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…
“Online resources are overflowing, but reliable means to evaluate them and help teachers use them are rare.” Lawrie Mifflin in The Hechinger Report’s “How to sort the good from the bad in OER” (OER means Open Education Resources) (Note: this is particularly problematic in Kentucky where the school council in each school is responsible to…
An Open Letter to Kentucky Legislators from the Bluegrass Institute: Dear Legislators, Twenty years ago, a group of community leaders met and wondered how they could make the biggest difference in poor children’s lives in the inner city of Louisville. Their passion resulted in School Choice Scholarships and was based on the founders’ vision that children…
A new bill in the Kentucky House presents notable problems for Kentuckians interested in homeschooling. House Bill 574 from Representative Chris Harris, D – Forest Hills, would add significant new state mandates on the shoulders of parents who decide to homeschool. The bill requires: Parents to submit an affidavit attesting a homeschool student received 1,062…
Regarding claims about Kentucky’s NAEP Reading progress The Late Paul Harvey was a master at giving us “The rest of the story,” and we at BIPPS find ourselves continuing the tradition of filling in important, missing information in comments from others. Our newest case in point just chirped up in Twitter, where the Kentucky Department…