Kentucky Senator Katie Stine has always impressed us as one of the most informed and intelligent members of the state’s legislature. She reinforces our impressions again with her new Herald-Leader Op-Ed about the problems with Kentucky’s adoption of the Common Core State Standards and the Next Generation Science Standards. Sen. Stine co-sponsored Senate Bill 1…
The News-Democrat from Carrollton ran a story yesterday, “Girls’ group provides focus on technology, mathematics, science,” that caught my attention. The article says that a new, girls only club for science is being established at the Carroll County Middle School. We hear a lot about how girls don’t do as well as boys in science,…
In one of the most interesting challenges to the validity of Common Core State Standards so far, education historian Diane Ravitch took a big shot three days ago in this Huffington Post Blogs article. Ravitch charges the Common Core State Standards “were written in a manner that violates the nationally and international recognized process for…
Senate Bill 211, a bill to allow school districts to reform Kentucky’s 41 Persistently Low-Achieving Schools (recently renamed “Priority Schools”) as charter schools, has cleared the Kentucky Senate and now moves to the Kentucky House. This action to implement charter schools comes none too soon. Case in point: the Frost Middle School in Jefferson County.…
Legislation that would make the Kentucky Retirement Systems transparent for those paying its bills has danced into the spotlight during the 2014 session of the Kentucky General Assembly. Passage of transparency bills filed by Sen. Chris McDaniel, R-Latonia, and Rep. Robert Benvenuti, R-Lexington, would make the “names, status, projected or actual benefit payments” subject to…
During last Thursday’s meeting of the Kentucky Senate’s Education Committee, Dr. Bob Rodosky, the statistical person from Jefferson County Public Schools, asserted his school district outperformed charter schools across the nation on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) in 2011. That assertion surprised me for several reasons. First, charter school performance has been improving…
Common Core State Standards have been in force in Kentucky since 2010, but there has been a real paucity of information about the problems with the creation and content of these public school curriculum drivers. Finally, the Kentucky Senate’s Education Committee invited three national experts on Common Core to testify this past week on March…
A long-overdue legislative proposal in the Kentucky State Senate would shine the light on the Kentucky Attorney General’s use of private law firms to harass businesses and individuals. Current law allows the Kentucky Attorney General to hire private attorneys to engage in legal battles. This practice not only wrongly gives private law firms the powers…
Common Core State Standards have been in force in Kentucky since 2010, but there has been a real paucity of information about the problems with the creation and content of these public school curriculum drivers. Finally, the Kentucky Senate’s Education Committee invited three national experts on Common Core to testify this past week on March…
Common Core State Standards have been in force in Kentucky since 2010, but there has been a real paucity of information about the problems with the creation and content of these public school curriculum drivers. Finally, the Kentucky Senate’s Education Committee invited three national experts on Common Core to testify this past week on March…