Let the educator whining begin

Fayette County superintendent fussing about finally being held accountable

It didn’t take long.

The new report on Kentucky’s low-performing school districts has only been out a few hours, but the superintendent of Fayette County is already crying alligator tears about being called to task for low student test scores.

It's sad when the superintendent of Kentucky's second largest school district doesn't get it. The name of the act is *NO* Child Left Behind. And, kids ARE being left behind in Fayette County.

The 2010 NCLB report for Fayette County shows the district failed African-Americans and learning disabled students in both reading and math, and the district failed poor kids in the federal school lunch program for reading.


Hispanics and students with limited English proficiency also would have failed for reading, as well, except for one of those infamous NCLB loopholes.

The facts are that Fayette County's overall average proficiency rate only looks good because whites left the rest far behind. Don't blacks and other special groups of kids count in Fayette County schools?

Furthermore, don't forget that those proficiency rates used for NCLB in Kentucky still are based on inflated scores from left-over tests from our now defunct CATS program.

If this state ever gets accountability tests tied to real standards, like those used in the ACT or the National Assessment of Educational Progress, those fantasy proficiency rates are going to crumble.

Bottom line: Fayette County failed against very low standards. Instead of owning up to it and starting to fix things, the district’s head educator is wasting time fussing.