Schools finally cooperating with WKU to boost college readiness

The good news about Senate Bill 1 – which threw out our CATS assessments and told the public school folks to start working with college folks to develop a better curriculum – is that things are actually happening.

The Bowling Green Daily News reports that Western Kentucky University (WKU) is teaming up with the 33 school districts in its region to develop better means of educating students in our Primary to grade 12 schools so they will be ready for college.

Clearly, the need to do something is very serious. The newspaper reports that “only 62 percent of students entering WKU in fall 2007 were college-ready.”

And, make no mistake, this is something new for Western Kentucky. The newspaper further reports, “Bowling Green Independent Schools Superintendent Joe Tinius said while it would be a natural assumption that the city schools would be closely linked to what is going on at WKU, that has not been the case.”

In other words, until Senate Bill 1 came along, even the upscale independent school district right in WKU’s home town really wasn’t talking to the college about the inadequate preparation level of its students.

I know that a similar effort has been going on in Northern Kentucky for some time, but let’s hope the other regions of the state get on board with the northern region and WKU’s area to really start primary-secondary school to postsecondary school collaboration. It’s long overdue.