As previously mentioned, I had a chance to participate on KET’s Kentucky Tonight program on education on August 13, 2018, and it was an interesting time. I was also pleased to find a number of areas discussed on the show where there was more consensus than contentiousness, as well. One such area where another show…
It’s amazing. In the space of just two days, Kentuckians have been treated to not one, but two separate examples of how hard it is to find really incisive research about how our commonwealth’s public school system truly performs. The first example came during Monday’s “Kentucky Tonight” show on KET: At 5 minutes 30 seconds…
As mentioned in the first blog in this series, I had a chance to participate on August 13, 2018 on KET’s Kentucky Tonight program on education, and it was an interesting time. Three minutes into the broadcast, show guest Dr. Steven Gordon mentioned that in a new report he co-authored with BIPPS Scholar Dr. John…
I had a chance to participate last night on KET’s Kentucky Tonight program on education,and it was an interesting time. Three minutes into the broadcast, show guest Dr. Steven Gordon mentioned that in a new report he co-authored with BIPPS Scholar Dr. John Garen that they found test score gains in Kentucky had only been…
One of the more important features of the impending revision to Kentucky’s public school assessment and accountability program is the ending of the state’s current Priority Schools program, which started life back in 2010 as the Persistently Low-Achieving Schools program. Since its inception in 2010, a total of 47 schools have entered Priority/Persistently Low-Achieving status,…
The American Federation for Children reports the Supreme Court of Puerto Rico just issued a ruling that their hurricane-ravaged island’s new law expanding charter schools and vouchers to private schools is legal and constitutional. This throws cold water on a Puerto Rican teachers’ union effort to have the new school choice law declared unconstitutional. The…
A new article in Kentucky Forward talks about “Pew Trusts: It’s hard to manage your credit when you’ve never been taught about ‘interest.’” The article mentions a new Kentucky law that will finally require our schools to teach students something about credit and finances – beginning in 2020 – but that comes awfully slowly since…
The first-ever audit of the Administrative Office of the Courts (AOC) by State Auditor Mike Harmon was the subject of today’s meeting of the Budget Review Subcommittee on Justice and the Judiciary in Frankfort. Harmon’s audit raises issues identified in “Shining the Light On Kentucky’s Sunshine Laws: A Proposal for Legislative Revision,” a 2017 report by the…
With 340B being back in the news and with beneficial legislation in the works, I wanted to take the opportunity to reshare my thoughts. The 340B program, a well-intentioned program which, through bureaucratic tinkering, has gone off the rails, primarily due to a lack of oversight and transparency, is back in the news. Created in…
Regarding possible state management of the Jefferson County Public School District: “This should give the people of Jefferson County the most concern. You look at the findings of that audit, which, again, I’ve not heard anyone refute. They are incredible. They’re incredible. There are things going on in the classroom in that district with students…