Regular readers know that I am concerned about a very inadequate proposal to revise Kentucky’s social studies standards. As Kentucky’s 2011 History Teacher of the Year Donnie Wilkerson points out, the proposed social studies standards are “devoid” of any substantive content. Numerous important things we would want all Kentucky children to know about, such as…
The Sentinel-News from Shelby County reports that Shelby County schools Director of Finance Greg Murphy has stepped down from his position in the latest development following the discovery of the embezzlement of nearly $600,000 from the school district’s substitute teacher funds. The newspaper also reports that the person charged in this case, Benita Anglin, appeared…
A WHOLE LOT! I’ve been looking through the state’s current Kentucky Core Academic Standards for social studies (online in this document along with all the other subject standards). I wanted to see what material currently required statewide in social studies courses isn’t even mentioned in the draft proposed standards that were presented to the Kentucky…
Most white-black math and reading gaps are up statewide, as well According to comments in an October 28, 2014 Herald-Leader article, “Fayette school board approves recommendations to eliminate achievement gap,” the Fayette County Public School District’s newest Equity Scorecard showed, “…the achievement gap had widened, with lower numbers of distinguished and proficient students on the…
WDRB reports that former Louisville Male High School principal David Mike has now been fired for “conduct unbecoming of a teacher” by the Jefferson County Public School system. The firing relates to Mike’s failure to “create a proper testing environment and that he told a teacher to destroy documents.” The inappropriate activity is related to…
There was considerable media attention when residents of Louisville rallied yesterday for charter schools. Clearly, pressure is growing for better school choices in Kentucky. Here is WAVE-3’s coverage: wave3.com-Louisville News, Weather
Education Trust gets it right about achievement gaps. Their new report, “Making Sure All Children Matter: Getting School Accountability Signals Right,” says: “Even the strongest critics of No Child Left Behind will acknowledge that the law did one thing right — create an expectation that in order to be considered successful, a school had to…
Multiple news agencies such as the Bowling Green Daily News and WBKO are reporting that a student in the Warren County Public School System hacked into sensitive data held by the school system. That database reportedly included social security numbers for both staff and students, among other things. This will add to growing concerns about…
I wrote several days ago about generally growing achievement gaps for Kentucky’s black students in the new 2014 Kentucky Performance Rating for Educational Progress (KPREP) testing. KPREP is Kentucky’s three-year old assessment program, and the math and reading KPREP tests are Common Core aligned. The gaps between white and black proficiency rates on KPREP reading…
I wrote a few days ago about Kentucky History Teacher of the Year (2011) Donnie Wilkerson’s testimony to the Kentucky Board of Education about problems with the state’s proposed revisions to the social studies standards. Now, the Lexington Herald-Leader reports more educators are concerned about the draft social studies standards, as well. Here are a…