Back in February, the Bluegrass Institute released its updated report on the white minus black achievement gaps in Jefferson County schools. “Blacks Continue Falling Through Gaps in Louisville’s Schools, The 2016 Update” examined several sets of test scores to make the case that the achievement gaps in Louisville are not getting better. Now, a new…
I am sure others can add their favorite examples of what the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) expects students to know by certain grades that NGSS ignores, but here is one good example from my area of interest as a graduate electrical engineer. I found the problem in question while looking for questions from…
A growing body of research shows doing school enrollment on a once-only-each-year basis might not be in the best interests of students. The resulting age spread between the youngest and oldest students in each Kindergarten class is actually rather large, and there are indications that the difference really does matter for kids.
BIPPS was recently honored to have Professor Gary Houchens from Western Kentucky University host a roundtable discussion on school choice for Kentucky. We captured Dr. Houchens’ great comments on video for you, and this is well worth a listen.
A research team at Stanford University just released a huge report several days ago dealing with “Local education inequities across U.S.” The Stanford team collected testing data and other information on every school district in the nation. Then, using the National Assessment of Educational Progress as a common ruler, the Stanford team says they placed…
It’s no secret that the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) are becoming more and more controversial. So, why not adopt an already developed and proven set of state standards that produced the best education performance in the country before CCSS came along? According to the Washington Post’s education reporter, Michigan’s legislators just did that. They…
Something I saw for the first time with the release of the NAEP Grade 12 results for 2015 was information about how the NAEP scoring scale relates to college readiness. The folks who run the NAEP have been researching this since 2008, and while the results are still “Provisional,” as research is continuing, the National…
I blogged a few days ago on the first results from the new, 2015 results for 12th grade students from the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). That first blog focused on the low percentage of high school seniors that NAEP shows are really college ready in both reading and math (Just 37 percent). Today,…
This table ranks the average classroom teacher salaries in Kentucky’s 173 school districts. Of Note: the Jefferson County Public Schools teachers get even higher average pay than the enormously funded Anchorage Independent School District provides. Also of note is the enormous pay gap. While JCPS pays an average teacher $61,944, the tiny Augusta school system…
Richard Phelps is a long-time correspondent of mine and a real testing expert with a ton of experience. His new article for the Pioneer Institute does a great job of outlining the extreme bias in the way the Common Core story has been covered by the national media, and is well worth a read.