The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) reading results for 2009 have been a subject of a number of previous posts. In this one, let’s look at the black-white achievement gap.
This graph is largely copied from a 2007 NAEP report titled, “How Black and White Students in Public Schools Perform in Mathematics and Reading on the National Assessment of Educational Progress,” except that I added in the 2009 data. That 2009 data comes from the 2009 NAEP Reading Report Card.
Very simply, the reading gap between Kentucky’s fourth grade blacks and whites has jumped around over the years, but the new 2009 figure matches the worst ever recorded by the NAEP.
Please note that the national average figure is for all students. In fact, on the 2009 NAEP Fourth Grade Reading Assessment, Kentucky’s whites scored one point lower than the national white average, and the state’s blacks only matched the national average.
This next graph shows what is going on in eighth grade reading.
Again, the gap has been jumping around, so a real trend is hard to spot. However, the 2009 gap is larger than the gap back in 1998 when eighth grade reading was first assessed by NAEP.
Kentucky’s whites scored two points below the white national average in 2009 and the state’s blacks scored four points above blacks across the country. Still, our gap hasn’t materially changed since the first days of NAEP grade eight reading tests.
Wednesday, March 31, 2010
NAEP shows Kentucky’s reading gaps grew in 2009
Policing for Profit
Yesterday's USAToday published an interesting article.
"The recession may be claiming a new victim: the 5-10-mph "cushion" police and state troopers across the USA have routinely given motorists exceeding the speed limit.
As cities and states scramble to fill budget gaps with revenue from traffic citations, "not only are the (speeding) tolerances much lower, but the frequency of a warning instead of a ticket is way down," says James Baxter, president of the National Motorists Association, a Wisconsin-based drivers' rights group that helps its members fight speeding tickets."
Even more interesting...this Institute for Justice video
Tuesday, March 30, 2010
Rep. Tim Moore on nuclear energy in Kentucky
This interview was conducted with Rep. Tim Moore, R- Elizabethtown about nuclear energy in Kentucky.
No charter schools stymies Kentucky's bid for stimulus funds
If Kentucky wants to successfully compete for the second round of Race to the Top stimulus funding, education experts say it should pass a charter school law.
“Stimulus or not, Kentucky should be adopting charter schools because it’s the right thing to do,” said Richard G. Innes, education analyst for the Bluegrass Institute, Kentucky’s free-market think tank.
The institute has led the effort to bring charter schools to Kentucky, which is one of only a few states without a charter law.
Click here to continue reading this news release.
Why Kentucky lost Race to the Top: No charter schools
Education commissioner says so
It’s sad.
If legislators had listened to us, and to the people running the federal education Race to the Top (RTTT) funding sweepstakes, Kentucky would have already enacted a charter school law and the end result would have been an easy win for us.
You see, with the extra 30 to 40 points that charters would have given us in the RTTT competition, we would have exceeded the scores of at least one of the two winning states.
Instead, we now face an uncertain future in the Phase II RTTT competition as our education commissioner scrambles to get emergency legislation for charter schools in place.
Read the Herald-Leader’s story here.
And the Courier-Journal’s ‘take’ here.
By the way, according to these news articles, Kentucky got a RTTT score of 418.8 while second-place winner Tennessee (which does have charter schools) got a score of 444.2.
There seems to be some confusion about exactly how much the lack of Kentucky charter schools cost Kentucky (the Courier article indicates 40 points, the Herald-Leader says Kentucky Commissioner of Education Terry Holliday says it was only 32 points), but in any event Kentucky would have won a RTTT award if it had charter schools in place.
In RTTT Round One Kentucky asked for $200 million. Now we have lost at least $25 million because our Phase II award is limited to $175 million. However, we probably won’t get a dime from Phase II if our legislators don’t finally institute some real education reform by setting up a charter school program in Kentucky.
Help put parents back in charge of their children's futures
For too long, Kentucky parents have had to settle for the status quo in their children’s public education. It’s time to put parents back in charge of their kids’ futures.
Thirty nine other states allow for charter schools – independent public schools that are run locally, with input from parents and members of the community.
It’s time to ask our Kentucky lawmakers – “Where are our independent public schools?” We have a unique opportunity right now to give back Kentucky's public education system to the people of Kentucky.
Click here to tell your legislator – now is the chance to get this right.
Let’s not settle for anything less than the best for Kentucky students.
Monday, March 29, 2010
Kentucky loses first round of Race to the Top (RTTT) education funding sweepstakes
Kentucky Education Commissioner Terry Holliday’s office has just released the following:
Kentucky Education Commissioner Terry Holliday issued this statement today, after the U.S. Department of Education’s announcement of the federal Race to the Top funding winners:
“Although I’m disappointed that Kentucky’s application was not selected for funding in the first round of the Race to the Top allocations, our work to improve the state’s P-12 system of education will continue. We’ll begin reviewing the scores and comments on our application and planning for the second round immediately. This does not mean that the work outlined in Kentucky’s plan will not be done – it just means that we’ll have to work harder to ensure that every funding source is tapped. Kentucky’s Race to the Top plan is more than just an application for federal funding. It is the roadmap for the state’s next move forward in public education, and we will not abandon that.”
Both of the winning states, Delaware and Tennessee, have charter school laws.
In addition, Tennessee has a tremendously successful school assessment program known as the Tennessee Value Added Assessment System.
While Kentucky created and crashed two testing programs known as KIRIS and CATS, since 1992 Tennessee’s assessment has continually provided that state with rich trend lines of data on how schools really perform. Tennessee has data right now that will clearly show longitudinal changes as it spends its RTTT winnings. Kentucky simply can’t do that because we wasted many valuable years on a series of misleading assessment programs that ultimately crashed.
While some thought it was a ‘plus,’ another factor may actually have worked against Kentucky. The state made a lot of noise about how there was very wide “buy-in” to our RTTT proposal by all sorts of groups from teachers unions to local school boards. The problem is that making real changes that work isn’t likely to come from a wide consensus. Real change will require doing things that some groups - like Kentucky’s always objecting teachers union - just don’t like. Maybe the people judging RTTT realized that, as well.
And, maybe not having charter schools will knock us out of the RTTT Phase II awards as well if our legislature doesn’t get smart about what real change in education looks like.
Bluegrass Institute takes liberty to Internet airwaves tonight
The Bluegrass Institute's Jim Waters will be on ''KY GrassRoots Radio'', an online blog-talk radio station, tonight at 6:30 p.m. (eastern) to talk about "Obamacare" and Thursday's rally in Frankfort. Listen here. The show is hosted by Matt Singleton, Clint Hardy and David Caldwell.
New search function for BIPPS.org and Freedomkentucky.org
In an effort to make our sites more user friendly we have added Google search functions for FreedomKentucky.org and BIPPS.org. In the case of FreedomKentucky, the Google search function has simply been added to the page. Over at BIPPS.org, the Google search engine has replaced the local search function.
This should provide much more accuracy and ease in searching for the information that you want to find!
Good luck!
Sunday, March 28, 2010
health care lawsuit!’
Rally to stop Obamacare, reaffirm
Kentucky’s sovereignty
Thursday, April 1, 2010, at 10 a.m.
Capitol Rotunda in Frankfort
Speakers include Dr. Rand Paul, U.S. Senate candidate; Eric Wilson,
state director of the Kentucky 9/12 Project; and Jim Waters, director
of policy and communications for the Bluegrass Institute for
Public Policy Solutions; lawmakers and public officials.
Come and show your support for the Constitution,
individual liberty and Kentucky’s sovereignty.
For more information, contact (502) 893-2444.
Saturday, March 27, 2010
What Reading Progress????
NAEP shows Kentucky’s eighth graders aren’t making ANY!
Quite frankly, I was shocked.
With all the hype this week about Kentucky being the only state to show reading progress in both fourth and eighth grade in the new National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) Reading Assessment results, I thought I could show you a graph that would project when we could expect to reach a 90 percent rate of reading proficiency for our eighth grade students.
Well, forget that.
You don’t have enough paper, or computer screen area, to print that out. What I found is that our rate of progress in teaching reading at the eighth grade level is so slow that at our current rate:
That’s right, several thousand years from now (Note: this is corrected from an earlier estimate)!
How can this be? Read on.
Good comments on the publics right to know
And how two school boards wasted tax dollars trying to hide embarrassments
The Central Kentucky News-Journal hits the nail on the head.
It will be interesting to learn how much money the Campbellsville Independent and Taylor County school systems wasted on the three-year long lawsuit they fought to deny the public the right to know.
Friday, March 26, 2010
BIPPS rally coming Thursday to the State Capitol near you
SAVE THE DATE: Join the Bluegrass Institute, Kentucky 9/12 Project and the Kentucky Tea Party for a rally in the Capitol Rotunda in Frankfort next Thursday, April 1, at 10 a.m. We will formally ask Kentucky Attorney General Jack Conway to join other attorneys general challenging Obamacare. Dr. Rand Paul will be one of several speakers helping Kentuckians reaffirm their belief in the Constitution, individual liberty and the sovereignty of our commonwealth. Please join us!
NAEP 2009 Reading: California Vs. Kentucky
It seems like a “no-brainer.” If you simplistically look at the overall fourth grade reading scores for all students from the newly released 2009 administration of the National Assessment for Educational Progress (NAEP), Kentucky ranks in a tie at 11th place from the top, while California ranks way down at 46th place.
So, Kentucky’s education system ‘whups’ California, right?
Well, maybe not. Let’s look a bit deeper.
First of all, let’s start with a clearly worded caution that appeared in older NAEP Report Cards such as on Page 13 in the 2005 NAEP Reading Report Card:
“In comparing states to one another, it is important to consider that overall averages do not take into account the different demographics of the states’ student populations.”
That caution isn’t so clearly stated in the 2009 NAEP Reading Report Card, but the intent and the problem still exist:
“Further, the many factors that may influence average student achievement scores also change over time. These include educational policies and practices, the quality of teachers, available resources, and the demographic characteristics of the student body.”
Keeping these cautions in mind, here is a breakout of the demographics for Kentucky and California on the 2009 NAEP. I put this graph together using data from the NAEP Data Explorer tool.
I don’t show two other categories, American Indian and Unclassified, as there are only trace numbers of students in those groups in both states.
When you look at the percentages of the different racial groups in the NAEP 2009 fourth grade reading samples, the disparity between California and Kentucky is striking. Kentucky is overwhelmingly populated by high scoring whites, while in California the majority of the students are lower scoring Hispanics.
Now here are the data on the reading proficiency rate (students scoring at or above NAEP “Proficient” (Again, assembled with the NAEP Data Explorer, though you can find this in the new Report Card, as well). 
Right away, when we compare the only two racial groups that are consistently present in both states, we find that California’s whites tied Kentucky’s whites and California’s black students actually scored a bit higher than Kentucky’s blacks.
Suddenly, Kentucky’s really high overall rank and California’s really low rank don’t seem so revealing, do they? If we only look at the two racial groups where both states have notable populations, California actually would outscore Kentucky thanks to their slightly better black performance.
Thursday, March 25, 2010
Principal hiring must have more superintendent input
Since 2004 the rules in Kentucky have been chaotic. School superintendents basically lost control, becoming little more than employment search agencies for the all-powerful School Based Decision Making Councils (SBDM). It’s a mistake we’ve discussed before, such as here.
Now, more people are coming to our point of view.
The latest to sign on for a return to a more rational principal hiring policy is the editorial staff at the Lexington Herald-Leader.
Another recent convert is Bill Lamb from FOX-41.
Education Week on NAEPs exclusion situation
I’m not the only one raising questions about uneven exclusion rates in the National Assessment of Educational Progress for students with learning disabilities.
Education Week’s Catherine Gewertz raises the issue in her March 25, 2010 blog item titled “Exclusion Rates in NAEP: A Pot Still Simmering.” You may have to scroll down a bit to find this as that blog gets more posts.
As Ms. Gewertz writes, the exclusion issue is indeed still simmering, and Kentucky has been at the epicenter of the discussion since 1999. At that time, I wrote a rather detailed paper about the situation. Using simple statistical analysis techniques, I found that the changes in exclusion that occurred in Kentucky and several other states could have resulted in score inflation that ran somewhere between slightly more than half a NAEP Scale Score point for each one percent increase in exclusion to as much as a full NAEP point for each one percent exclusion increase. In Kentucky’s case, where the exclusion rate reportedly rose from 4 percent of the raw sample to 10 percent between 1994 and 1998, there was evidence in the regression that all of the state’s six point score rise might have been due to nothing more than the exclusion rate change.
With NAEP reading score increases running all but flat, those exclusion-based score problems could be important.
Taxpayers' anger the only thing being stimulated
About the only thing being stimulated by the "stimulus funding" is taxpayers' anger.
Click here to listen to the 90-second audio commentary.
Thursday Links...
Here are some links for this Thursday! Enjoy!
- New education portal on FreedomKentucky.org! We have revamped the hub of education information on our government transparency site. Click on the "Research" link and instantly find a wide variety of original research about state testing, teacher's unions, and achievement gaps. Take a look!
- An interesting documentary that discusses citizens rights when encountering the police...
- The Kentucky Freedom Digest continues to keep an eye on policymakers, double-standards, and accountability in the Commonwealth. Check out their site!
- The Cato Institute discusses how attention will be turned to environmental issues in the aftermath of the Healthcare legislation.
Kentucky’s 2009 NAEP reading performance – is it credible?
I raised some questions yesterday about Kentucky’s fourth grade reading performance in the newly released 2009 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) Reading Report Card.
Today, I’m going to point out some more issues, this time focused on the state’s eighth grade results.
This graph shows results from the two most recent NAEP eighth grade reading assessments and the corresponding test results from Kentucky’s 100 percent testing of all eighth grade students with the EXPLORE Reading Assessment from the ACT, Incorporated. 
Notice in the graph that Kentucky showed virtually no change in the percentage of students reaching or exceeding the EXPLORE Benchmark score between the 2006-07 and 2008-09 school terms.
In sharp contrast, Kentucky’s reading performance on the NAEP experienced a very notable five point rise in the same time interval.
Very simply, these notably different results raise questions about the 2009 NAEP scoring.
It should be pointed out that the EXPLORE test frameworks and scoring did not change, to my knowledge, during the time interval shown in the graph.
In sharp contrast, the NAEP reading assessment was changed in 2009 as explained by this quote from the 2009 NAEP Reading Report Card:
“The Reading Framework for the 2009 National Assessment of Educational Progress replaces the framework first used for the 1992 reading assessment and then for subsequent reading assessments through 2007. Compared to the previous framework, the 2009 reading framework includes more emphasis on literary and informational texts, a redefinition of reading cognitive processes, a new systematic assessment of vocabulary knowledge, and the addition of poetry to grade 4” (Page 4).
While the 2009 NAEP Reading Report Card goes on to claim that the 2009 results can be compared to prior year’s results, the Kentucky EXPLORE and NAEP comparison shown in the graph above raises questions about that assertion.
Clearly, the disparity between Kentucky’s NAEP and EXPLORE reading performance invites further investigation of the 2009 NAEP scoring. The situation also raises concerns about the validity of the 2009 rise in Kentucky’s NAEP scores in grade eight.
Furthermore, if the NAEP frameworks were changed in ways that impacted the trend lines for eighth grade, a similar problem could exist in grade four, as well. Unfortunately, ACT does not offer a companion EPAS test for that level.
Wednesday, March 24, 2010
Kentucky’s new NAEP reading results look good
Maybe too good
The new National Assessment of Educational Progress results for the 2009 reading assessment were released today, and Kentucky’s overall performance really looks good.
We were the only state in the nation to post a statistically significant score increase in both fourth and eighth grade (NAEP does not report on state high school reading performance).
But, the results almost look TOO good.
For example, this map, found on page 13 in the new NAEP Reading Report Card, shows only one other state, Rhode Island, also made statistically significant progress in fourth grade reading since 2007.
This looks like a great performance for Kentucky.
But, hold on. All states have been pushing reading hard since No Child Left Behind was enacted in 2001. Can it really be that hardly any of them are making progress?
Furthermore, this table, which is extracted from a larger table found on page 14 in the Report Card, shows something that seems to conflict with what the map shows for Kentucky.
While Kentucky supposedly had an overall statistically significant score increase, neither the white nor the black fourth graders in the Bluegrass State made statistically detectable progress.
How is that possible?
Notice that in both Washington DC and Rhode Island, the only other places where reading progress supposedly was made, at least one racial group made progress. Not so in Kentucky. Strange, that.
The answer here may be due to some statistical sampling issues. Those statistical rules require larger score changes before statistical significance can be established when sampled groups are smaller.
However, with whites comprising 84 percent of the 2009 sample tested in Kentucky (Report Card, Page 52), it seems like if the overall scores made a statistically significant rise, then the whites should have a statistically detectable increase as well.
The fact that this didn’t happen makes me wonder if something unusual is happening in this NAEP scores report.
There is another curious thing. Overall, Kentucky’s average fourth grade reading proficiency rate on the NAEP was reported as 36 percent, while the national average proficiency rate was only 32 percent. However, when the disaggregated proficiency rates for whites and blacks are examined, things look quite different. Both Kentucky’s whites and blacks scored LOWER than their peers across the nation. Go figure!
There are some other issues in the new data that may make Kentucky’s accomplishment a little less impressive.
For example, our exclusion rate for students with learning disabilities, once again, was well above the national average. That tends to inflate our scores because these particular students can be expected to score very low if they were to take the NAEP. Their exclusion abnormally raises our scores compared to other states.
In Kentucky, fully seven percent of all the students the NAEP wanted to test were ultimately excluded because they were determined to be too disabled to sit for a reading test. Across the nation, the exclusion rate for learning disabled students was only four percent, a decrease of one point from 2007. Kentucky’s exclusion rate was seven percent in 2007, as well.
Anyway, NAEP analysis has gotten quite involved, and simplistic examination of overall scores which some others like to engage in can be highly misleading. I’ll be looking at this some more, so stay tuned.
KERA leaves 786,100 Kentucky students behind
Kentucky middle-school students lost much ground in mathematics since KERA was enacted.
Click here to read the latest Bluegrass Bullets article
New FCC broadband plan: Downloading diminishing freedom for Kentucky citizens, businesses
Just where does the fed appetite to control and take over our private sector end? Not at your computer, apparently.
A long-awaited plan on broadband Internet connections announced March 15 by the Federal Communications Commission signals government interference in the private sector is about to grow.
President Obama now appears poised to apply his spread-the-wealth philosophy in ways that will create yet another bureaucracy to "redistribute" our Internet capability.
Want to pay $56,000 per home to ensure that folks without broadband can get broadband that’s as fast as the FCC’s broadband planners have decided they deserve?
The government announcement sounds innocent.
But not everyone agrees.
According to the plan's executive summary, big government control -- instead of freedom and entrepreneurship -- will be stimulated.
The Internet Freedom Coalition has credible perspective to counter the innocent government spin.
Jerry Ellig, a senior research fellow at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University, challenges that providing Internet access to Americans not currently online can be accomplished without a broken bank or government takeover.
This is nothing more than another federal initiative being downloaded to strike at the heart of more Kentucky freedoms and businesses.
Tuesday, March 23, 2010
Quote of the Day: What Would Jefferson Say?
“The care of human life and happiness, and not their destruction, is the first and only object of good government.” --Thomas JeffersonI wonder how "death panels" jibe with "the care of human life and happiness, and not their destruction."
Bill to raise minimum dropout age advances, slowly
WAVE-3 reports that House Bill 301, which will raise the minimum high school dropout age in Kentucky, passed the Kentucky Senate Education Committee today, but not until it was amended to delay implementation of the higher age requirements by a year.
Now, the age won’t rise from 16 to 17 until 2015, and it won’t rise to the final 18-year-old point until a year afterwards.
While I am not sure that this bill is the right answer to the state’s dropout problem, I am very confident that the real number of dropouts is much higher than the “official” number of 6,500 which the WAVE-3 item mentions.
The state’s dropout reporting was officially audited in 2006 and found to seriously under-report the true number of dropouts.
Other, more credible calculations, which center on high school graduation rates, not dropouts, indicate Kentucky understates the true number of dropouts by somewhere around 60 to 100 percent.
Next year, the Kentucky Department of Education will drop its current, inaccurate dropout reporting and switch to a better graduation rate formula for school accountability. The data will get better still around 2013 when our new student tracking data system called Infinite Campus is supposed to be on line long enough to support really high grade reports.
BIPPS take environmental liberty to the airwaves
A preview of the Bluegrass Institute's Capitol Briefing on environmental issues will air this afternoon on "Drive Time" on 930 WKCT-AM, Bowling Green's news-talk station.
Paul Chesser, special correspondent for the Heartland Institute, who is speaking at a Bluegrass Institute legislative forum on Wednesday in Room 113 of the Capitol Annex in Frankfort at 11:15 a.m. (RSVP here to attend), will address a radical climate change panel that has come to Kentucky and is operated and funded by environmental extremists.
The show is hosted by Chad Young and is streamed live here.
Chesser will also appear on "KY. GrassRoots Radio" from 7:30 to 8 p.m. tonight. Listen here. The show is hosted by Matt Singleton, Clint Hardy and David Caldwell.
Monday, March 22, 2010
Will Kentucky lawmakers keep their oath to preserve the Constitution, protect their constituents?
Brooke Rollins, President & CEO of the Texas Public Policy Foundation made this prediction regarding Sunday's assault on Americans' freedom via health care legislation in Washington:
"The president and congressional leaders have said they know better than the American
public—dismissing public opposition in the name of socializing our health care
system, betting that the public will support their efforts once the bill has passed.
But they are wrong and will quickly see that they have stirred an anger that will
only grow, as people recognize their freedoms are slipping away."
Rollins may be right. But Kentucky legislators should take no chances.
A proposal in the Kentucky House to protect citizens from federal government health care and insurance mandates has been stuck in the Banking and Insurance Committee since Jan. 26.
Now, just after the big-government goons in Washington beat up liberty and freedom, would be an opportune time for Kentucky lawmakers to preserve the Constitution they swore to uphold and defend the constituents they pledged to protect.
Of course, Washington's ruling thugs long ago trashed the Tenth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution they swore to uphold. And the wishes of their constituents? They were never considered.
Fired principal files appeal
As expected, Peggy Petrilli, the principal who was removed under highly questionable circumstances from the Booker T. Washington Academy in Fayette County in 2007 has filed an appeal to her original lawsuit.
As we reported, the Kentucky Department of Education just returned a decision concerning allegations from Petrilli's school district that she cheated on CATS tests. The department found the evidence lacking to support such charges and has closed the case.
Armed with this new evidence along with a large number of lingering questions about the conduct of her first trial, Petrilli now goes forward with her lawsuit.
Latest details in the Herald-Leader here.
(Updated 23 Mar 10 at 09:55 AM)
More questions raised about the Race to the Top related audits
WBKO.com is carrying the latest set of questions about some of the ten schools that were recently officially tagged for school audits that may have real consequences for schools.
The two schools complaining to WBKO are both considered “Non-Title 1 Schools” under the criteria used by the new Race to the Top formula adopted by the Kentucky legislature in January. That means they get relatively little federal support money from the federal Title 1 program. In other words, these are not high poverty schools by Kentucky standards.
That leads to a further discussion about why we are going to spend a lot of extra money in these two schools over the next three years – $1.5 million each – while other, clearly lower-performing schools won’t get a dime.
Curious?
Click the “Read More” link to see some schools that won’t get a dime but definitely should be ahead of Caverna and Metcalfe if we are going to spent big bucks to turn around only a few schools.
Kentucky Supreme Court rules in favor of government transparency
Three years ago the Campbellsville Independent and Taylor County school districts tried to hide the details of a lawsuit they lost involving a teacher who had sued for wrongful termination. At the time of the trial, the court sealed the records.
Now, the Central Kentucky News-Journal reports those school districts had no right to prevent the public from learning the cost of their management transgressions.
Says the News-Journal:
"In this case, two school boards signed agreements to keep settlement information in two lawsuits secret, but the court said that they were wrong in doing that because the public's right to know that information was more important than the school boards' agreement to keep things secret."
This case is expected to have statewide impact as public school operations often attempt to maintain secrecy about some of their operations, especially in cases of embarrassment. The Kentucky Supreme Court rightly pointed out that this is both misguided and out of place in our society.
According Ashley Pack of the Dinsmore & Shohl law firm in Louisville, who was one of the attorney’s who pushed for the open-the-records ruling:
"When public agencies settle lawsuits, the work they are doing is without question the public's business and the public has a strong right to know about it."
We couldn’t agree more.
Reading gap between boys and girls larger in Kentucky than other states
It was no surprise to us, but the print version of the Sunday Kentucky Enquirer just ran a front-page teaser along with a full article about a new study from the Center on Education Policy (CEP) that shows the reading gap for boys versus girls is larger here than in other states. You can read an on line version here.
Unfortunately, the data used in this CEP study comes from each individual state’s assessment program, so there is the possibility that unintended sex-related bias in some states’ assessments could impact the results.
However, it is now easy to assemble reading scores by sex from the National Assessment of Educational Progress with the NAEP Data Explorer tool. 
This test is now uniformly given in all 50 states, so any biases will at least be equally applied across all the test takers.
I looked at the most recently available NAEP reading results for fourth grade reading, which are for 2007. It turns out that among the 50 states and Washington, DC, Kentucky ranks near the very top with its 8.40 point gap, among the largest reading gaps between boys and girls of any state (Note: You can click on the figure to expand it)
Only five states had a larger NAEP Scale Score gap than Kentucky did. Just five states.
On a proficiency rate basis, 37 percent of Kentucky’s females scored “Proficient or Above” on the national assessment while only 30 percent of our boys achieved comparable performance.
We’ll take a further look after the new National Assessment of Educational Progress reading results for 2009 are released on Wednesday.
And, we’ll keep an eye on this clear problem that still exists after 20 years of KERA.
Sunday, March 21, 2010
ACT Science Benchmark Scores Correspond Well to Degree Awards in Kentucky
It’s been four years since Senate Bill -130 from the 2006 Regular Legislative Session brought us quality tests from the ACT, Incorporated – EXPLORE for eighth grade students, PLAN for tenth graders and complete testing of all eleventh grade students with the ACT college entrance test.
One of the nice features of the new tests is that they offer “Benchmark Scores.” Reaching those scores indicate a student has relatively good odds of passing the first related college course.
Those ACT Benchmarks were not created out of thin air. They were developed from a canvass of colleges that use the ACT to determine which score best corresponded to a 50 percent chance of getting a “B” and a 75 percent chance of getting a “C” in the first related college course. The ACT Benchmarks certainly look like credible indicators, ones which students and parents should carefully consider while considering that some colleges are more demanding, and some less, than the average performance requirements represented by the Benchmarks.
Recently, an education advocacy group has raised questions about the ACT Benchmarks. I thought that group’s analysis wasn’t well done; so, I have been looking at what is going on.
I first determined the number of high school graduates who scored at or above the ACT Science Benchmark score of 24. Then, I compared that to the sum of the Associates degrees and Bachelors’ degrees in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) awarded to the same group of students. For my comparison, I added the number of Associates degrees awarded two years after the class graduated from high school to the number of Bachelors’ degrees awarded four years after the group graduated from high school.
Here is what I found.
As you can see, the agreement between ACT Science Benchmark performance and the later award of STEM degrees is quite good. The difference of about 800 students or so each year amounts to only around 10 percent of the number of STEM degrees awarded.
As education statistics go, this is a very good correspondence, especially when you consider that the ACT Benchmark is only intended to indicate a student’s likelihood of passing the first freshman biology course, not how likely the student is to do all the other work required to get a STEM-area degree.
By the way, the STEM degree award totals above include only those graduates from public colleges who are from Kentucky. I eliminated the degree awards to foreign and out-of-state students. Even so, the degree award numbers in the graph are still a bit too high because the Kentucky Council on Postsecondary Education, which is where I got the degree data, does not have information on the number of STEM degrees the independent colleges in Kentucky award to out of state and foreign students.
I need to mention that my analysis is far from ideal. The best way to do this sort of study is with high accuracy longitudinal data that tracks each student through the educational system. Unfortunately, a system that could support such detailed studies is only now being created in Kentucky. Thus, the analysis above is probably about the best we’ll see for some years to come.
In any event, despite what you may have read recently elsewhere, it looks like the ACT Science Benchmark provides valuable information for Kentucky’s students. The information even has a surprisingly good correspondence to the later award of STEM degrees.
Certainly, the 2006 legislation that brought 100 percent testing of all our students with the ACT’s EPAS system, including EXPLORE for the eighth grade, PLAN for the tenth grade, and the ACT itself for all eleventh grade students was a major advance for Kentucky.
Without question, the data from these tests look far more valuable than anything parents, students and teachers ever got from our old CATS assessment.
Friday, March 19, 2010
Bill to give school superintendents more say in principal hiring is back on
Surprise move in Senate yesterday has teachers union hopping mad
The Kentucky Senate’s Education Committee meeting yesterday must have been fun to watch (KET didn’t cover it for some reason).
In a surprise move, a proposal to once again give school superintendents some real control over the principals in their schools was tagged on to another piece of legislation.
Read about the details here.
This legislation is badly needed. KERA just about destroyed all the control our local superintendents and locally elected school boards had over the important things that go on in schools like curriculum selection, school-level spending decisions and principal selection. After a 2004 court decision, it was even possible for a superintendent to fire a principal and have the school based decision making council turn right around and rehire the same person as principal again!
It’s been madness – no one in the school system can be held accountable. The local board and the superintendents really can’t – they lost all authority to make changes. The teachers on the site base councils mostly have tenure, so they can’t be fired. And, thanks to the ill-advised court decision – a bad principal who appeases his staff can be beyond accountability, as well.
So, bring on the Senate bill, but watch the fur fly as the Kentucky House, which is under the thumb of the teachers union, squawks back.
While other states race to act on health care protection legislation, Kentuckys hope is still in the paddock
Legislation is pending in 36 states to limit a federal health care bill's impact outside Washington. The intent is to limit, alter or oppose selected state or federal actions, including single-payer provisions and mandates that require citizens to purchase health insurance.
Idaho and Virginia lead the way with plans to sue the federal government if Congress passes an intrusive health care bill like the current proposal.
Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli II issued a very clear letter to Speaker Nancy Pelosi in which he warns: "Should you employ the deem and pass tactic, you expose any act which may pass to yet another constitutional challenge."
Concerned Kentucky lawmakers have introduced House Bill 307, which contains the Bluegrass State's version of a hard-hitting warning. However, the current legislative leaders are unlikely to even give the bill a hearing -- unless they hear from enough concerned citizens who are likely to vote in the next election.
All the shenanigans associated with the federal bill dictate the time is now for House leaders to let our representatives vote to protect their constituents. The feds don't care what happens to Kentuckians, but that's the top priority of the people's representatives in Frankfort.
Thursday, March 18, 2010
Kentucky Supreme Court rules, sort of, in online seizure case
Gov. Beshear (as if he'd didn't have more pressing matters) tried last year to seize the Internet domain names of 141 Web sites, deeming them illegal because they provide a beaten path to online gambling sites.
While it's not sound policy to base economic revival on citizens losing their hat, the greater concern in the issue at hand is government trampling on our constitutionally protected private-property rights. As I asked in a recent Bluegrass Beacon column: "Once the government starts down this path, where will it end?"
Methinks the governor wasn't nearly as concerned about the gambling issue as he was using government's power to clamp down on competition for Kentucky's sites. If not, then why were Kentucky based online gaming sites, including www.twinspires.com (Churchill Downs Inc.'s Web site), left off the government's seizure list?
The Kentucky Court of Appeals ruled 2-1 against the government, which then continued to waste taxpayers' resources by appealing to the state Supreme Court. In a technical ruling Thursday, the high court threw out the petition to block the state from seizing the domain names ... but on technical grounds: none of the owners of the domain names showed up in court.
While this action opens the door for the commonwealth to refile seizure orders, legal experts are betting that -- based on the written opinion of the court, which indicates agreement with the private-property arguments -- when an owner shows up at court, that will be the end of the state's seizure attempt.
In a recent column celebrating the Court of Appeals' reversal of the state's decision, I wrote a statement that still seems relevant: "Gov. Steve Beshear apparently thinks the state can ignore the private property rights and due process of the owners of these domain names."
Thursday Links!
Here are some interesting links for this Thursday...
- Milton Friedman discusses Libertarianism and the idea that no one takes care of property better than the person who owns it.
- The Cato Institute provides a lot of information about healthcare reform.
- Looking for a way to make a difference? Want to contribute you knowledge, speak your mind?
Kentucky’s legislators sitting around waiting to see if crushing federal legislation really hurts
It's clear. Washington power players are intent on passing a health care bill regardless of public opinion, fact or consequences.
Wednesday, March 17, 2010
Are the 10 schools selected for school improvement audits and grants the right ones?
Now, 10 schools are being held to account for their 2009 and earlier KCCT scores.
This unexpected action has generated a lot of questions. Today, I’m going to explore that further using this table.
(Click on Table to Enlarge)
The table summarizes test results for the 10 schools in question. It includes the latest KCCT reading and mathematics proficiency rates in each school and the most recent Composite Score averages from 11th grade testing with the ACT college entrance test.
All schools are ranked for performance against the same level schools (middle or high) on the KCCT and the high schools are additionally ranked for their ACT performance.
I also show the latest NCLB status for each school based on whether it was a “Title 1 school” (Those receive appreciable federal funding) or not. Non-Title 1 schools don’t receive a formal NCLB Tier classification in Kentucky but can be classified by the number of years they failed to reach the NCLB Annual Yearly Progress goals.
As you review the rankings, you will note that there are gaps in both the KCCT and the ACT rankings. In other words, some schools that are not on this list performed even more poorly in 2009 than those that are.
How can that be?
Climate panel: A quiet, but costly, ruse
A new global warming-alarmist group has set up shop in Kentucky. If the Kentucky Climate Action Plan Council has its way, Kentuckians will pay higher prices for energy and lose more of their freedoms. Click here to listen to the 90-second audio commentary.
Note: Be sure to join the Bluegrass Institute's Capitol Briefing luncheon on March 24 at the Capitol Annex for more information on the threat this group poses, as well as the latest on the promise of nuclear power and clean coal technology to help keep Kentucky's energy prices low. For more information and to RSVP (required) for this event, please click here.
Kentucky's education system: All noise, no impact
Campus "Housing Gate" 2010 is getting ridiculous. Is this a joke?
In a recent LFCUG council meeting, the city council approved 4 of the 7 proposed measures to redefine what property owners can do with their property in Fayette County. The four measures defined such things as boarding houses, congregate living, and fraternity and sorority houses.
But, as the Lexington-Herald Leader pointed out, the most contentious measures have yet to be decided - most notably redefining family and functional family. A functional family, according to this measure, would be anymore than four people unrelated by blood living in the same house. This definition probably affects more student housing than anyone realizes. In order to have four or more unrelated people living together, this "functional family" would need to apply for a conditional use permit.
Let me paint a picture for you:
Joe College is moving in with his buddies in some off campus housing. Everyone works and is in school full time so they want to keep their rent low by getting five guys to live together. Joe learns that in order to do this, he needs a conditional use permit. Yes that's right, Joe has to get permission from the LFUCG to rent a place to live while he is in school and paying incredibly high out of state tuition.
So Joe and his buddies go to the next Board of Adjustment hearing which is held the last Friday of every month. When Joe and his friends get ready to make their case in front of this panel for why they should be able to rent a space to live, they see that they are on camera. Yes that's right. These meetings are televised on GTV3, public access television where everyone in the Fayette County area can watch Joe and his buddies plea with the city to live together.
How embarrassing. How many college students do you know that have the time, money, and willingness to plead in front of city officials for a living space? This isn't right.
Give me a break.
Health care process can deliver a crushing blow to our Constitution
Instead, the House would then vote only once on the reconciliation corrections, but not on the underlying Senate bill. If those reconciliation corrections pass, the self-executing rule would say that the Senate bill is presumptively approved by the House—even without a formal up-or-down vote on the actual words of the Senate bill.
Tuesday, March 16, 2010
Is school accountability finally at hand?
Audit of 10 schools raises as many questions as answers
Last Friday, the Courier-Journal reported that 10 schools across Kentucky, including six in Jefferson County, were undergoing “Leadership Audits.” The article said the audits, “Could result in major restructuring, including replacing the staff or closing the school.” The article reported that this was a result of a new law, House Bill 176. That bill was rushed through the legislature in January 2010.
Back in mid-January when HB-176 and a supporting emergency regulation were passed, Kentucky Department of Education News Release 10-004 clearly stated that designation of schools as “persistently low-performing” under the new act’s rules would not start until after this coming spring’s Kentucky Core Content Testing was complete and released to the public sometime this summer. Thus, the sanctions in the act would not begin prior to that time.
Thus, the confusion began.
Washington's March 'health care madness' game really stinks
President Obama tells Kentuckians the time for talk is over on health care is over.
John Fleming, R-La., a family physician elected to Congress in 2008, analyzes the White House health care summit and says he's shocked at the way the Obama administration has ignored others' input.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., says we have to pass the bill so that you can find out what's in it. What? NO! We have to live with it. Understanding comes before voting in the real world.
And Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., responded to David Axelrod, President Obama's top political advisor, on ABC News: “The American people are getting tired of this crap."
Graham got it right. The details go on the table under the bright lights and the spin goes where the lights don’t shine.
The consequences and impact on Kentuckians of this Washington March madness game played with the mouth and in the dark is sickening.
Evidence lacking that fired school principal cheated on tests
Our new analysis indicates cheating didn’t happen and the firing was a bad mistake for kids
The Herald-Leader reports Kentucky Commissioner of Education Terry Holliday recently issued a letter (confirmed elsewhere as on February 1, 2010) concerning the official investigation that fired Booker T. Washington Academy Principal Peggy Petrilli cheated on CATS assessments.
Holliday’s letter says there wasn’t enough evidence to establish the charges, and the investigation has been closed.
The letter has been posted by another blogger but the story goes deeper than coverage there or in the paper.
For one thing, the most recent state test results tend to bolster Petrilli’s case that she not only didn’t cheat at Booker T, but rather she actually produced remarkable progress at this very troubled school. Furthermore, she did it within two years of taking over.
(Source: Kentucky Performance Reports and Interim Performance Reports for Booker T. Washington)
Prior to Petrilli’s assignment to Booker T. Washington in the 2005-2006 school year, this elementary school had very low and unsteady performance in the key Kentucky Core Content Test subjects of reading, math, science, social studies, and on-demand writing. The year prior to Petrilli’s arrival at the school, proficiency rates declined in every subject but math, which remained flat from the previous year. By any measure, this was a very troubled school when Petrilli was asked to go in and turn it around.
Once Peggy Petrilli arrived, the school’s performance solidly changed. Proficiency rates rose notably during her two years at the helm.
Even after she was fired, there appears to have been a “Petrilli Halo Effect” in the subjects of writing and math, which continued to show improvement for another year.
This halo effect is significant. It is highly unlikely that halo effect would be present if Petrilli had been cheating. Instead, all scores should have fallen dramatically right after her departure.
Sadly, by 2009, the halo effect ended as all scores in Booker T. Washington declined.
Furthermore, some unfortunate issues are surfacing about the formal investigation.
Overspending, high tax rates: Two sides of the same budget coin
'Tax reform' must be accompanied by 'spending reform' to balance the budget.
Click here to read the latest Bluegrass Bullets.
Drew Carey: School Choice 'rocks' Cleveland
Actor Drew Carey shot to fame with his nine-year sitcom “The Drew Carey Show,” which allowed him to express his love for Cleveland. “Cleveland Rocks” was the show’s theme song.
Carey has now taken that affinity for “The Cleve” – a nickname for the city from another TV show, “30 Rock” to a more important realm than sitcom city by focusing on how school choice is changing the lives of children in one of the poorest urban areas in one of the poorest big cities in the nation.
In fact, it's not just about changing lives, it's about "saving lives," said Lyman Miller, development director for Citizens' Academy, a K-5 charter school in inner-city Cleveland.
Not only is Citizens' Academy outperforming nonminority students in other parts of the Buckeye State, but it's doing so while receiving $5,000 less per pupil than its neighboring traditional public schools.
It's not possible for such a school to exist in Kentucky right now, because educrats and their self-serving politicos in the Legislature have gone to the mat to prevent charter schools that would offer similar help to the commonwealth's inner-city kids.
Neighboring Ohio, meanwhile, has 332 charter schools.
Yet while some things are different, the obstacles to growing school choice in Ohio are the same as in Kentucky: "politically powerful teachers unions are resistant to change," says Reason.tv's Nick Gillespie.
Even if that change "saves" children's lives? Yup.
Monday, March 15, 2010
Corbin-Knox fight going to the next level
The dispute over the Knox County Public School District’s summary cancellation of a long-standing student transfer agreement has been an on-going discussion item here for months.
The latest news is that a recent decision from Kentucky Commissioner of Education Terry Holliday to freeze any further transfers is unacceptable to the Corbin Independent School District. The district’s local board voted late last week to appeal to the next level, the Kentucky Board of Education. If that appeal fails, it looks likely that this will elevate further to the courts.
This dispute could have implications that stretch far beyond the South-central area of Kentucky. School choice advocates from Louisville already declared common cause with the Knox and Corbin parents who want their long-standing school choice option to remain in force.
Playing fast and loose with federal education money
The Kentucky School Boards Association reports that Kentucky Commissioner of Education Terry Holliday will ask the Kentucky Board of Education to delay Kentucky Core Content Testing into late May. Holliday will do this even if the US Department of Education does not approve the inevitable late delivery of resulting test scores, which are used for No Child Left Behind accountability. It would also mean that, once again, schools will get scores back way too late to do anything intelligent with them to improve instructional programs next year.
Certainly, the problem of lost school days in some school systems is a serious problem, but we ran into the same issue last year and failed to learn a lesson from that.
Because no compensating plans were made after last year’s tests were delayed, our testing company still doesn’t have the slack to accommodate the testing shift and complete scoring on time.
It remains to be seen what the feds will do. If the feds decide that we should have planned better this year, one option would be to cut Kentucky’s federal education funds support. Given the condition of the state’s economy, that could really hurt.
Daily News gets it right – House leader’s partisan pork barreling hurts kids
If you haven’t already heard, Kentucky House Speaker Greg Stumbo threatened all the state’s representatives with loss of local school building projects if they didn’t vote for his bad idea budget that burdens the state’s most financially stressed businesses with even more economic stress at this highly inopportune time.
Under the speaker’s misguided bully tactic, even if a legislator had some of the states worst condition schools in his district, school construction money would go elsewhere, to less needy school systems.
Now, the Daily News in Bowling Green has called the speaker out.
The newspaper also asks a great question: if we are really interested in doing school construction right, how come the state isn’t suspending the expensive prevailing wage law that drives up school construction costs dramatically?
Good Question.
Bad Speaker.
Believe it - even Kentucky sovereignty is held hostage in committee
Rep. Stan Lee, R-Lexington, rates a prime time interview on "Freedom Watch" with Judge Andrew Napolitano on Fox News concerning Kentucky's sovereignty. But Lee's resolution reaffirming Kentucky's sovereignty is being denied an up-or-down vote in the state House of Representatives on declaring it.
Monday links
Here are some links to check out this Monday. Enjoy!
- StimulusWatch.org - This is a great tool that tracks stimulus projects with a description of the project, location, amount, etc... It also is interactive as it allows for users to edit what they know about the projects as well as leave comments.
- Washington Knows Best - Don Boudreaux of George Mason University wrote a letter to the New York times about government-imposed national standards for education.
- Sunshine Review Blog - A great blog by the folks behind the Sunshine Review project. This blog discusses transparency as a national trend.
- School Choice Portal - FreedomKentucky's growing portal for information on school choice portal.
Tired of promoting political campaigns?
You know what I'm tired of? Political campaign slogans and advertisements. It doesn't really matter who it is, we continually hear promises and attacks from all parties involved.
I've been asked countless times if I would be interested in having a yard sign or a bumper sticker for various political candidates. The answer is a consistent, clear, and resounding "No". I would much rather see people driving around town promoting good policy rather than a person who will more than likely get caught up in the political machine after a while.
What a message it would send if voters decided that rather than have a bumper sticker on their car that said "Vote for Joe Politician in 2010" they wanted a sticker that said "Fiscal Responsibility in 2010". Now that's a sticker I would put on my car.
But that's just me.
If you want one of these stickers leave a comment below. There is an email address in the comment section where we can be contacted.
Sunday, March 14, 2010
Costs of Kentuckys weak public education system are going up
On February 25, 2010 Dr. Michael B. McCall, the president of the Kentucky Community and Technical College System (KCTCS) made an eye-catching presentation to the Kentucky Senate’s Education Committee.
Among other things, Dr. McCall pointed to the huge percentage of students entering the KCTCS who are underprepared and need at least one non-credit-bearing remedial course. Using this figure, McCall pointed out that more than three out of four KCTCS entering students need at least one remedial course – a staggering indictment of the output of our public schools.
The cost of this remediation is enormous, and students will bear the vast majority of that cost, as the next figure from Dr. McCall shows.
In the 2010-11 school year, student tuition for non-credit remedial courses is projected to run $19.0 million. Additional costs of more than $10 million will be borne by taxpayers and organizations providing grants and other money.
One year later, that cost to fix the deficiencies from our pubic education system will rise by another $1.5 million.
It should be pointed out that the numbers in the second figure represent phenomenal increases from earlier remedial costs that were being discussed only a few years ago. Back then, the entire cost for remedial courses for both the KCTCS and our 4-year universities combined was listed at $25 million, and tuition only accounted for about $12.5 million of that amount. Now, the tuition costs alone for just the KCTCS are anticipated to be over 50 percent higher than the total tuition costs for all the state’s two- and four-year colleges ran just a couple of years ago.
Recently, it was reported that overall remedial costs for the entire system including the four-year schools runs around $35 million.
Furthermore, the colleges are tightening standards next year, which will probably result in a lot more students requiring remedial courses, further boosting the costs of failure in our public schools system.
The good news here is that the Senate Education Committee is clearly keeping and eye on what is going on, but the bad news is our public school system clearly has a lot to do to turn these very bad numbers around so kids in the current cash-strapped economy don’t have to pay twice for something the taxpayer already paid for while the students were in public schools.
Saturday, March 13, 2010
Virginia not following Kentucky’s mad rush to the Common Core Education Standards
Kentucky may have rushed to adopt the Common Core Standards before they were even finalized (that won’t happen before April, or maybe even May at the current rate of progress), but other states which already have good standards are showing increasing reluctance to follow our brave, but perhaps dubious, lead.
Back in January we noted that hesitancy with the Common Core Standards has appeared in Massachusetts.
That is a significant development because most education observers consider Massachusetts’ current standards to be the best in the nation. The Massachusetts standards already have an enviable track record which includes the state’s top-in-the-nation performance on all recent National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) testing.
Now, people in Virginia are concerned that their very excellent Virginia Standards of Learning (SOL) may also be much better than the Common Core Standards.
By the way, there is good support for the SOL outside of Virginia. Thanks to that good reputation, we featured a comparison of the SOL-based tests in Virginia and our now defunct CATS tests in our “Assessing CATS: Questions that must be answered so that No Child is Left Behind in Kentucky” report back in 2004.
The latest NAEP reading results indicate our impressions of the SOL remain on target. We’ve heard an awful lot about how great Kentucky is doing in NAEP reading, but the facts are that on the 2007 NAEP fourth grade reading, Virginia’s white students outscored our whites, 233 versus 225. Virginia’s blacks outscored our fourth grade blacks in reading as well, 213 versus 203. A quick scan indicates only one state exceeded Virginia for black student performance in that assessment, by the way. So, the SOL are working for minorities, as well. Thus, it looks like Virginia may have some really good reasons to hold on to what it has already with its SOL.
I need to note that it appears both Virginia and Massachusetts educators have relayed their concerns to the team creating the Common Core Standards. The final version of the Common Core Standards certainly could benefit from that input.
However, if that doesn’t happen, it looks like states that already have solid education standards may not be reluctant to jump off the final Common Core team.
Friday, March 12, 2010
Facts on trade tax the common sense of politicians
It makes no 'cents' for the United States to withdraw from trade agreements during an economic downturn.
America needs more trade, not less.
Click here to read the latest Bluegrass Beacon column.
Friday links!
Here are some links to brighten your Friday!
- Special needs education portal - We have begun to gather a lot of helpful information about special needs education in Kentucky. There is some good stuff there already but it is under construction, so stay tuned for a lot more to be added!
- ConservaChick - This is a great Kentuckiana blog about policy and politics.
- LFUCG rewriting the dictionary.
- If you are reading this blog and you like coffee, you probably need this mug.
Thursday, March 11, 2010
KY budget chair didn't find enough rocks
Sen. Damon Thayer on transparency in Kentucky
This interview was conducted with Senator Damon Thayer, R- Georgetown, about transparency in the state of Kentucky.
Wednesday, March 10, 2010
The rest of the N-A-F-T-A story
Some politicians claim N-A-F-T-A is a jobs-buster. Actually, America needs more trade not less.
Click here to listen to the 90-second audio commentary.
FreedomKentucky.org bumper stickers!
We now have FreedomKentucky.org bumper stickers! If you would like to support our transparency and accountability project just let us know and we'll send you a bumper sticker. You can contact us at the email address here.
Will changing a definition really solve the UK student housing situation?
The UK housing situation has been gaining steam in the past few weeks with the Lexington-Fayette Urban County Government attempting to limit the number of students who can live together in a "single-family" home near campus. This was brought about due to some complaints by non-student residents who were concerned with the amount of trash in the neighborhood, the number of cars on the street, and fear of declining property values.
LFUCG's possible solution: change the definition of "family". The would prohibit anymore than four unrelated individuals from living together under one roof.
Besides the obvious property-rights-trampling going on here by dictating who property owners can have on their property, perhaps there is something else wrong with this approach.
Will changing the definition of the term 'family' effectively solve the problem? I would argue no. Sure, it will greatly reduce the number of students in an area but that's not the problem. Here are some things to think about relative to that:
- Reducing the concentration of students living in campus-area neighborhoods will only displace more students into other neighborhoods. With UK enrollment increasing each year, this means we are sure to see this problem pop up again, just in other neighborhoods.
