editor’s note: The Bluegrass Beacon is a weekly syndicated statewide newspaper column posted on the Bluegrass Institute website after being released to and published by newspapers statewide. A retiring state senator instrumental in pushing pension reform and a homeschooling opponent from eastern Kentucky are the latest additions to this column’s growing list of Liberty Boosters…