Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for Colleges and Careers runs headlong into the Kentucky reading assessment problem

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Education Week reports that Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for Colleges and Careers, (PARCC), of which Kentucky is a partner, is running into significant controversy about how its pending nationwide Common Core State Standards assessments will deal with students who have learning disabilities. The fight has already played out on Kentucky’s own state assessments, including…

Medical doctor who discovered cheating on school tests in late 1980s to NPR: cheating today isn’t due to high stakes

Education, Transparency and Accountability4 Comments

Dr. John Cannell, MD discovered school systems across the nation were cheating on tests well before KERA and No Child Left Behind came along. He says current excuses for cheating don’t make sense. Cheating incidents have been grabbing attention across the nation, with a big scandal now unfolding in Atlanta where criminal indictments were recently…

Dr. Sandra Stotsky discusses Common Core State Standards problems

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Sandra Stotsky knows a lot about Common Core. Years ago she was the Senior Associate Commissioner of the Massachusetts Department of Education who headed that state’s adoption of what many consider to be the very best state education standards ever developed. More recently, Stotsky served on the Common Core Validation Committee. Simply put, Stotsky knows…

Kentucky Enquirer’s Common Core State Standards series reveals more than you think

Education, News, Transparency and Accountability7 Comments

The Kentucky Enquirer launched a week long report series on the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) today. And, the very first article wasted no time grabbing my attention. For starters, the article has some notable technical errors about when CCSS and the related tests started in Kentucky (More on that later). However, the really big…

Op-Ed: Major reforms needed to repair Kentucky’s broken pension system

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The following is an op-ed I submitted for publication in the Lexington Herald-Leader. It was printed on Monday April 15, 2012. You can view the letter on the paper’s website here. If Kentucky’s public pension system was a private-sector business, it would have been forced to close its doors many years ago. Unfortunately, the pension…

Squabble over alleged union complicity in Louisville’s “academic genocide” kicks up a big notch

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The latest shot in the “academic genocide” tiff between the Kentucky Department of Education and Jefferson County public school educators got fired in today’s Courier-Journal. Says the Courier, “Teachers union denies holding up low-performing Jefferson County schools.” Jefferson County Teachers Association (JCTA) president Brent McKim is challenging Kentucky Commissioner of Education Terry Holliday to come…

Private organizations eligible for public pensions?

Reduce Government Spending, Transparency and Accountability1 Comment

Kentucky taxpayer money is being wasted Why are private-sector workers receiving public pensions? Imagine a world in which the employees of nonpublic entities are not allowed to be a part of the state’s public pension system. In this world, taxpayers are not footing the retirement package bill for private organizations’ workforce. Wait, you didn’t know…