“The structure of KERA, which you see most significantly magnified in Jefferson County because of the size of the district, is such that it undermines any kind of credible accountability. The reality is that the superintendent can’t hire the principals, the principals frankly don’t hire the teachers.” Robert King, President of the Kentucky Council on…
Over at the Jay P. Greene’s Blog they just posted an item with the same title as this blog discussing the really outstanding performance of The Lone Star State’s charter schools in the new 2017 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) results. It makes for an interesting read, especially since Texas charters have ultra-high minority…
For Immediate Release: Friday, June 1, 2018 (LOUISVILLE, Ky.) — The Bluegrass Institute Center for Open Government is appalled at recent accounts of more than 40 abuse cases in the Jefferson County Public Schools’ troubled Head Start program during the past 18 months and is calling on Superintendent Marty Pollio and the JCPS Board of Education…
We’ve written plenty about the white minus black education gaps in the Jefferson County Public Schools system (JCPS), but there are some other major gaps present in the Louisville area, as well, and we recently got a request to explore the poverty gaps by race. Thanks to the really handy NAEP Data Explorer web tool,…
The Kentucky Department of Education recently filled in the long-missing spending per student data in its Kentucky School Report Cards database for 2016-17, and it also recently posted the Revenue and Expenditure Report online for the same school year. But, as in the past, the numbers still don’t look right. In his weekly column, carried…
The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) results from late winter 2017 testing have finally been released, and one of the more interesting findings is how black charter school students in several large cities compare to their non-charter counterparts. I’ve already discussed Atlanta, Georgia and Cleveland, Ohio and now this blog looks at the District…
Insider Louisville just posted a rather interesting article that discusses two former Jefferson County Public Schools (JCPS) leaders now in the “fight for JCPS takeover.” The first individual is Tom Hudson, the former chief business officer for JCPS. Hudson has been highly active in the Op-Ed world recently, penning at least two articles in the…
For Immediate Release: May 14, 2018 (FRANKFORT, Ky.) — A Franklin Circuit Court judge has ruled in favor of the Bluegrass Institute Center for Open Government’s claim that the Kentucky House of Representatives illegally conducted a closed meeting to discuss public pension reform. Judge Thomas D. Wingate rejected the House’s claim that a closed meeting…
When I first started looking at education research back in 1994, I saw all sorts of educators’ claims that they really understood how children learned. It didn’t take long to develop a rather strong, though subjectively based, opinion that there actually seemed to be remarkably little scientifically-based research to support claims about the many education…
On May 8, 2018 the Jefferson County Board of Education heard a briefing about how their district performed on the 2017 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). Jefferson County Public Schools (JCPS) participated in the Trial Urban District Assessment part of the NAEP. The board heard only part of the story, however. The presenters played…