Check this out at CBS News.
The overall CBS report hits a lot of very exposed nails squarely on the head. Unions are standing in the way of progress. Training for both teachers and principals needs improvement. Schools need to be run in a more orderly and business-like manner.
And, it can work.
CBS News highlights Washington DC schools chancellor Michelle Rhee, who is a great example of what can be done when public school officials are willing to confront naysayers and do what is right for kids.
In DC’s Sousa Middle School, Rhee fired a third of the teachers and the principal. Under new leadership, the school’s test scores jumped up dramatically – 25 percent in math, 17 percent in reading.
Low performance wasn’t the kids’ fault – it was status quo adults who held the school back, just like happens in far too many parts of the country, including right here in Kentucky.
CBS News did get one thing wrong – saying more money for charter schools means less for public schools. That just isn’t right. For one thing, charter schools ARE public schools. For another, charters in DC help to highlight the fact that it isn’t the kids; it’s the adults who are the problem.
In fact, Ms. Rhee likes charter schools, and said so just this past June in Colorado.
Still, this generally well-done CBS News clip makes it clear that the public school system in this country needs accountability and take-charge leadership with the authority to act – the sorts of things that only exist today in very few places like Ms. Rhee’s DC system.
Sunday, January 31, 2010
CBS News gets it – Where America Stands: Schools
More signals – ‘Common Core’ education standards still have issues
Massachusetts probably has the best education standards in the country today. Not only does the state rank at the top on the latest National Assessment of Educational Progress assessments, but its education standards have received high marks from many reviewers.
Thus, today’s editorial from the Boston Globe is catching the attention of education watchers around the country. The Globe first points out that Massachusetts educators support the process to create common standards for all (or nearly all) of the states.
However, after looking at the latest draft of those standards in mid-January, the Globe writes:
“Massachusetts reviewers said, ‘We believe there are still major improvements to be made before Massachusetts can adopt them with confidence.’”
We are told the final version of the Common Core standards are due in mid-February. Perhaps the problems spotted in Massachusetts can be fixed by then, but it would be wise for Kentucky to be ready for a further delay in the final release.
Saturday, January 30, 2010
Why would parents prefer Corbin schools over Knox County schools – Part 4
– Knox County wants even more money?
– Do ALL Kentuckians have a stake here?
In our ‘Why would parents prefer’ series, we’ve been talking about the academic performance of schools in the Knox County and the Corbin Independent School Districts. Knox County recently cancelled a long-standing student transfer agreement with Corbin, which allowed parents in both districts a choice about where to send their students.
So far, we’ve examined Knox and Corbin for (1) high school graduation rates, (2) No Child Left Behind results, (3) ACT tests for 11th grade students, and (4) EXPLORE test results for eighth grade students. On all of those measures, Corbin Independent sharply outperforms Knox County schools.
That was the “bang.” Now, let’s look at how much input – namely “bucks” – each school system gets per child.
Here is the latest available audited data, which comes from the 2007-2008 Receipts and Expenditures report, from the Kentucky Department of Education.
Once again, Corbin shines, getting MUCH better academic performance with far fewer dollars.
Knox County gets far more money per child than Corbin does. But, clearly, Corbin does a far better “bang for the buck” job with what it receives.
This graph leads to another issue. It may be that every taxpayer in Kentucky has a “dog in this fight.”
Why would parents prefer Corbin schools over Knox County schools – Part 3
– Look at the difference in high school graduation rates
Here’s another reason why parents would clearly prefer the Corbin Independent Schools to those in the Knox County School District. High school graduation rates in the two school districts are light-years apart.
The formula used to compute the ‘Averaged Freshman Graduation Rate’ (AFGR) has been thoroughly researched by the US Department of Education. It is a MUCH more accurate formula than the one currently used by the Kentucky Department of Education (KDE). That KDE formula is known to provide highly inflated results and to provide widely varying accuracy from district to district. In fact, the KDE has announced it is switching to the AFGR in 2011.
In any event, the data is very clear.
A high percentage of the kids in Corbin graduate.
About one in three kids in Knox County doesn’t.
Rift growing between governor and legislators?
Kentucky reporter/commentator Ronnie Ellis writes there is growing and sharp discord between the governor’s office and key legislators. The rift could have important implications on the development of the state’s troubled budget.
Ellis writes there are general feelings of disgust on both sides. Things are now deteriorated to the point where legislators must threaten subpoenas in order to gain needed access to executive branch reports.
Friday, January 29, 2010
Kentucky Tonight – Lots of Charter School Myths #6
– Myth: Charter schools fail minorities, especially in Massachusetts
On the January 18, 2010 KET Kentucky Tonight show on charter schools, Jefferson County Public Schools superintendent Sheldon Berman said in his early comments:
“The data on charter schools is that it’s, it’s truly a failed reform, particularly for African-American students, particularly for low income students.”
Berman said he was familiar with the charter schools in Massachusetts where he served before coming to Kentucky, implying his opinion of failure was based at least in part on that experience.
Well, the people who made this two-part video in early 2008 about Boston charter schools would clearly disagree with Dr. Berman.
As you listen to Part 1, count up all the different schools mentioned. Berman claimed only about two out of 50 charter schools in Massachusetts really perform well. It sounds to me like there are more than two good performers just in Boston.
Here’s Part 1:
Did you catch the statistic of a 100% rate of going on to college? Did you notice how many minority parents were interviewed? It doesn’t sound like they think charter schools are failing their kids.
Now, here’s Part 2:
As a parent, do these public schools sound like a place where your son or daughter could learn?
As one commentator mentions towards the end of Part 2, some educators in regular public schools do feel threatened by charters. After all, charter schools shake up the status quo by showing that kids who don't succeed in regular public schools can be successfully educated. Sadly, that sort of fear seems to be present in Louisville, and it stands in the way of real progress in education for our kids.
Awaking from a dream to face an education nightmare
Charter schools' TV debate: Misinformation, irritation characterize anti-charter schools' camp.
Click here to read the latest Bluegrass Beacon.
Why would parents prefer Corbin schools over Knox County schools – Part 2
The Knox County Public School System remains locked in a battle for control of students with the Corbin Independent School District and the parents from Knox County who much prefer to send their children to the Corbin schools. The graphs below provide simple evidence why parents in Knox County want choice and will undoubtedly fight hard to maintain it.
The first graph compares scores for the EXPLORE test from ACT for the two schools in Knox County that have an eighth grade and the middle school in the Corbin Independent School District. Because this is only a 25 point maximum test, the difference between Corbin Middle School and the two schools in the Knox County School District are very notable.
The next graph shows a similar comparison for the ACT Composite score in the high schools in the two school districts. As you can see, once again Corbin Independent does a much better job of getting students ready for postsecondary education. 
Though none of the scores shown here are good enough compared to the ACT scores that indicate good college preparation, it is clear that Corbin schools are doing a much better job than Knox County Schools when it comes to educating their students.
When you have charter schools, you can REALLY innovate
According to former school superintendent Diana Lam,
“What happens when teachers and management have the opportunity to create a contract from scratch? At my school, the Conservatory Lab Charter School in Boston, we recently had that opportunity, and discovered what is possible when there is a shared school mission and no previous binding agreements.”
Ms. Lam continues,
“…too many district educators view them (charter schools) as the enemy. Yet, having served as a superintendent for two large urban school systems—in Providence, R.I., and in San Antonio—I can say that I have never viewed charters as the foe.”
Her charter school’s new working agreement with teachers was built from the ground up, and includes innovative ideas for merit pay and the handling of teacher absences. I blogged about the absences problem in a previous post today.
Now, what happens when you don’t have charter schools? Not nearly as much.
Teacher accountability matters
Education Week reports (subscription) that a new study in Chicago shows that when principals got more authority to fire non-tenured teachers, the attendance rate of those teachers improved notably.
The article also says,
“In addition, principals were more likely to get rid of teachers whose students had shown less value-added achievement compared with those of other teachers, and who had fewer academic credentials and accomplishments before becoming a teacher.”
The report’s author, Brian A. Jacob, professor of education policy and economics at the University of Michigan, concludes,
“These results provide suggestive evidence that reforms along the lines of the Chicago policy might improve student achievement.”
Thursday, January 28, 2010
State of the Union: we want to hear your thoughts!
President Obama addressed the nation Wednesday to discuss the state of the Union and while Washington D.C. is hundreds of miles away, the policies that are debated and enacted there affect Kentucky on a daily basis.
So we want your thoughts about the State of the Union address!
Reply to the comment section in this blog post with your thoughts! How do you feel about:
- The policy agenda outlined in President Obama's address?
- Will the policies hurt Kentucky or help?
- Are you more optimistic about the future of Kentucky after the address? What about the United States?
- What is the one policy that will affect Kentucky the most?
Yes, Virginia – What your teacher thinks about math does matter
ABC News is reporting on a new study that says girls are good at math, but teachers may make them anxious about it.
Math anxious female teachers are passing along their phobias to the girls in the classroom. Boys, somehow, are not so impacted.
This is an important issue because about 90 percent of elementary school teachers are females.
Also, at least in Kentucky, a teacher can be certified as an elementary school teacher after taking only one math course in college – a course called “elementary math” that is taught below the level of college algebra. That makes elementary education a haven for math phoebes who cannot pass the math requirements for other college degrees (none of the other degrees accept “elementary math” as an acceptable credit).
Wednesday, January 27, 2010
Corbin Independent – Not ‘gonna’ take it lying down!
It looks like the Corbin Independent schools are not going to just stand by while the Knox County schools revokes a long standing student transfer agreement.
First, the Corbin District will try appeals.
If that doesn’t work, it’s the courts.
Why would parents prefer Corbin schools over Knox County schools?
Here’s why: just look at the high school No Child Left Behind performance in the two districts.
Most kids in Corbin Independent learn math.
Most kids in Knox County don't.
Releasing persistently low-achieving school names – Good thing or not?
– Commissioner of Education sends confusing signals
During direct questioning about House Bill 176 from members of the House Education Committee, Kentucky Commissioner of Education Terry Holliday named 12 schools that would be identified as “Persistently Low-Achieving Schools” if the bill’s ‘Race to the Top’ rules were in force today.
Dr. Holliday really had no choice but to release the names in this meeting, which took place on January 7, 2010. Legislators directly asked for this information, and there was no reason not to provide it.
Never the less, the Kentucky School Boards Association reports that four days later, on January 11th Dr. Holliday apologized to the state’s school superintendents for releasing the names and vowed to “visit every one of those schools we named and apologize to those faculties.”
Then, signals flip-flopped again on Tuesday, January 19th when Commissioner Holliday was a guest on the launch show of KET’s new ‘Education Matters’ series.
During the course of this show, questions came up about how schools will be held accountable in the future. The following exchange took place.
First, Commissioner Holliday said, “We will rank all of the schools in the commonwealth by their combined math and reading proficiency scores.”
Then, show host Bill Goodman asked, “When will that begin?”
Holliday replied, “Well, it’s already begun. We gave a list of schools last week that we said – if this were in place today – here are the schools, the 12 schools, that we would be providing assistance to under the turn-around model.”
It certainly sounded like Dr. Holliday was happy about – even taking credit for – releasing the names of the 12 schools.
Listen to the KET archived version of the show starting at 44 minutes and 2 seconds into the broadcast and decide for yourself if Dr. Holliday conveys an impression that the names release was a positive event.
Corbin parents rebuffed
It's a sad tale. Parents want a choice so their kids can have a chance. But it's the board that has the power.
If Kentucky had a charter-school law, the parents who eloquently make their case for choice in this video would be empowered to make the best decisions for their children. It's becoming more apparent every day: Parents, not board members, bureaucrats, budgets or zip codes, should determine where children are educated.
"I don’t see it coming up again," Knox Co. board member Sam Watts said after the meeting. "It's really a business decision, because you've seen how much we're losing, and we don't know from year to year how much more we're going to lose. I hate it for the parents who send their kids over (to Corbin), but I feel it's the best decision for Knox County school system."
What exactly is the "business" of public education, Sam? Is it not to meet the specific goals involved in adequately preparing our kids for the future? Is it not to meet the needs of those students? Is it not to educate our children? And when are we going to put the best interests of children before that of the system, the money or the special interests?
Standing up for states’ rights
If only three of the 16 state lawmakers who “passed” on voting on Senate Bill 3 on Monday would have cast a “yes” vote, the measure – known as the “21st Century Bill of Rights” – would have passed the Kentucky Senate.
The proposed constitutional amendment was an attempt to reassert the commonwealth’s sovereignty in the light of unconstitutional federal mandates, including forcing citizens to participate in a government-run health care system.
Several other states have passed measures highlighting the Tenth Amendment, which limits the federal government’s rights to impose its will on states. One problem with the Kentucky proposal could be that too many items were stuffed into the proposed bill.
In my presentation on this issue at the State Sovereignty Rally on Jan. 21 in the Capitol Rotunda, I talk about how the Founders were very careful to ensure that the powers of the federal government were enumerated (which, by very definition, means limited) while individual rights were not.
Several hundred patriots stopped by, including some of our more conscientious legislators, to reaffirm their belief in the rights of states to conduct their own affairs and protect their citizens, from an ever-encroaching federal government.
While the Senate legislation could have been more tightly focused, we applaud supporting lawmakers – including Senate Bill 3 sponsor Sen. Brandon Smith, R-Hazard , and Rep. Stan Lee, R-Lexington, who has filed House Concurrent Resolution 10 – and encourage them to continue defending their constituents – particularly from federal government health care mandates and the “cap-and-tax” proposals that would decimate Kentucky’s coal industry.
State worker benefits: things have changed
It's time for some new thinking about old ideas concerning state workers and their benefits.
Click here to listen to the 90-second audio commentary.
(Non) Education Pays!
– New bill retreats from KERA
One of the more intelligent parts of the Kentucky Education Reform Act of 1990 (KERA) was the requirement that all people working in the state’s public schools would have to have at least a GED or high school diploma. After all, if we are going to tell kids that education is important, it makes no sense to provide a daily example that raises questions in young minds about whether that is really true.
So, along comes House Bill 142 in Tuesday’s meeting of the House Education Committee. The legislators were told that this bill will allow school districts to apply for a waiver from the long-standing rule in KERA for “certified employee” hires to have at least a GED. That includes such people as cafeteria workers and janitors, and it also most specifically includes school bus drivers. In fact, bus drivers were the only employees specifically mentioned in the meeting.
The argument for the bill is that some rural districts are having problems hiring bus drivers.
However, not one specific example of a district having such problems was offered.
Not one superintendent or district school bus supervisor was brought in to discuss the problem.
There was no mention about how many districts might have this problem, how long they have had the problem, or how long the problem might continue into the future.
The bill’s sponsor seemed happy that bus drivers would have to pass the Commercial Drivers License tests to get the job. That doesn’t seem like much of a recommendation for someone who will have to deal with kids every day and maybe have to occasionally deal with a crisis situation involving those young charges. A CDL shows you can mechanically handle the rig and know the rules of the road. I don’t think it requires any demonstration of skill with handling passengers, especially little ones.
It gets worse.
Representative Derek Graham quite properly questioned a provision in the bill that the waiver could only be used for employees born in 1959 or earlier – in other words, people over the age of 50.
Isn’t that age discrimination, asked Graham, and isn’t that illegal?
The incredible response was that since no legislators with law degrees were present, the committee needed to pass the bill and let the courts decide this issue later!
Now that, ladies and gentlemen, is a fine example of a committee not doing due diligence before passing a bill on to the entire house!
Aside from turning the “Education Pays” slogan on its ear, this bill is a beautiful case in point of legislators not doing their jobs well. The entire floor of the House should not be tied up doing work that should go on in a committee. Sadly, it now looks like all our House legislators will have to waste valuable floor time debating technical questions that should have been worked out in committee.
It was most telling that the House Education Committee chair admitted this bill needed more discussion. But, it doesn’t seem right that the committee, knowing this, sent the bill onto the floor, anyway.
Finally, why does this bill use a cutoff age of 50 as a waiver limitation? If there truly are driver shortages in some districts, why wouldn’t someone aged 40, or 30, or maybe even in his or her 20’s be just as suitable? Is someone’s political axe getting ground here?
What is the possible justification for this arbitrary and indefensible requirement that seems highly likely to do nothing more than land the taxpayers in court, ultimately paying a large sum to those younger individuals who are to be unfairly treated by this very poorly conceived legislation?
Here are a few thoughts:
1) KERA has enough problems without undermining its good parts to benefit adults at the expense of kids. People working with kids in our schools should have at least a GED. Those who don’t provide very negative role models.
2) Legislators need to do their committee homework – in committee. There was no reason to vote this bill out of committee today. The questions raised were sufficient to table the bill for further discussion AFTER legal opinion on the age discrimination issue could be obtained. If there is need for a legal opinion on a bill, get it in committee! It’s a committee's job to do as much as possible on a bill so it won’t excessively tie up the full House.
3) If there really is a bus driver shortage, let’s accurately describe where that is happening and find out why. Is the person running the bus program in the district hard to get along with? Are drivers treated fairly? If relief really is necessary, let’s make it temporary, and clearly stipulate that the drivers hired will need to get their GED’s in a specified amount of time or be subject to immediate replacement if a fully qualified applicant with a GED or more applies. Maybe we can sweeten the deal by helping the drivers get their GEDs. But, let's not plan to place a contradiction in front of kids about the need for education any longer than absolutely necessary.
Parents suing over choice of math program
Parents and college educators are suing the the Seattle public schools over the choice of math programs in the district’s schools.
The series, “Discovering Math,” is a darling of fuzzy math types and very likely is being used somewhere in Kentucky, too.
Here is the link to the KIRO TV news article about the lawsuit with an internal link to a newscast, as well.
If you know of Kentucky schools using this program, let us know either by a comment to this blog or via e-mail.
A court decision is promised by mid-February.
Tuesday, January 26, 2010
What progress in education?
– New international data shows US not making any
Recent data from “Education at a Glance 2009”, a report from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), paints a disturbing picture about educational progress in the United States.
This OECD graph shows the comparative education levels of 55 to 64 year-olds (solid red squares) versus 25 to 34 year olds (the triangles) in OECD countries.
What sticks out right away is that while many countries have dramatic differences in the education levels of their older and younger populations, that isn’t the case in the United States. In fact, the chance that older and younger US citizens have completed an appreciable part of secondary education (not necessarily all the way to a high school diploma) is exactly the same.
Compare that to what is going on in Korea. Less than half of that nation’s older citizens have some secondary schooling, but that nation’s younger adults almost universally have some secondary education – a higher percentage, in fact, than we have in the United States.
Things look even worse when we examine the college picture.
Massachusetts offers TOUGH Race to the Top competition
– They do charter schools right!
– Put kids first, too!
While Kentucky debated its unexciting House Bill 176 to support our application in the federal Race to the Top (RTTT) education funding competition, other states weren’t sleeping.
The Boston Globe reports Massachusetts just passed sweeping legislation for its RTTT package that makes House Bill 176 look like a joke.
As we recently reported, Massachusetts already has charter schools – great ones – but the new legislation will add still more of them.
In addition, Massachusetts has come face to face with the "adults’ interests versus students’ best interests issue" – which hamstrings us in Kentucky. The Globe says Massachusetts’ new law will, “ease the way for superintendents to dismiss inadequate teachers and alter tough-to-change workplace rules such as the length of the school day.”
Got that?
Kentucky’s milk toast bill doesn’t begin to compare. There is nothing to support teacher firings, just reassignments. There are NO provisions to alter workplace rules, either. In fact, as Kentucky Commissioner of Education Terry Holliday explained when the House Education Committee heard HB 176, there really isn’t much change in the bill at all.
Now, it looks like a sense of reality may be settling in at the Kentucky Department of Education about all of this. Commissioner Holiday told the annual meeting of the Kentucky School Boards Association on Saturday that he thinks our RTTT application has only a 50 – 50 chance of approval. He is pessimistic because we didn’t enact charter schools with HB 176. He says that if we don’t get an award when the Phase 1 RTTT winners are announced, he will have to put charter schools into the mix to have any success with the Phase 2 application.
Certainly, if competition like that from Massachusetts is going to typical, and if the RTTT judging in Washington is fair, and if the feds keep to their many strong statements about favoring charter schools, then Holliday is right to worry.
After all, just consider this comment from Massachusetts’ governor Deval Patrick, “For the sake of the children, commit to get it right.”
Here in Kentucky, the best we can say is that for the sake of the adults, we didn’t commit to much of anything.
Quote of the day
"A popular Government, without popular information, or the means of acquiring it, is but a prologue to a farce or a tragedy; or, perhaps both. Knowledge will forever govern ignorance; and a people who mean to be their own governors must arm themselves with the power which knowledge gives."-James Madison
Institute's board chair: Answers to 4.4 million unemployed youth are free markets, 'minimum-wage holiday'
According to the Department of Labor, "
The July 2009 unemployment rates for young men (19.7 percent), women (17.3 percent), whites (16.4 percent), blacks (31.2 percent), Asians (16.3 percent), and Hispanics (21.7 percent) increased from a year earlier. In July 2009, 4.4 million youth were unemployed, up by nearly 1.0 million from July 2008."
Bluegrass Institute's free market champion and Board Chair, Kathy Gornik explains that the Chamber would do well to return to basic rules of free markets and advocate for a "minimum-wage holiday" to open the market to youth looking for jobs. This would ease the burdens of a minimum-wage for companies needing help but without the ability to bring on new, full wage hires. She explains,
It would be a lot easier to provide employment for these economically disadvantaged 18 to 24 year olds by having a "minimum-wage holiday". The idea would be to suspend, say just for the summer, the minimum wage law just for this group. It would be interesting to see how employers would respond. My bet is that you would see a lot of $5.00/hr. jobs done the normal way, not through a special program. The employment experience would be wonderful for these kids, and it would give them the work experience they need to get their foot on the low rung of the employment ladder with a basis for moving up, rather than standing on the ground and nowhere to go. And they'd be doing it all on their own.
The root of the problem is the minimum wage law. I wish the Chamber could promote the fundamental principles that determine a successful economy rather than support programs that must band-aid the damage caused by the violation of those principles. I know it would be politically unpopular, but the truth often is. If there was a group I would hope could stand up for free trade and rights of contract (violated by minimum wage law), I would hope it would be the Chamber. Alas, I remain disappointed.
Monday, January 25, 2010
Kentucky Representative Stan Lee on States’ Rights
Here is what Representative Stan Lee said to the Tenth Amendment Rally last week in Frankfort.
NCLB getting BUS-ted in Fayette County?
Will proposed zoning changes in Fayette County wreck havoc on No Child Left Behind Accountability the same way that busing changes in Louisville did last year?
Stay tuned.
Knox County versus Corbin Independent is not about kids
– It’s just about money!
There is a huge brouhaha going on in Knox County, where the county’s public school system is in a mounting fight with the Corbin Independent School District over where kids are choosing to go to school.
Knox County, citing money issues, NOT what is best for kids, is cancelling a long-standing transfer agreement with Corbin Independent that allowed parents in both school systems choice about where their kids attended school. The sudden change isn’t going down well.
Parents are in a combative mood.
They are so angry that they’ve set up a Facebook page and are even posting You Tubes.
Now, Corbin Independent is talking about an appeal to the Kentucky Department of Education.
Just read these articles for yourself.
I certainly don’t see any indication in comments from Knox County that the education of children is of any focus, let alone the primary focus, here.
It’s all about money, pure and simple. Concerns about the best educations for children, once again, aren’t even in the balance.
Charter Schools definitely not out of the question
– Kentucky’s commissioner of education says so
Over at Kentucky Commissioner of Education Terry Holliday’s blog, his January 22, 2010 comments are about charter schools and what they could offer Kentucky.
He urges Kentucky’s teachers to keep an open mind about charters, pointing out that the key question should be about how charters can “help students learn at higher levels and enable teachers to meet the needs of more students.”
He also says that we “need to focus on the children’s needs and not let the adult needs get in the way of our focus.”
Well said, Mr. Commissioner.
Kids pay high price for KDE's fantasies, failures
There are the Kentucky Department of Education's fantasies ― in the KDE's own words. Then, there are the facts.
Click here to read the latest Bluegrass Bullets.
No surprise – Longitudinal testing gains popularity in schools
It’s widely accepted – even in the fad-driven public school education community – longitudinal testing of students provides the best data on progress.
Longitudinal testing means students take short tests several times during each school term, and they also take similar, coordinated tests each succeeding school year. The result is a rich package of information for teachers and parents on how well each child is progressing. With this more frequent testing, teachers also get information back soon enough to make changes that help improve learning.
Longitudinal programs really work, a fact which the Courier-Journal reports Bullitt County teachers are now learning.
But, there is no guarantee that this important program, which is actually mandated in Senate Bill 1, will really work well statewide. Click “read more” to find out why.
Sunday, January 24, 2010
Ten states not wallowing at the Race to the Top Trough
Education Week reports (subscription) that only 40 states applied for Race to the Top funding from the federal government.
Reasons for not applying varied, but a general theme for many of the 10 states was not wanting federal intrusion into state operations, whether that involved mandating education policies that might not work or a general dislike of federal interference in a states’ rights area.
Kentucky, of course, is lined up at the trough, though its submission is anything but a shoe-in.
Aside from not having any charter schools, Kentucky also has its fouled up MUNIS financial accounting system. Race to the Top is supposed to require a lot of fiscal accountability, and that will be hard to provide unless MUNIS gets fixed quickly.
Friday, January 22, 2010
Kentucky Senator Brandon Smith’s presentation to Tenth Amendment Rally
Here Senator Smith’s comments about his proposed legislation to enforce the Constitution here.
Senate Bill 68 – If it’s a good idea, let’s enforce it
Senate Bill 68 was introduced to the Kentucky Senate Education Committee yesterday and passed out to the Senate floor without controversy or dissent. It now resides in the Senate Rules committee
I'm glad the bill is getting an additional scrub, because I have some questions.
The bill requires the Kentucky Department of Education and the Educational Professional Standards Board to develop a 15-hour training program for school principals so they will be able to spot the attributes, behaviors and disposition of teachers that lead to high quality instruction.
My first question – you mean this obviously necessary training wasn’t already included in our programs to certify principals? What, exactly, was included in those programs if attention to this important principal duty was omitted?
My second question – is the problem so severe that the legislature has to step in and require this training? Why didn’t the education professionals already set such a program up on their own?
My next question – why are local boards of education going to be required to pay the expenses incurred while a principal attends the training? Isn’t this another unfunded mandate?
Finally, the legislation mandates a performance-based assessment at the completion of training with the Kentucky Department of Education to determine the passing score. Those who pass get a nice certificate.
OK, that seems appropriate.
But, then comes the “zinger” that triggers my last question.
If this training is needed, and if it is important enough to principals doing their jobs that we are going to make the local board pay for it – especially at this time of fiscal strain – then why, oh why, does the legislation specifically stipulate, “A passing score shall not be required for continued employment as a principal”?
If this training is necessary and worthwhile, why would we not want to take action regarding those who cannot implement it in their schools?
Can someone please explain why we are going to spend tax dollars on a program with so little credibility that legislators won’t put some teeth in it?
Bogus graduation rates plus brittle bill equal failure
House Bill 176 is meant to convince Washington that Frankfort is making bold changes to improve results. Yet, this bill requires outside intervention only in schools failing to graduate more than 60 percent of students for three consecutive years.
Click here to read the latest Bluegrass Beacon.
Kentucky Tonight – Lots of Charter School Myths #5
Note: This one is really an outgrowth of Monday’s KET show.
On a radio talk show today I was challenged by a caller claiming charter schools get a lot more money per pupil than regular public schools receive.
The caller specifically cited an astronomical $35,000 per pupil cost for charter schools in Washington, DC.
I was shocked and went checking. This is what the Center for Education Reform reports each state’s charter and regular public school funding actually is. As you can see, the caller was way off the mark for Washington DC, where charter schools on average get only 61 percent of the funding that regular public schools in that city receive.
(click on the table to enlarge, if necessary)
FreedomKentucky tips for the week
FreedomKentucky has begun to assemble tips and updates for wiki article editing. Here is an update on the useful tips for the week!
Thursday, January 21, 2010
Hundreds hear Jim Waters at Tenth Amendment Rally
A rotunda-filling crowd filled the capitol rotunda in Frankfort today to hear the Bluegrass Institute’s Jim Waters and other patriots speak out about the need to protect the rights of the states and the people from further encroachment from Washington.
Hear Jim’s keynote comments here.
And, stay tuned as we process the other speaker’s great comments in future days.
Lawmaker retiring after 31 years; was staunch KERA defender
Rep. Harry Moberly, D-Richmond, has announced he will retire at the end of the year when his current term ends.
Moberly was once a great mover and shaker in the Kentucky House, playing a key role in a number of actions that included a stauch defense of the Kentucky Education Reform Act since that law's enactment in 1990.
Moberly lost influence after Rep. Greg Stumbo, D-Prestonsburg, became Kentucky House Speaker a year ago.
His departure will complete a 31-year career in Frankfort.
KET Show on Education Already On Line
It looks like the first show in KET’s new series, Education Matters, which aired Tuesday on KET 1, is already on line.
Find the webcast here.
Wednesday, January 20, 2010
Kentucky Tonight – Lots of Charter School Myths #4
As I mentioned in #3 in this Charter School Myths series, a 2009 report called “Informing the Debate, Comparing Boston’s Charter, Pilot and Traditional Schools” found charters notably outperformed the regular school system that city.
This graph from the report may help make that clearer. It is based on a very strong investigational method where performance of students who won lotteries to enter charter schools are compared to results for students who also entered those lotteries but didn’t win a charter school slot. This is basically a random-sample approach, which is the gold standard for similar research efforts.
The report says this graph plots the scores of lottery winners [shown by the green line for English Language Arts (ELA) and by the gray line (math)] to lottery losers scores (represented by the constant zero horizontal black colored axis line) over grades in middle and high school charter schools. The report concludes, “The relatively steep upward slopes of the lines suggest that Charter School impacts increase over the course of school.”
In other words, charter middle schools in Boston provided stronger educations for students, and the amount of that extra education increased as students remained in the charter schools for longer periods of time.
The report indicates that relative rise for math performance in charter schools equates to moving from the 50th to the 69th percentile of student performance, or erasing about half of the white to black achievement gap. The report terms this an “extraordinarily large” increase.
Does this look like evidence of “a failed reform” to you?
It doesn’t look like a failure to folks in the know in Massachusetts, either.
'Kentucky Tonight' charter school program: Video now online
If you missed Monday’s remarkable KET Kentucky Tonight show on charter schools, you can now watch it on line here.
The Bluegrass Institute's Jim Waters and Pastor Jerry Stephenson, chairman of the Kentucky Education Restoration Alliance, made the case for bringing charter schools to the commonwealth.
Note that you need the flash media player in your computer to view this. You probably will be directed to get that viewer when you try to open the link if you don’t already have it.
View this show for yourself and let us hear your feedback.
By the way, I don’t recall KET television ever getting a show online so quickly. Good job, KET!
Want to voice your concerns about state spending?
FreedomKentucky.org recently enabled comments on our spending database. You can now register on the database to leave comments about what you find while sorting through the list of cities, school districts, and state agency check registers!
- Find something you want others to know about?
- Have a question someone else could look into?
- Want to express outrage about irresponsible spending?
- Have a suggestion to save a school district money?
FreedomKentucky.org to offer legislative updates
Taxpayers will soon be able to see what state lawmakers are doing to improve education, pass a balanced budget, lower taxes, modernize labor policy, stand up for Kentuckians against Washington’s health care push and close the gap on public pensions at FreedomKentucky.org.
Click here to read the entire news release.
Kentucky Tonight – Lots of Charter School Myths #3
– No myth – Actual Quote
“What is it about Charter Schools that allows them to achieve such strong results, and how can their effective practices be more widely disseminated?”
Mitchell D. Chester, Massachusetts Commissioner of Elementary and Secondary Education in his cover letter for a 2009 report on charter school performance. Chester was specifically commenting on this remarkable and recent report’s findings that charter schools in Boston notably outperformed the regular school system there.
By the way, this report used two separate analysis approaches and found generally similar results for charter schools from both.
The report was created by a partnership between The Boston Foundation and the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, which makes it less likely to be biased.
– Myth (in fact, outrageous myth) we heard during the January 18, 2009 Kentucky Tonight show
“It’s a failed reform.”
Sheldon Berman, Jefferson County Public Schools Superintendent
Note: During the Kentucky Tonight telecast, Dr. Berman cited his experience with charter schools in Massachusetts as a major part of the basis of his easy-to-refute claim.
As you can see, the Massachusetts Commissioner of Elementary and Secondary Education would likely be very surprised to hear anyone proclaim that charter schools are a failure based on what is really happening in his state’s schools.
Dr. Berman clearly hasn’t kept up with what is happening in Massachusetts, or with reports elsewhere. We’ll discuss that in another blog.
Hey you! Cut costs!
Consider this situation. You are a business owner. Your business has a lot of potential yet, because of the current economic situation, you are struggling to run at a profit. In fact, you are running at a significant loss.
So, what do you do? Well, as a responsible business owner you look at the cash flow of the organization and analyze where money is going. This involves looking at financial statements, labor numbers, profit and loss reports, etc... in order to assess efficiency and make cuts.
Why cuts? Well it's obvious that costs outweigh available resources. If we could just keep profits increasing exponentially things would be great. But that's not realistic.
The Commonwealth of Kentucky is in a situation where some decisions need to be made. A budget shortfall of $1.5 billion dollars is unacceptable. In a recent budget address, leadership presented a plan to raise revenue through gambling legislation and some select cuts in spending. Half of that is the right idea.
Kentucky has a spending -- not a revenue -- problem.
What needs to happen is for the governor to follow through on the efficiency study he promised a couple years ago. Such a comprehensive study would make government more efficient while reducing its size and cost. Kentucky's businesses must constantly evaluate spending and make cuts where necessary. Frankfort should try it, too.
Learn more about Kentucky's budget process here.
Tuesday, January 19, 2010
State lawmakers challenge corrupt health care deals
Lawmakers want Attorney General Jack Conway to protect Kentucky taxpayers from Washington's outrageous health-insurance mandates.
Click here to listen to the 90-second audio commentary.
Kentucky Tonight – Lots of Charter School Myths #2
– What Jefferson County Schools Superintendent Sheldon Berman said
– To Massachusetts
"What we're saying is it's possible to have public schools and charter schools stand side by side and learn from each other."
Quote from Sheldon Berman, current superintendent of the Jefferson County Public Schools, published in a March 31, 2005, Boston Globe article titled, “Report boosts charter schools, Superintendents say gap narrower.” Dr. Berman was a co-author of that report.
– What he just said to Kentucky
On the January 18, 2009 Kentucky Tonight show on KET Television, Dr. Berman made some introductory comments starting about three minutes into the show.
Said Berman, “The data on charter schools is that it’s, it’s truly a failed reform, particularly for African-American students, particularly for low income students.”
The question is: does the research since Berman’s 2005 comment justify a finding of outright failure?
Is Berman’s strong assertion that charter schools have failed African-Americans and low income students correct?
We’ll be exploring these questions in greater detail later, but you can get a leg up on the truth right now. Just enter the term “charter school” into the Bluegrass Policy Blog’s search feature and click on the magnifying glass icon to start the search. You will find a host of articles with evidence that Dr. Berman is very out of touch with the latest research on charter schools.
Political leaders in Kentucky fall into the 'gap'
Along with education gaps and budget gaps, Frankfort suffers from a serious ''credibility gap'' these days.
Click here to read the latest Bluegrass Beacon.
Is trouble brewing over the new national math standards?
– Could Kentucky’s new math standards and new testing program be held up?
A West-Coast blogger reports that a meeting of mathematicians this past week got into somewhat icy discussions concerning the pending national math standards, commonly called the “Common Core Standards,” which are being created by the National Governor’s Association and the Council of Chief State School Officers.
These standards will be used as the major input to reform Kentucky’s math standards, and our program to finish our state standards, and ultimately create the new assessments to support them, could be in serious trouble if those national standards are either delayed or arrive in a highly controversial form.
Monday, January 18, 2010
Kentucky Tonight – Lots of Charter School Myths #1
The Kentucky Tonight was certainly interesting – though in some ways it was like Alice in Wonderland.
If I heard this right, at one point, Jefferson County Superintendent of Schools Sheldon Berman claimed that only two of the 50 charter schools in Massachusetts – where he served before coming to Kentucky – were really performing well.
I’m not sure where he got that statistic, but it would certainly be a surprise to the Massachusetts Department of Education.
A study of charter and regular schools which that department published in August 2006 looked at scores from that state’s very highly regarded MCAS tests for 2001 through 2005.
The study compared Massachusetts’ charter schools to their 'comparison sending districts' (CSD).
Two key findings:
• When there is a statistically significant difference in MCAS performance, it is much more likely to favor the charter school than the CSD.
• In both English Language Arts and Mathematics, at least 30 percent of the charter schools performed statistically significantly higher than their CSD in each year with the exception of 2001. In 2001, 19% of the charter schools performed statistically significantly higher than their CSD in English Language Arts and 26% in Mathematics.
In other words, Dr. Berman simply got it wrong. We are not talking about only two of 50 schools doing a better job. We are talking a good number of charters doing better, and getting better at doing better over time, than the regular public schools.
A call for transparency in the General Assembly
Senate Bill 40 has been introduced to the state Senate. This bill requires quasi-governmental agencies that receive state funding to post financial/spending information online and be subject to the Kentucky Open Records Act. These agencies include the Kentucky League of Cites and the Kentucky Association of Counties. The Herald-Leader reported on the bill here.
Transparency is the first step toward accountability.
Parental choice contracts further in Kentucky
It's ironic. As Jim Waters prepares to battle opponents of school choice in Kentucky this evening, one of the very limited choice opportunities available in this state is taking another hit.
Kentucky lacks charter schools, leaving poor parents in the state very few options in choosing the school their child attends.
Even selection of a residence doesn’t always work, as the outrageous bussing mess in Louisville and sometimes controversial school rezoning in other places has made abundantly clear.
In most cases, unless a family is wealthy, the local school board dictates where the children must go to school.
There are few exceptions. Historically, one of those has been that some school districts negotiated agreements where students of one district could elect to attend schools in another, normally adjoining district.
But, times are a-changing.
Fueled by a seemingly insatiable appetite for money and, maybe, power, more and more school districts are revoking their transfer agreements. When that happens, parents often must pay hefty “tuition” fees if they want to continue to send their child to an out of district school. For the poor, this choice option vanishes, and it just vanished again in Knox County.
KET’s KY Tonight to feature charter school discussion
Our own Jim Waters (left) will be one of the four guests on Kentucky Tonight’s charter schools discussion at 8 PM Eastern Time on Kentucky Educational Television's KET 1 channel. He will be joined by Reverend Jerry Stephenson, chair of the Kentucky Education Restoration Alliance, Sharron Oxendine, president of the Kentucky Education Association and Superintendent Sheldon Berman of Jefferson County Public Schools.
Don’t know much about charter schools? You can do some easy “homework” for tonight’s show by watching this You Tube.
You can learn a lot more by reading our many past blog postings. Use the keywords “charter school” in our search feature to locate these informative articles.
If you have questions for the panelists, you can call them in during the show.
Kentucky Tonight’s call-in number is 1-800-494-7605.
E-mail is also available. You may e-mail your comments or questions to kytonight@ket.org. However, also back up with a phone call, if possible. Kentucky Tonight was having trouble with their e-mail system when I called in last week, but when e-mail works, the show tends to take more questions now from e-mail than the phone lines.
Quote of the day for Martin Luther King, Jr. Day
"We need a crusade to save our children -- a crusade as powerful and as broad-based as the 1960's crusade for civil rights." columnist William Raspberry
Sunday, January 17, 2010
Interesting comments on Kentucky Tonight
Last week’s January 11, 2009, Kentucky Tonight subject on Public Broadcast TV was the state budget. All of the guest participants were connected to groups with interests in education in Kentucky.
I was able to phone in a question. I pointed out, as I have a number of times in this blog, such as here and here and here, that due to major failings discovered in 2006 with the Kentucky Department of Education’s MUNIS financial system, that the Kentucky Office of Education Accountability and other groups have never been able to do detailed “Bang for the Buck” studies that drill down to the efficiency of major education programs like teacher professional development.
In fact, more than three years after the MUNIS problems were identified in the Legislative Research Commission’s Research Report 338, MUNIS remains unrepaired.
I then asked the show’s participants if, after more than three years of failure to fix MUNIS, is it time for the legislature to step in?
Terry Brooks, executive director of the Kentucky Youth Advocates – one of the show’s guests – really surprised me with his candor about the Kentucky Department of Education’s responsibility for the MUNIS problem and program review in general.
Said Brooks, “The lack of accountability – the lack of program evaluation that the department does – is stunning. And, it makes it very difficult to advocate for sustained or increased levels of funding in K to12 when there’s no proof in the pudding.”
To that, I can only say Amen.
It’s time to fix MUNIS. Legislators – you have ultimate responsibility for education, and our tax dollars. Are you listening? You may have to make tough decisions on education programs, but thanks to the department’s failure to provide decently accurate fiscal data, you will have to do that without the benefit of ‘bang for the buck’ information that you asked for three years ago.
By the way, Bluegrass Institute’s director of policy and communications Jim Waters appears on tomorrow night’s January 18, 2009 Kentucky Tonight along with Rev. Jerry Stephenson, chair of the Kentucky Education Restoration Alliance, Sharron Oxendine, president of the Kentucky Education Association and Superintendent Sheldon Berman of Jefferson County Public Schools. This group will discuss charter schools for Kentucky. Given the panel’s wide-ranging viewpoints, the show is certain to provide lively comments that Kentuckians need to hear. Some may come from people you might not expect to make them. So, tune in at 8 PM Eastern Time on KET 1.
Is Kentucky’s poverty rate really exceptional?
The Southern Educational Foundation just issued “A New Diverse Majority,” a report on demographic changes in the public school student body.
It has a surprise.
Kentucky isn’t as “poor” as our educators might like us to believe when they make excuses for performance.
This graphical map from the Southern Educational Foundation shows the percentage of the students in each state that qualify for the federal free and reduced cost school lunch program. The numbers are a commonly used indicator of poverty for school children.
Plenty of states on the map have higher poverty rates than we have. And, because the break point used to color code the map is a 50 percent rate, and because we barely exceed that, several of the states shown in green are actually within a few points of our poverty rate, as well.
So, when white students in every state on this map except Oklahoma (poorer), Tennessee (poorer), Hawaii, Alabama (poorer), Mississippi (MUCH poorer) and West Virginia (equally poor) outscored our whites on the 2009 National Assessment of Educational Progress Grade 8 Math Assessment, and when of that group of six states, Oklahoma (poorer), Tennessee (poorer) and Hawaii actually were able to tie us, we have just cause to worry.
The poverty excuse won’t fly any more in Kentucky. Almost every state in the South plus California and West Virginia have more poverty now than we do, but in most cases their kids now outperform our dominant racial group.
(Note: I ranked the NAEP scores as downloaded from the NAEP Data Explorer web tool)
Saturday, January 16, 2010
Is Kentucky’s student racial mix really Southern?
The Southern Educational Foundation just issued “A New Diverse Majority,” a report on demographic changes in the public school student body. The report helps further a case I’ve been making some time about Kentucky – we don’t have a lot of minority students here.
In fact, as this graphical map from the Southern Educational Foundation shows, we have one of the lowest percentages of minority students in the entire country. We don’t look “Southern” at all.
As the Bluegrass Institute has pointed out before, Kentucky’s heavy white advantage makes it difficult to develop an accurate picture of how we really do in state-to-state education comparisons.
For example, because the other races score notably lower than whites, states with a lot of white students often look better than they really should when overall scores from assessments like the National Assessment of Educational Progress are compared.
You just have to look deeper when the national student demographic chart is as full of different colors as the one the Southern Educational Foundation just published. Simplistic comparisons of overall scores just can’t give an accurate picture.
Friday, January 15, 2010
Texas backs out of common school standards
– Says forget the Race to the Top money, too
Down in Texas they just are not ready to surrender their state’s constitutional rights to govern education to the US Government. Not even for $700 million.
Here in Kentucky, adoption of House Bill 176 means we may have surrendered our rights to the Race to the Top sweepstakes for less than $200 million.
Latest on HB 176
— Dreaming in Jefferson County
In it’s coverage of the passage of House Bill 176, the Louisville Courier-Journal notes several schools in Jefferson County would be identified as “Persistently Low-Achieving Schools” if the bill’s new formulas were applied today.
The article additionally says Jefferson County Superintendent of Schools Sheldon Berman told the newspaper that “district officials have already begun turning around most of those schools.”
Well, see if you can find much “turn-around performance” in the schools the Courier lists.
This table summarizes data found in the individual 2009 No Child Left Behind Report results for each school listed in the Courier’s article.
Only one school, Western MST High, increased both math and reading proficiency rates between 2008 and 2009, but the school still fell short of the required Annual Measureable Objective (AMO) required proficiency rate in both subjects. And, Western’s 2009 math rate only improved because its 2008 rate was truly abysmal. Western’s 2009 rate remains lowest of the group – hardly an achievement worth lauding.
The other five schools experienced DROPS in their already low reading proficiency rates between 2008 and 2009, and three saw DROPS in their very low math proficiency rates, as well. Overall, all six schools sank deeper in NCLB’s failing schools Tier listing, entering a second year as a bottom level Tier 5 school.
Thursday, January 14, 2010
Quote of the day: A warning
“If you condition people to everyday, all day, depend on the government to do their thinking for them – they will become more obedient.” Congressman Ron Paul
Head Start gains don’t last
Education Week reports (may be free access) that yet another study of the federally supported preschool program called Head Start shows the preschool program gives students a head start, but it doesn’t last past first grade.
The study raises questions about the efficacy of preschool programs. It mirrors earlier reports that came to the same conclusion.
Kentucky needs a clearer understanding of this situation before we try to expand preschool programs. We hear a lot from educators and other boosters about the value of preschool programs, but Head Start studies, which are some of the most extensive conducted in this area, continue to raise questions about that.
Charters definitely not dead after yesterday’s vote on House Bill 176
It’s clear that yesterday’s tie vote that prevented including charter schools in Kentucky’s Race to the Top (RTTT) application was mostly about fear of losing already signed agreements with local school districts rather than a true determination of potential support for charter schools in Kentucky.
The Herald-Leader’s report on the vote in the Senate Education Committee makes that fairly clear, though it omits some additional supporting comments made during the committee meeting.
For example, I attended yesterday's committee meeting. Senator Gerald A. Neal said during the discussion, “I’m not one who is ‘knee-jerk’ opposed to charters. In fact, I find, uh, it can under certain circumstances offer some interesting opportunities.”
WAVE 3 News quoted Neal as later saying, “Let's come back with a separate bill and let's look at what Senator Westwood has to offer here. Let's vet it properly and raise all the necessary questions and let it rise or fall on its own merits."
Most significantly, House Speaker Greg Stumbo says charters should be explored further. It is clear that a number of members of the Senate Education Committee, including some like Senator Neal, agree.
Thus, as the Herald-Leader article also points out, “The book on charter schools still might not be closed.” For the sake of our children, I certainly hope it isn’t.
Anyway, let’s also hope the omission of charters in our RTTT application doesn’t doom its chances in Washington.
There are plenty of somewhat vaguely described discretionary points floating around in the RTTT scoring plan. I don’t think anyone really knows exactly how those points will really be awarded. This could allow things to shake out differently from what some expect.
I think it may ultimately depend upon how earnest and aggressive a state’s overall application looks to Washington’s peer review teams. Kentucky’s failure to put charters in our application might not look to good to President Obama and US Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, both of whom have come out very strongly in favor of charter schools in the past year.
In fact, our very wide consensus of agreement between the school districts and the teachers’ union might work against us, as well. We have agreement. But, the resulting product is watered down in consequence.
Other states are not getting that level of agreement for their plans, but the reason probably is that their plans are more aggressive. What will Washington finally decide? Who knows?
Prichard finds problems with public education in Jefferson County
– So, why not support charter schools?
Over at the Prichard Committee's blog, Susan Weston just posted a pretty good summary of the public school situation in Jefferson County.
She points out that Jefferson County’s public schools exist in an environment where adults have higher levels of education than the state in general and also have more wealth – and spend more of it – on their school system.
She further notes that the children in Jefferson County have a slightly lower-than-state-average poverty rate.
Weston then points out something we have been talking about for some time such as here and here: despite those clear advantages, kids in the Jefferson County Public School District generally are being seriously outperformed by other kids around Kentucky and the nation where there are fewer advantages.
Weston did say the district’s high schools do somewhat better, but that misses an important point that I discuss in another blog. The real reason for this difference is because the district’s high schools drop out a lot more low performers. These low performing kids simply aren’t around by the time tests are given, which inflates test scores for Jefferson County high schools compared to the rest of Kentucky.
Anyway, Prichard’s latest comments lead me to a puzzle.
I ran into Cinde Heine from Prichard at yesterday’s meeting of the Kentucky Senate’s Education Committee. I asked her about charter schools, and she said Prichard hasn’t taken a position on them.
Twenty years of KERA have not solved serious problems in Jefferson County. After all that effort, there aren’t many really different education ideas left that we haven’t already tried. Charter schools are about the only major program we have not tried that has a growing record of encouraging results elsewhere.
Even our pending Race to the Top submission to the US Department of Education really won’t add much dynamically new. Education Commissioner Terry Holliday stressed that when he presented House Bill 176, the enabling legislation for our Race to the Top application, to the Kentucky House Education Committee last week.
Today, Prichard’s main thrust seems based on giving teachers more professional development. They’ve been talking about that for years. The key question is how do we finally get local school leaders and the teachers who most need more development to pay attention, dig in, and make it work? Without any motivation, such as charter schools provide elsewhere around the country, I just don’t see this working well. It hasn’t, so far.
Most certainly – not in Jefferson County.
Wednesday, January 13, 2010
U.S. Constitution, 10th Amendment
"The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people."
Show us the study
More than 3,000 suggestions were offered in response to Gov. Beshear's request for ideas on how to make state government work better, more efficiently and at less cost to taxpayers. Taxpayers await the governor's response.
Click here to listen to the 90-second audio commentary.
Tuesday, January 12, 2010
House Bill 176 – Only half right
One provision in HB 176 is causing a huge amount of turmoil – it’s the standard that says a high school isn’t considered a “Persistently Low-Achieving School” if its graduation rate exceeds a ridiculously low standard of just 60 percent.
Proponents of the bill correctly point out that the number "60" is actually contained in the US Department of Education’s final rules for the Race to the Top fund. But, they are not paying attention to the full description of this provision.
The final Race to the Top (RTTT) rules say in several places such as on pages 59766 and 59767 in the November 18, 2009 Federal Register that a “Persistently Lowest-Achieving School,”
“Is a high school that has had a graduation rate as defined in 34 CFR 200.19(b) that is less than 60 percent over a number of years.”
That reference to 34 CFR 200.19(b) is what HB 176 proponents are conveniently ignoring. The referenced federal regulation defines what is now called the “Cohort Graduation Rate” formula. The 60% figure was intended to be used with that formula.
Now, here’s the rub. Kentucky cannot compute a graduation rate that complies with 34 CFR 200.19(b) until it has a high quality student tracking system in place for four years. As we have abundantly commented before, Kentucky’s Infinite Campus student tracking system is way behind the schedule anticipated by the federal government. We won’t be able to report the first Cohort Graduation Rate data that complies with 34 CFR 200.19(b) until 2014.
Thus, Kentucky cannot currently comply with the RTTT guidance on graduation rates.
What to do?
We do have a US Department of Education exemption from compliance with the Cohort rate for No Child Left Behind purposes until 2014. However, that means we have to use another graduation rate formula for our RTTT threshold. That formula is not harmonized with the 60 percent figure in the RTTT final guidance package.
So, I think those who say the 60 percent figure is a federal requirement that Kentucky can’t increase overlook the fact that we can’t comply with the full definition of that federal requirement in any event.
We need to choose something else in our RTTT package that will give comparable performance with our existing data. Otherwise, we will look like we are trying to game the system.
Considering the stakes, and the fierce competition, and the fact that we are already hobbled in RTTT if we don’t implement charter schools, we don’t need that extra baggage.
Somehow, I can’t believe that our RTTT application would be downgraded if we selected a more rigorous graduation rate threshold (something higher than 60 percent) to better correspond to our current formula’s results. Actually, I would think the US Department of Education judges would be impressed that we took care of this problem, and they might even award more points as a result.
On the other hand, if we keep the 60 percent rate while we use formulas that are less accurate, and more inflated, than the high quality Cohort Rate, we run the risk of losing everything.
Besides, who really wants to go on record saying that a 60 percent high school graduation rate is just fine? I sure don’t.
AFT chief vows her union will revise teacher-dismissal process
National leadership of the “other” teachers’ union, the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), is stepping up to the plate in a movement towards the sort of professional responsibility we see in other organizations like the American Medical Association.
Education Week announced today (subscription) that Randi Weingarten, president of the AFT has agreed that she is, “putting the sensitive issue of due process on the education reform table, with a pledge to work with districts to streamline the often-cumbersome procedures for dismissing teachers who fail to improve their performance after receiving help and support.”
Now, will our dominant union, the Kentucky Education Association, look at how the growing professionalism at the AFT works and make similar moves, or will the KEA continue to protect teachers tooth and nail under every condition even when it is clearly not in the best interests of children – or even the reputation of the profession itself and its many hard-working, talented and dedicated teachers?
Kentucky House passes 'Spin to the top' application
New portals on FreedomKentucky.org
Recently several portals have been added to FreedomKentucky.org in an effort to make it easier for you to find the information you need about issues that affect you everyday! These portals are a gateway to a variety of information about issues such as special needs education, prevailing wage, the 2010 Kentucky general assembly, etc... Below are the links to some of the new portals...
2010 General Assembly - Keep up with the currently legislative session in Kentucky.
Prevailing Wage - find research, reports, and understand the impact in the Commonwealth.
Special Needs Education - a resource for parents.
These portals are just beginning. We need all the information we can gather about these subjects! You can be a part of FreedomKentucky! Learn how here!
Indianapolis takes action to reform/remove failing teachers
– Meanwhile, Kentucky continues the job protectionist status quo
The Indianapolis Star reports that its home city is taking strong action to confront the problem of unacceptably weak teachers in its classrooms.
Twenty-two of Indianapolis’ weakest teachers have been removed from their classrooms and will undergo a year of remedial development. The hope is that the performance of these under-performing teachers can be improved.
Next year, those teachers will return to classrooms under close observation probation. Probationary teachers who fail to measure up after their year of remedial work will be fired.
The article does omit an important point. It mentions the notorious “rubber rooms” in New York City. Those non-school locations were created as a sort of holding tank for seriously under-performing teachers. The under-performers report there every day to sit around doing nothing while still drawing pay. The rubber rooms were created because existing laws in New York made it difficult and expensive to fire a teacher for poor performance, but some New York City teachers simply could not be trusted with children.
Well, there is an update. New York City has had enough of the rubber room leeches and is now going to do whatever it takes to fire them, as well.
Unfortunately, we know that Kentucky has teacher problems, as well. With over 40,000 teachers in the state, it’s inevitable that a small number really don’t belong there. However, under the umbrella of an overly protectionist teachers’ union and the laws that union has been able to get passed, anything like the Indianapolis and New York City programs is unheard of in Kentucky.
Monday, January 11, 2010
KIPP won’t do zip in Kentucky
– We need charter school legislation first
During his January 7, 2010 testimony on House Bill 176 before the House Education Committee, Education Commissioner Terry Holliday was asked to describe what the bill’s Education Management Organizations (EMO) actually were.
Holliday replied that these were for-profit or not-for-profit organizations with the expertise to turn around low performing schools. He specifically offered the KIPP (the Knowledge is Power Program) organization as one example.
I seriously doubted the highly regarded Knowledge is Power Program would have anything to do with Kentucky so long as we prohibit charter schools, so I contacted Mikelle Willis at KIPP’s home office in San Francisco.
I was right.
KIPP is not interested in doing business without the flexibility they need and get from the charter school model.
Instead, as this screen shot from their web site shows, today KIPP starts schools from scratch, starting with the base grade in the first year and then adding more grades as the initial group of students progresses.
KIPP isn’t doing failing school takeovers.
KIPP also isn’t looking to expand operating regions at this time. They specially are not interested in a state with no charter schools.
Bottom line – if we want KIPP schools in Kentucky, and goodness knows we could use them, we'll need something other than House Bill 176 to get us there. HB 176 will not bring this high performance public school model to Kentucky. Even with charter legislation, it could be a tough sell to get KIPP to come here; but, without charters – forget it.
New testing experts will advise Kentucky legislators and educators
– Kudos all around for selecting a superior team!
At just the right time, Kentucky has a new “A Team” of nationally-known testing experts to advise us as we rebuild our defunct CATS testing program into something that cannot help being far better.
Most of the members of the reformed “National Technical Advisory Panel on Assessment and Accountability” (NTAPAA) – as the group is somewhat ponderously titled – have past experience in Kentucky.
Three of the reconstituted NTAPAA’s members previously served on a Kentucky Office of Education Accountability (OEA) 1995 panel. That panel provided a stunningly on-target and honest evaluation of Kentucky’s old KIRIS assessments. These experts already know about issues in our state.
Another new NTAPAA member proved her mettle when she was willing to speak what needed to be said, not just what some wanted to hear, during the 2008 CATS Review Task Force.
The remaining two members bring practical, front-line experience from state departments of education that have a track record of high success.
It’s an “A – Team” with the right mix of experience and expertise, and a track record of calling things like they are, not like some just would like to hear. That will be a refreshing, and much needed, change from the old NTAPAA. That former group mostly just stood by while our CATS assessment kept on providing a very poor picture of what was really happening in Kentucky. Frustrated legislators shut the old NTAPAA down as CATS was losing its final, last life.
So, here’s a “Hats Off” to Education Assessment and Accountability Review Subcommittee chairs Senator Jack Westwood and Representative Kent Stevens and their support staff for putting together the effort that created this superior team. It will be up to these legislative leaders to insure that we capitalize on the amazing talent in the new NTAPAA. We’ll need to keep the team on focus to support our exciting opportunity under Senate Bill 1 from 2009 to finally do assessment right in Kentucky. But, we also need to point out the superior quality of our advisory force as we get ready to compete for Race to the Top money in Washington.
