The Bluegrass Institute’s “Free to Learn” debate series kicked off with the opening forum on Dec. 3 at Southern Baptist Seminary’s Heeren Hall. Craig Meredith, Ph.D., a former Ohio superintendent, and University of Kentucky education professor Wayne Lewis, Ph.D., who also serves on the Kentucky Charter Schools Association board, had a civil, but serious, exchange…
As we move into the new legislative session, with a bill on charter schools already being prepared, it is interesting to note findings from a fairly recent report about charter school performance in the National Assessment of Educational Progress. It is important to note that the NAEP is not really an ideal tool to look…
Jefferson County math scores on federal testing look problematic New scores for major urban school districts from the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) were released today, and it looks like more trouble for Louisville and Jefferson County. I put this first table together using the NAEP Data Explorer statistical significance test tools. It shows…
About 1/3 of the schools getting massive federal funding didn’t improve Conversion to charter schools outperformed other models Several years ago, the US Department of Education started the massively funded “School Improvement Grant” or SIG program to identify and improve what came to be known as the nation’s “Persistently Low Achieving Schools” (recently renamed “Priority…
Ken Wilber wrote: “Most of us are only willing to call 5% of our present information into question (at) any one point.” Then there is the closed-minded leadership of the Kentucky Education Association, Jefferson County Teachers Association, Kentucky School Boards Association and Kentucky Association of School Superintendents who, when it comes to school choice, won’t…
New Report: Does Kentucky’s ‘Unbridled Learning’ school accountability program leave minorities behind? (LOUISVILLE, Ky.) — A new Bluegrass Institute report reveals evidence that Kentucky’s school accountability program provides inconsistent and sometimes unreliable assessments of school performance. The report, “Kentucky’s ‘Unbridled Learning,’ Unrigorous School Accountability for African-American Students?,” examines math performance for whites and African-American students in…
Jefferson County School Board member Linda Duncan pulled out of last night’s “Free to Learn” debate at the last moment — leaving us scrambling for someone willing to defend the position that Kentucky should not implement a parental school-choice policy. Here’s Louisville Public Radio WFPL’s coverage of this story, including my quote: “We will debate…
New results from the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) came out this morning, and once again US students were left behind by overseas competition. I’m still going through the report, which covers testing administered in 2012, but some scholars had a chance to review an advance copy, and their comments are already circulating by…
MUCH longer for racial minorities One of the more valuable features in Kentucky’s new Unbridled Learning public school accountability program is the fact that the state is now tracking how well our public high school graduates are being prepared for college and careers. Attention to college and career readiness was all but totally absent from…
For Immediate Release: Thursday, Nov. 21, 2013 Contact: Jim Waters 270-320-4376 (LOUISVILLE, Ky.) — “Free to Learn,” a series of three debates designed to tackle the issue of charter schools in Kentucky, will begin with the first debate at Southern Baptist Seminary’s Heeren Hall in Louisville on Tuesday, Dec. 3, at 6 p.m. The debate…