As I wrote yesterday, we are seeing all sorts of reports computing rankings of state education systems. However, those reports are using approaches that don’t comply with recommendations found in various documents from the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES). Yesterday’s blog discussed two of those poorly conducted reports, the Quality Counts 2016 report from…
Quality Counts and Center for Business and Economic Research both score “Novice” It seems like mid-winter is a favorite time for various groups to publish fanciful rankings of Kentucky’s education system compared to other states, and 2016 has proved no exception. Cases in point include new rankings from the annual Quality Counts report series from…
Since Governor Bevin’s election, the discussion about public charter schools has ratcheted up several notches. Kentucky’s new governor publicly supports charter schools as one tool that can help boost the currently lagging performance in the state’s public school system, especially for minority students. Still, anti-charter sentiment from adults in our existing education establishment remains strident,…
BIPPS president Jim Waters was one of the speakers at the December 29, 2015 meeting of the Kentucky Pastors in Action Coalition with Kentucky Governor Matt Bevin and Lt. Governor Jenean Hampton. Here is the video of Jim’s comments.
During the Kentucky Pastors in Action Coalition meeting in Louisville on December 29, 2015 Governor Matt Bevin was asked about an action he took to deal with an unconstitutional executive order issued in the closing hours of Governor Steve Beshear’s administration. Here what Governor Bevin said during the audience question-and-answer part of the meeting. It…
The Courier-Journal reports the largest school district in Kentucky now joins several others in watering down its grading system so more kids will get more scholarship money from the taxpayer. Resetting the grading scale so more students will get “A’s” on their report cards does nothing to increase academic rigor in the school system. It…
Kentucky Governor Matt Bevin and Lt. Governor Jenean Hampton attended a meeting of the Kentucky Pastors in Action Coalition on December 29, 2015 to express their commitment and support for doing something better for Kentucky’s students, especially those disadvantaged kids found throughout the commonwealth. This video extract from the meeting contains comments from both Governor…
WDRB reported yesterday on bold new ideas being sought by Kentucky’s new Secretary of Education, Hal Heiner. It’s a breath of fresh air. Heiner isn’t cast from the standard education school mold, but he has been paying attention to education for a long time and knows what is going on and where many problems lie.…
It looks like the message about dumbed down high school diplomas and watered down college degrees is sinking in to an important part of our society – business and industry! The “College” web site reports that while the practice is not yet widespread, a number of major employers are now requiring SAT scores as part…
Columbia Teachers College in New York City is one of the oldest and best-known teacher preparation institutions in the country. Selection as president there requires some degree of skill and experience, to put it mildly. And, Arthur Levine is a past president at Columbia. More recently, Levine has authored a number of remarkably candid reports…