In response to a question from the audience at Wednesday’s Louisville Forum evaluating the Jefferson County Public Schools’ busing policy over the last 40 years, Bluegrass Institute president Jim Waters noted that classrooms in schools of choice across the nation often are more diverse than even traditional public-school classrooms in the same districts. “Parents believe…
Hechinger’s Reports, not exactly a conservative group, recently released “Federal report finds scant scientific evidence for effectiveness of Head Start programs” concerning the disturbing news that yet another report on the federal Head Start preschool program has been released, this one from the technically oriented What Works Clearinghouse (WWC), which analyzes reports on education for…
Kentucky State Representative Derrick Graham (D – Frankfort) is no fan of charter schools. As the chair of the House Education Committee, he has steadfastly blocked charter school legislation even though these public school choice options are producing significant results elsewhere. In this audio recording from the August 10, 2015 meeting of the Kentucky Legislature’s…
State board member scores Novice for understanding of random sample surveying Sadly, the fiction level around the Kentucky Core Academic Standards Challenge ratcheted up again on July 21, 2015 when the Courier-Journal published an Op-Ed from the vice chair of the Kentucky Board of Education, Jay Parrent. Parrent’s Op-Ed proclaims “4,000 comments on standards show…
Kentucky’s Professional Growth and Effectiveness System (PGES) has problems It’s inevitable human nature: If a person’s own organization is being held accountable for job performance scores, and if the organization’s own staff self-awards those scores, then those scores are going to get inflated to the point of meaninglessness. A good example of this truth played…
Concerned with obvious problems with the way local Kentucky schools and school boards are managing their money, Kentucky Auditor of Public Accounts Adam Edelen’s office has released a set of 75 suggestions for how boards can do their job more efficiently. These recommendations should be very helpful to local school board members and others who…
I wrote a few days ago in this blog about learning by accident that a public review of the proposed revision to Kentucky’s social studies standards had been announced by Commissioner Terry Holliday in a “Fast Five on Friday” e-mail to school staff. That Fast Five went out way back on June 26, 2015. A…
Drivers won’t even take more cash to do most challenging routes The latest in the seemingly never ending saga of busing excesses in Jefferson County Public Schools is starting up again with the launch of another school year. This time the issue is finding drivers to handle the district’s 50 worst bus routes. As one…
I talked in January about evidence that Kentucky’s rather large high school graduation rates are possibly due at least in part to social promotion of students who really shouldn’t be getting a diploma. Now, more evidence of graduation pumping comes from the Washington Post’s Jay Mathews in “Mom wanted her daughter to flunk, but the…
Jane Robbins, a senior fellow at American Principles in Action, obviously shares my concerns about the recently announced demise of three important college readiness tests that have been used in Kentucky for a number of years. With ACT’s EXPLORE, PLAN and Compass tests all being shut down, Kentucky is going to lose important trend lines…