Sounding more than a little like us, a weekend article from the Ledger-Independent admits it, a full quarter of a century after the passage of the now legendary Kentucky Education Reform Act of 1990, major school problems have not been fixed in this state. Of course, school folks are quick to blame others like the…
By Gary W. Houchens, Ph.D. Bluegrass Institute Scholar Kentuckians are concerned about the quality of their schools and so, like many other states, the commonwealth has focused a lot of attention recently on improving its teacher evaluation system. Research is clear that the quality of the classroom teacher is one of the single biggest contributors…
Here in Kentucky, students have to accept a preordained party line In a stunning development that caught many by surprise, the West Virginia Board of Education has added an interesting feature into its new adoption of standards for science. WSAZ-3 reports that in West Virginia: “…students will be allowed to use scientific models to draw…
I first wrote about problems with new additions to Kentucky’s Unbridled Learning school accountability program – known as the “Program Reviews” – some time ago. These problematic additions are self-scored by schools and thus are ripe for inflation in the same way Kentucky’s old Writing Portfolio element in the now defunct Commonwealth Accountability Testing System…
House Education Committee Chairman Derrick Graham’s recent op-ed reveals his clear understanding of Kentucky’s education deficiencies. Graham, D-Frankfort, is well aware of the “persistent disparities in performance between groups of students, especially those defined as minorities, disabled or low-income.” He eloquently addresses how “students caught in the achievement gap are disproportionately from African-American, Latino and…
This article ran in the Washington Post’s education blog a few days ago. It adds interesting perspective to what seems to be a growing discussion around the country about parents opting their kids out of state tests. As I wrote a few days ago, this seems to be a potential issue in Kentucky, as well.…
Florida’s state tests apparently include a statement each student must sign that says the student will not discuss anything about the tests with their parents. Understandably, that is creating pushback, even from a fourth grader. If the same is happening here in Kentucky, I’d like to hear about that.
Kentucky Commissioner of Education Terry Holliday has announced his retirement from the Kentucky Department of Education will be effective on August 31, 2015. He leaves two years before the scheduled end of his current contract, which extends to August 4, 2017. I think it is fair to say that Dr. Holliday has probably been the…
The AP is reporting new statistics about GED-type alternative tests for high school graduation that include several new competing assessments that recently were created. The numbers look pretty grim. • In 2012, before any changes were announced, 581,000 people took the GED, and 69 percent passed. So, about 400,890 people were successful. • In 2013…
I got an alert that the Kentucky Department of Education sent an advisory to all superintendents in the state that parents opting their children out of Kentucky’s Core-Content-based curriculum and tests is not allowed. However, when I tried to locate the full message on line, I was only able to access the overview of the…