Postsecondary education council running highly informative sessions on pending education reforms

Senate Bill 1 from the 2009 Regular Legislative Session directed a number of very important and dramatic changes to Kentucky’s public education system. The bill cancelled our dubious CATS assessments and directed the Kentucky Department of Education and its governing board to first come up with better education standards and then to use those better standards to craft new state assessments. The bill told educators to create what we really wanted: a system that would educate our kids for college and careers.

Senate Bill 1 broke new ground in another important area – the legislation firmly mandated that public school educators and the state’s college community would work together to craft the new standards and the assessment program. The level of cooperation between the K to 12 group and college staff required by the bill was unprecedented.

To insure that the postsecondary community got the message and played their role well, Senate Bill 1 also required the Kentucky Council on Postsecondary Education (CPE) – the state’s college governance agency – to insure that word about the changes got out to college faculty.

Thus came to be the CPE’s “Senate Bill 1 Information Workshops.” These are being held for college faculty around the state, and I had the great pleasure to attend the February 24, 2011 session in Covington, Kentucky.

The workshop included a series of highly informative sessions about the law itself, why it is needed (because college remediation rates remain far too high) and the current status of the education standards development process.

There were informative breakout sessions on the new Common Core State Standards for math and English language arts that Kentucky adopted from the national common core effort, and a brief discussion about where we are in the process of developing the new assessments.

Overall, it was a very informative day – one I think would benefit college educators from any discipline.

And, that leads to the one disappointment of the day.

Outside of a handful of college instructors from other disciplines, the meeting was largely attended by faculty from education schools, only.

The CPE needs to work harder to get the message out that these workshops are for all faculty members and that it would be wise for at least one representative from each of the major disciplines on each campus to attend one of these sessions.

You see, these are indeed two-way workshops. The people running them are looking for feedback to help make Kentucky’s latest attempt at major public school improvement work far more effectively. That is a lot more likely to happen if non-ed school staff show up and add their good insight and ideas about what we can do to provide them with better prepared students to enter their college classrooms.

Future workshop dates and locations are listed below:

March 4, 2011—Georgetown
March 25, 2011—Hopkinsville
April 8, 2011­­--Webinar
April 21, 2011—Bowling Green
August 21, 2011—Webinar

For more information or to register, go to http://kycorestandards.org.

Actually, I think that K to 12 personnel would also benefit and should consider attending these meetings, or logging in to one of the webinars, as well.

NPR, I beg to differ...

This morning NPR interviewed economist Dean Baker.  He claimed that there is too much focus on the budget deficit in recent months and that if anything the federal government needs to be spending MORE money.  He believes that job creation should be focus of discussion and even went as far as to say that there is no difference between the private sector spending money to create jobs and the government spending money to create jobs.

I beg to differ.  The difference is that a business can be forced to close it's doors.  The government will just continue to borrow money and raise taxes. 

There is a big difference, Mr. Baker.

D.C.'s health care demands means bloated Medicaid rolls in Kentucky

The federal health care mandate will hit Kentucky hard. Its required increases in eligibility will swell Kentucky's Medicaid rolls and drive up costs in a state ill-equipped to handle such bloated growth. Why aren't Kentucky policymakers following the example of other states' leaders who are standing up to Washington to get better deals for their constituents?

Click here to read the latest Bluegrass Bullet.

Spinning the EXPLORE and PLAN results

I posted the new test results from the eighth grade EXPLORE and tenth grade PLAN testing in Kentucky several days ago.

These are found in a Kentucky Department of Education (KDE) news release titled, “EXPLORE AND PLAN RESULTS SHOW IMPROVEMENT,” which released on February 24, 2011.

At the time, I was most interested in the scores.

I missed the fact that the title of the news release and the first paragraph’s comment that “school scores moved up slightly in nearly all subject areas tested” were inaccurate spins of the rather mixed trends from 2009 to 2010.

FACT: On EXPLORE, between 2009 and 2010 scores only moved up in the individual academic subjects of math and science. The EXPLORE scores stayed flat in reading and went down in English.


FACT: On PLAN, scores also declined in English between 2009 and 2010. Science stayed flat. PLAN scores only increased in math and reading.


Overall, the PLAN Composite also stayed flat, which certainly conflicts with the KDE’s headline, as well.

I suspect that if questioned, the KDE would claim that they were talking about the whole period trends from 2006 to 2010, but I think most people reading the headline and the first sentence comment would think the comments refer to changes from last year.

Besides, if we are talking about the whole period from 2006 to 2010, the scores did improve somewhat in all areas, not just in “nearly all subject areas tested.”

KDE can’t have this both ways, and a correction would be appropriate, especially as the rather stagnant PLAN data indicates our schools are not getting the message – we want our kids better prepared for college and careers, not whatever nebulous things the soon to be defunct Kentucky Core Content Test looks for.

Early PLAN performance trends mixed for Persistently Low-Achieving High Schools

Kentucky’s first round of 10 Persistently Low-Achieving Schools was identified in early spring of 2010, nearly one year ago. Eight of the 10 schools are high schools, so I thought it would be interesting to see how these schools did on the fall 2010 PLAN test administration.

Of course, the innovations being introduced in these schools haven’t had nearly enough time to show much impact, but it is still interesting to take a baseline look.

Here are the PLAN score trends from 2009-10 to 2010-11 for each of the first group of Persistently Low-Achieving High Schools. The far right column summarizes the one year trend in the Composite Score for each school (click on table to enlarge).


Overall, two schools actually had slight Composite Score declines while two stayed static, and four showed a score increase. Two of the four schools with an increase in score had a rather notable increase, 0.8 points or more.

Again, I would not make much of these trends, as the schools had not had much time to make changes when the PLAN was given, but there are causes for both optimism and caution here.

However, all of these schools still score below, sometimes very far below, the Kentucky-wide PLAN Composite average, which was 16.7 in 2010-11. And, the Kentucky average lags a national norm average set back in 2005 by 0.8 point, as well.

There is one other item of note. Schools are supposed to test every 10th grader, so the number of students taking the PLAN should closely agree with the enrollment in that grade. What is interesting is that in almost every school in the listing, the number of 10th graders tested dropped between 2009-10 and 2010-11. The number of students tested rose only in two of the schools.

Statewide, across all grades, enrollment only dropped very slightly from 652,071 students in 2009-10 to 651,025 students in 2010-11, a drop of about 0.16 percent. All of the schools with drops shown above had much larger percentage changes in the same time interval.

ACT cheating scandal in Perry County still boils

New PLAN score release adds more evidence of misconduct

Who will be held accountable: Anyone?

It is absolutely vital that the integrity of testing in Kentucky is carefully maintained if this state is to reestablish a viable assessment system.

Sadly, events since last summer regarding school staffers cheating on the ACT in Perry County, which we discussed before here, here, here, and here provide a still unfinished story about whether state officials have the stomach to defend Kentucky's testing programs from cheating.

The Hazard-Herald reports local commotion over the scandal boiled up again a few days ago in a Perry County Board of Education meeting.

And, while we will have to wait until August for new ACT scores, the release several days ago of the latest PLAN scores for the current school term adds to concerns that serious test tampering occurred last year on ACT, Incorporated tests given in Perry County’s two high schools, and the tampering wasn’t limited to the ACT. PLAN is another state-required test from the ACT, Incorporated given to all 10th grade students that is very similar to the ACT.

The table below (click on it to enlarge), extracted from an Excel spreadsheet with the new test results for all schools in the state, shows both of Perry County’s high schools experienced very large score increases on the PLAN test between 2008-09 and 2009-10, the year when the cheating allegedly occurred.


Both Perry County schools then experienced tremendous score drops after close scrutiny forced the staff to play honest during the current school year’s test cycle.

These one-year PLAN score drops between 2009-10 and 2010-11 are absolutely enormous. They are more than twice as large as any other drop in any other high school in the state.

Thus, the evidence mounts, including findings from the ACT investigation itself, that answer sheets were altered. And, ACT says the students didn’t do it. That means the only other individuals who had access to the controlled answer sheets did.

Should the school staff responsible for this get off scot free?

So far, the only individuals who have suffered because of the improper changing of answer sheet entries are the students, who had to retake the ACT.

But, the Kentucky Educational Professional Standards Board did receive a referral from the Kentucky Department of Education and is conducting an investigation.

Furthermore; since the ACT drives money from KEES scholarships, which impacts both taxpayers and students; and influences college admissions, which obviously impacts students; perhaps other state agencies will decide to take a look, as well.

So, stay tuned.

One critical point in all of this is that we don’t want to send a message to educators around Kentucky that if you get caught altering test sheets, others in the system will cover for you.

If that bad message gets sent, Kentucky’s new assessment system’s credibility is dead before the first test booklet ever gets printed.

Quote(s) of the day: Forecasting bankruptcy, higher healthcare costs

Predictions offered by Ed Lane, publisher of The Lane Report:

Government:
"Watch for prepackaged bankruptcies for cities, counties and states unable to pay contractual obligations for employees'[sic] pensions and healthcare. The trend could start in California, Michigan, New Jersey or New York."

Automotive:
"Higher U.S. automotive sales will boost employment at Kentucky's manufacturing and assembly plans and substantially lower the state's unemployment rate. Government will earn more sales and income taxes but not enough additional revenue to bail out underfunded (and generous) pension and healthcare benefits for government employees." (Although I'm not sure government ever "earns" anything, it "takes in" plenty, though.)

Healthcare:
"Healthcare costs will substantially increase due to federal government mandates."

Read more of Lane's predictions concerning Kentucky's small businesses, higher education, population trends, healthcare, trade and politics in the February edition of The Lane Report.

Grade 8 and 10 readiness tests show mixed results

The fall 2010 results from the EXPLORE and PLAN tests were released today, and there is a bit of progress in some areas compared to last year balanced by stagnation or decay in others.

This first table, taken from the Kentucky Department of Education’s news release, shows the eighth grade EXPLORE scores by subject and test year (testing is done in the fall of the listed year). I shaded drops in scores between 2009 and 2010 in this and the next table in pink when scores dropped. Scores that stayed flat are shaded in yellow, and increases are in green.


It is worth noting that since 2006, eighth grade scores are up across the board, which is good news. Also, in most cases, the 2010 scores are higher than the last national norming sample available for this assessment, which is now a rather stale half-decade old.

Here is the data for the PLAN test, which is administered to 10th grade students.


Scores are also up across the board from 2006, but English decayed slightly between 2009 and 2010.

Sadly, our 10th grade students’ scores in 2010 remain behind the national norms, which, again, are rather stale.

You can access detailed reports, including spreadsheets with individual school scores, here.

I’ll have more on these important tests tomorrow.

Kentucky unions excel at 'Captain, may I?' game

Kentucky has no check and balance on union influence. Kentucky elected officials ask: "Captain, may I?' before upsetting powerful union bosses.

Kentucky unions excel at telling legislators and public servants "NO" on needed reforms in trying times. Examples:

• No education funding awarded to Kentucky in the Race to the Top competition because of the fight over charter schools.
  
  
• No school choice legislation.
  
  
• No eliminating prevailing-wage mandates that neuter competition for state projects by dictating union wages and classifications.
  
  
• No right-to-work legislation giving workers a choice on whether to pay union dues or not.
  
  
• No needed reforms of underfunded -- and unsustainable -- public-sector pensions and benefits.

Kentucky is not alone.



It is no secret that unions work hard with members' dues to elect legislators, school board members and taxpayer-paid managers who support their agenda. They play to the predominant public servants' "its all about what's best for me" mentality. Smart! It's a win-win, totally compatible power play.

Leaders in other states are stepping up to address needed checks and balances on union influence because they can't push it off on someone else anymore.

Soon, Kentucky leaders will be part of the few that still check their brains at the door and ask the unions what they should do so "everyone gets along."

When you're broke, you're broke. It's tough to spin that.

Maybe its time to break some glass for Kentucky’s taxpayers and kids.

Rewarding failure in Carter County Schools

Read the full "Rewarding Failure" commentary here.

"Rewarding Failure" is a recently published commentary by The Bluegrass Institute based on superintendent evaluations obtained via the Kentucky Open Records Act.

One of the districts profiled is Carter County Public Schools, a district that, at the time of the requested superintendent evaluation in 2009, had:

• failed meet even the watered-down goals of No Child Left Behind (NCLB) for eight consecutive years
• five of 10 schools not meeting the basic NCLB goals
• and only 9.2% of 11th graders meeting the ACT benchmark for math

raved about the performance of their superintendent.  In fact, the evaluator commented that the superintendent was:

"doing a good job like the fact you attend so many school function and visit classrooms...."

It seems like the superintendent of a school district should be more concerned with student achievement.  The leader of the school district should be held to high standards, evaluated based on specific goals outlined by quantifiable metrics, and held accountable when even the most basic standards for student learning can not be met.

You can view the actual performance evaluation for Carter County School along with three other districts here.

Children’s Law Center gets better break for learning disabled students in Lexington

Jim Warren at the Herald-Leader reports “Fayette schools try to cut suspension rates for disabled, minorities.”

The district – and a number of others – has much higher suspension rates for minorities and students with learning disabilities. The new agreement involves trying a program to work on the behaviors that lead to these statistics.

Children’s Law Center is now trying to set up similar agreements in other school districts including: Scott, Madison, Jefferson, Boone, Christian, Hardin, Hopkins and Warren counties and Paducah Independent.

Whether this traditional public school application of such an approach will work remains to be seen, but it should be noted that charter schools spend a lot of time on developing better behavior in their students. The results in charter schools are often dramatically better performance.

Denial goes on in Louisville

This time, a Courier-Journal article indicates the Louisville League of Women Voters is involved with the process of educational denial as discussions continue about what the city wants in its new school superintendent.

The most interesting comment in the article:

“Blaine Hudson, dean of the University of Louisville's College of Arts and Sciences, said standardized tests tell him ‘absolutely nothing’ about incoming college students.”

Really?

Maybe he is talking about our soon-to-be-discarded Kentucky Core Content Tests, the last vestiges of the old CATS assessment program. Those test results definitely were not useful for any decisions about individual students.

However, if we are talking about the ACT college entrance tests, as I recently wrote, the public university system across Kentucky finds the ACT useful as a first step in determining which students will need remedial courses if they are admitted to college.

As a more selective school, the U of L does not admit many students in need of remediation, so the ACT may not appear so highly useful to the dean, but that does not mean the ACT isn’t very important in other colleges around the state, or to the many Jefferson County students who are not going to be admitted at the U of L.

And, members of the League of Women Voters, many of whom have children, will only do themselves and their kids a disservice if they believe otherwise.

Paul tells the Senate: The 10th Amendment means something

U.S. Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky, made a compelling case today in Frankfort for a convention of the states to amend the Constitution to require that the federal government do what 49 of the nation's 50 states are required to do -- balance their budget.

In a speech before the Kentucky Senate, Paul urged the commonwealth to assert its sovereign power and force Washington to reign in spending through holding a constitutional convention that would be limited to approving a federal constitutional amendment requiring a balanced budget.

"We are approaching the point where our total debt equals our total economy," Paul said.

Opponents of the idea expressed fear that opening up the Constitution to a constitutional amendment would result in an out-of-control process that could threaten current liberties.

But Sen. Mike Wilson, R-Bowling Green, who introduced Paul on the floor of the Senate today said: "I would rather take my chances on a constitutional convention than on anarchy," which he said could result from out-of-control debt and deficit spending.

Two-thirds of states would have to call for a convention before one was held, while three-fourths would have to ratify an amendment before it became embedded in the Constitution.

"I'm looking for the state legislature to be more assertive -- to do what we can to step up and say: 'the 10th Amendment means something," Paul told the Senate.

Guess who’s playing hooky from school!!!

It’s not the kids!!!

WAVE-3 has an article up about teacher absence rates from schools in and around the Louisville area.

It seems that teachers are out of school more than their students.

Interesting.

Let’s get the right message out about planned testing in Kentucky

A couple of days ago the Prichard Committee’s blog posted some obviously incorrect data about plans for the new state testing program in Kentucky.

Prichard indicated that the ACT, Incorporated’s EXPLORE, PLAN and ACT tests would be used to evaluate writing, which is incorrect.

I asked Commissioner Terry Holliday to send me the current plan for the testing program, and he had Associate Commissioner Ken Draut send me a presentation that has the following slide with the “right stuff” on it.

Current Plan for Testing in Kentucky
CRT = Criterion Referenced Test (Usually provides information on proficiency)
NRT = Norm Referenced Test (Usually provides information on percentage of students that score lower than reference student or school)

Notice that writing will be evaluated, but that will be done with tests about the editing/mechanics of writing (I think those will be mostly multiple-choice) and by taking samples of on-demand writing in a test environment. The English part of the PLAN test will be used to do the mechanics/editing evaluation in high school, but there will be a lot more writing evaluation, as well. ACT and EXPLORE will not be used for any facet of writing evaluation.

Keep in mind, the state’s new assessment plan is still in the works. Some of the tests don’t exist at this time, and the 2011-12 final program could change from what is shown here.

But, this is the latest available information as of February 21.

Does the law apply only to private sector employees?

The media reports that a doctor is providing medical excuses for public employees protesting in Wisconsin. It doesn't seem to bother her:



In the private sector a person would be terminated for falsifying time card information. Government auditors would penalize a government contractor if employees falsified time card information and defrauded the government.

What would Kentucky leaders do if they saw a person on video and that person claimed sick leave on their time card? What about the extra expense of spending more money to provide a substitute worker?


What do Kentucky union leaders think about falsifying time care information?

What about the ethics this demonstrates to our young people?

There should be no exemptions for union or public sector employees. Everyone should stand equal at the foot of the law.


One thing's for sure: this doctor's actions should have consequences.

Transforming Education in Kentucky Task Force report finally out

It was promised before the end of the year, but, as the Herald-Leader just reported, the governor’s Transforming Education in Kentucky (TEK) Task Force report just released today, with most of the current legislative session already in the history books.

That’s probably not too much of a problem, considering that my first read shows there isn’t much new in this report.

Most of the ideas are pretty old hat things that have been floating around since KERA began. The rest is largely a warmed over “me too” sort of reiteration of already approved plans from Senate Bill 1 from 2009.

Actually, the presence of many recommendations almost amounts to an admission that many ideas in KERA have not worked out. Thus, while the report offers little that is new, there is plenty of evidence in it that much of the old isn’t working well, if at all.

I’ll have some more detailed thoughts shortly, but the biased makeup of this task force [no independent-thinking representatives from organizations like the Bluegrass Institute or the Family Foundation of Kentucky (which, notably, WAS on earlier task force efforts in education)] pretty much fore-ordained the outcome.

One clue to the real value of this report: the word “charter,” as in charter school, doesn’t appear. The group didn’t even consider one of the more successful crucibles for school change. It just mostly looked at the ‘same-old, same-old.’

One interesting final note: While this report is months late, the released file is titled “final_report_draft.pdf” It makes you wonder if this is really the “final, final” or just a draft that got posted by accident. Go figure!

Taking liberty to the airwaves: BIPPS on WKCT

Jim Waters, vice president of policy and communications, will be on "Drive Time" hosted by Chad Young on 930 WKCT-AM, Bowling Green's news-talk station this afternoon at 5:20 p.m. (CST)

Waters will be joined by Randy Keller of the Bowling Green-Southern Kentucky TEA party, to discuss the budget developments and protests in Wisconsin and a planned rally for Wednesday at 5:30 p.m. (CST) at Fountain Square Park in downtown Bowling Green.

Jefferson County sets example with SBDM meeting minutes database

As a part of the recent Operation: Open Records 2011 project, requests were submitted to obtain the minutes and supplemental information provided from several Jefferson County school based decision making (SBDM) council meetings.  One of the principals responded with a link to a very helpful database.

The database contained links to all the SBDM council minutes for every school in Jefferson County for the past year.  This is a great resource and a model for how this information should be available.  While the information contained in these meeting minutes is not as complete as it could be, the framework and potential for excellent school based decision making council transparency at least exists in Jefferson County.

The second part of the request - to obtain any supplemental material given to council members - was redirected to the Jefferson County Schools Public Information Office. We will keep you posted!

Bipartisan support for Kentucky coal 'sanctuary'

Kentucky makes national headlines in an important states' rights issue as legislators attempt to declare the commonwealth's coal industry exempt from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

Yesterday, Senate Joint Resolution 99 moved out of the Natural Resources and Energy Committee to debate on the Senate Floor. The bill passed out of committee with unanimous support.

"As the overreaching EPA impact settles in on us," resolution sponsor Sen. Brandon Smith, R-Hazard, remarked, "it's costing us jobs, it's putting us in a very perilous situation."

Yesterday in the House Natural Resources and Environment Committee, House Bill 421, sponsored by Rep. Jim Gooch, D-Providence, also cleared committee without a single "no" vote. The bill would exempt Kentucky coal mines from federal Clean Water Act requirements.

Rep. Gooch remarked, "We feel that the federal government does lack some of the authority to regulate everything that we do."

Even if the measures pass, bill sponsors acknowledge they are unlikely to force the EPA to stop its regulation of coal. Despite that, legislators on both sides of the aisle see this as a symbolic opportunity to fight back against federal over-involvement in the commonwealth.

Rep. Keith Hall, D- Phelps, commented, "There comes a time when we as leaders and we as legislators have to push back."

Don’t know much about history

Kentucky social studies/history standards just got a “D” in new study from the Thomas Fordham Foundation.

Says Fordham:

“Kentucky’s heavily abstract and thematic standards not only fail to outline specific content in each grade, but also give little sense even of the historical time spans meant to be covered. Details of U.S. history make only fleeting appearances amid myriad strands, themes, and sub-themes.”

The report later says:

“Students are expected to understand, analyze, and interpret historical events, conditions, trends, and issues with the goal of developing historical perspective. Yet Kentucky’s U.S. history standards are virtually content-free.”

Teaching history without any factual information. Imagine that!

Let’s hope the new standards due in the next year or so are a big improvement.

Denial in Jefferson County schools won’t fix anything

While decent research on turning low-performing schools around is actually rather limited, the best evidence currently available indicates the critical first step is to admit you have a problem. And, that admission and the push for change have to come from school leaders to be effective.

That’s not just my opinion.

This has been a constant theme in a series of REL Appalachia webinars and reports about what works in turning schools around. Those webinars, some of which deal with success stories right here in Kentucky, rely in part on an Institute of Education Sciences (IES) report, “Turning Around Chronically Low-Performing Schools.”

This IES report says on page 8 that the first step in the turn-around process is to:

“Signal the need for dramatic change with strong leadership. Schools should make a clear commitment to dramatic changes from the status quo, and the leader should signal the magnitude and urgency of that change.”

Clearly if you are going to signal a need for change, the first step is that you acknowledge you have a problem.

Sadly, news reports out of Louisville show that a lot of people there have not even gotten to this first step. The city seems locked in the grips of a huge denial syndrome.

The latest example: A Courier-Journal article shows teachers and others in Iroquois High have yet to arrive at that critical first step.

While the Jefferson County School District worried more about buses than academics, Iroquois High blazed a trail of tears for years: high dropout rates, low graduation rates, and some of the worst test results in Kentucky. That earned the school a well-justified official identification as a Persistently Low-Achieving School under new rules enacted in 2010.

In turn, that Low-Achieving identification brought an audit team to the school to see what was wrong.

The audit found plenty of problems, including a principal who lacked the capacity to turn the school around and a School Council that was also so inept that it needed to lose its governing authority, as well.

So, how do the teachers in Iroquois react?

Instead of coming to grips with how poorly their school performs and digging in to start working on real change, those teachers try to duck blame, whining to the Courier about how demoralized they are by the audit. Even worse, the teachers pass that inappropriate attitude on to their students – proving beyond doubt that the audit team was right to recommend that both the principal and the school council needed to go.

Charter schools in places like New York City and Boston take in kids like those in Iroquois every year, and within a couple of years they turn those students around and get them on the right track. It’s a darn shame that certain selfish interests in Frankfort won’t let us even try that option for the kids in Iroquois and kids in other low-performing schools around this state.

I guess denial doesn’t stop at the borders of Jefferson County.

Taking liberty to the airwaves: BIPPS opposes meth proposal on WKYU-PBS

Jim Waters, Bluegrass Institute vice president of policy and communications, will appear on "Outlook," a public affairs television program hosted by Barbara Deeb on WKYU-PBS to discuss legislative proposals to make pseudoephedrine -- used to make the dangerous drug methamphetamine -- a controlled substance requiring a prescription for purchase.

Tommy Loving, director of the Bowling Green-Warren County Drug Task force, was the other guest on the program, which airs on Sunday, Feb. 20, at 8:30 a.m. and 10:30 p.m. (CST).

Fresh talk from New Jersey applies to Kentucky's pension woes, too

New Jersey has serious pension funding problems. So does Kentucky.

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie is proposing sweeping reforms. Kentucky Gov. Steve Besehar says problems will work themselves out in 15 to 18 years.

If Beshear is wrong, then solutions like bankruptcy, constitutional amendments and new laws surface. These offer good options for the governor, though, since they allow him to avoid making any tough decisions and punt -- just like he did in his last budget submission and on his promised "efficiency" study.

Even New Jersey lawmakers who also hold union membership know that current public-pension policies are unsustainable.

Listen to Stephen Sweeney, D-Gloucester, who also is an Ironworkers International Union member, compare private and public approaches to pensions:

- There could be a connection between funding for public pensions and lack of work in the private sector!
- People who run for office don’t want to say "no" to a lot of people!
- In the private sector, you can’t negotiate for something if there isn’t money to pay for it!

- In public sector, many of the managers work for unions because unions put them in office!
- If public employees want the benefits, they will have to pay more for them!

Straight talk. Heard anyone in Kentucky being that candid yet?

To Kentucky politicians: You can’t just change rules for new people; existing systems must be reformed. Take a trip to New Jersey where leaders -- even Democratic union members -- see the problem and appear ready to address it.

Pollyanna isn't dictating their solution set.

Operation: Open Records 2011

It's the season once again! The 2011 Open Records Project is underway.

The hub for the project can be found on FreedomKentucky.org here.  This page will host links and brief descriptions of all the open records requests made this year.  The page provides a link to each individual request so that the progress and results from the request can be accessed.

As always this project page is a work in progress and will be updated regularly as requests are sent and received.

You can view last year's Operation: Open Records 2010 here.

Are we about to create more school “dumping grounds” for students and staff?

With action pending in both houses of the Kentucky legislature to create more alternative schools and maybe raise the minimum dropout age to 18 as a way to fight high dropout rates, recent comments from Education Commissioner Terry Holliday provide a warning that just creating these schools isn’t enough.

Holliday told Ryan Alessi at cn2 on Monday that the state needs a law to prevent alternative schools from just becoming dumping grounds for students and even teachers.

Apparently, Holliday has seen the evidence of this problem already, but he feels powerless to act.

Well, somebody better act, especially if we are going to create a lot more potential for abuse, which would most definitely include the taxpayer, if all we wind up doing is creating age 18 dropouts instead of age 16 ones.

Attorney General to rule if union boss can serve on search committee for new superintendent

It seems like a conflict of interest.

Why would we allow a teachers union boss – who never teaches in a classroom – to be a ‘teacher member’ of a superintendent search committee? After all, this committee will select the next person to play a key role in contract negotiations with that very same union.

Why should the union have a say in selecting who represents the taxpayers’ side in contract negotiations?

For that matter, is it really a good idea for even working teachers to have a say in who their next “big boss” will be? It doesn’t work that way in business, or the armed forces, either.

Consider how similar teacher involvement in boss selection worked out with teachers selecting their principal under the School Based Decision Making Council (SBDM) rules. Teachers in Jefferson County wound up selecting a number of principals that could not pass muster in recent audits in many of the Jefferson County’s 12 “Persistently Low-Achieving Schools.” A new Courier-Journal article today says the latest three audits found that principals selected by the SBDMs in Iroquois, Waggener, and Southern High Schools “do not have the capacity or capability” to continue in that role.

And, most of the principals in the other nine schools got similar ratings in earlier audits.

That says volumes about letting teachers select their bosses. See my companion blog today – “Three strikes, principals are out!” – for more about that mess.

Anyway, WAVE-3 says the eligibility of the non-teaching union boss in Jefferson County will be examined by the Attorney General’s office.

I suspect taxpayers will be watching this ruling closely. After all, who represents their interests in this search process?

Three strikes, principals are out!

And, so are the school councils!

The latest three audits of Persistently Low-Achieving Schools in Jefferson County have been pried out by open records requests from the Courier-Journal (why did they have to go to all that trouble?).

In all three of the schools, the Courier says the audit team determined:

“Iroquois principal Joey Riddle, Southern principal Jerry Keepers and Waggener principal Candace Conway should be removed because they ‘do not have the capacity or capability to continue their roles and responsibilities’ at the schools.”

It must be kept in mind that these unsatisfactory principals were hired for these positions by the teachers in those schools under the School Based Decision Making Council (SBDM) process. The teachers, not the superintendent, ultimately control this hiring process. In all three of these cases, and in many of the other 17 Persistently Low-Achieving Schools in the state, the teachers made bad decisions.

In fact, the Courier article points out that the audit teams in all six of the 2010-11 year group of Jefferson County Persistently Low-Achieving Schools also recommended removing SBDM authority, as well. In most cases, the SBDMs were so bad that the audits said they should be completely disbanded.

So much for teachers running the show, at least in schools that don’t perform. Given their own choice, they tend to hire a boss who won’t push performance.

Wednesday Links: pension reform, open records, and health reform waivers

• The pension crisis grows in Kentucky. The Lexington Herald-Leader reported today that newly installed Lexington mayor Jim Gray is facing some opposition about budget cuts.  Tough decisions are ahead in the very near future - who is going to make them.  Read more about Kentucky Retirement Systems.
• Playing favorites... apparently four STATES have been issued waivers for the new health care regulations. Yes, you read that correctly - four entire states.
• It's that time again...Operation: Open Records 2011.  We will be using this site to track open records requests in 2011! Be sure to check it out.  Also, we would be interested in hearing your ideas for records requests...

Time to raise expectations for ‘education experts,’ Part 2

As I wrote back on February 1, 2011, this story started with an Op-Ed titled “Time to Raise Expectations for Education,” from Bob King, the President of the Kentucky Council on Postsecondary Education (CPE).

Dr. King's article was mainly meant to introduce parents and general Kentucky citizens to the CPE’s “High School Feedback Reports,” and to discuss how the current school curriculum isn’t aligned to college and workplace needs. Dr. King also encourages support for higher standards and takes a shot at adults in the public school system who tend to protect themselves first before looking to the needs of their students.

Overall, it was a good message, but it naturally raised the ire of those who have pushed the status quo, who don’t like to admit to problems with our current assessment system, and who therefore don’t like the message contained in the feedback reports and other indicators like ACT test results.

A reaction to King’s article was indeed penned by Skip Kifer, a retired professor from UK’s school of education. Kifer played a major role in designing Kentucky’s first reform assessment – widely known as “KIRIS.” He also testified in favor of keeping a CATS-like assessment when this program’s future was being debated, and mercifully ended, in 2009.

Kifer took strong issue with King, saying King implies that the ACT test is used as the sole determinant of whether or not students needed to take remedial courses in college.

Actually, it was Kifer’s implication that was wrong. That may have left a lot of Herald-Leader readers with the wrong idea about how our colleges actually determine the need for remedial courses.

Dr. King now sets the record straight in a new letter published yesterday by the Herald-Leader.

King wrote this second letter so that citizens of the commonwealth are not left with the wrong idea about how the public colleges and universities in Kentucky determine if a student needs to take remedial courses.

As I wrote earlier and King reconfirms, ACT scores are just the first step in the process of determining whether students will have to take a remedial course in Kentucky’s colleges. Says King, colleges also consider a students entire record, including GPA’s, extracurricular activities and other placement exams before making such decisions.

So, the basic thrust of Kifer’s post is wrong. Had Kifer done even minimal research by calling the CPE before spouting off, he could have learned how the college course placement process really works.

Hopefully, anyone who got confused by Kifer’s incorrect assertions will read Dr. King’s latest comments in the Herald-Leader. Our young adults deserve to know that things are not stacked against them as they enter college. If they do get placed in remedial courses, it is only because there is good indication in their entire set of records and test results that they really need the extra help.

And, parents need to know that there is value in the testing information they receive from the EXPLORE, PLAN and ACT test scores they now get from our public schools.

Certainly, no test is perfect, and students can have a ‘bad day.’ But, ignoring those test results is ignoring a not perfect, but pretty good, warning signal. That could leave a student exposed for major problems later. Dr. King doesn’t want students and parents to make that mistake, and neither do I.

Berman quits in Louisville, but replacement process is already under fire

In a move that looks mostly like forestalling the inevitable to preserve future job opportunities, WAVE-3 reports Dr. Sheldon Berman, superintendent of the Jefferson County Public School District, has asked the local school board not to reconsider their vote in November 2010 to end his tenure.

So far, no news agency in Louisville has indicated enough school board members there are willing to change their November vote to save Berman’s job. Berman apparently realizes that a second, negative vote could mostly just generate more heated discussion about the decline in the school district’s academic ranking among Kentucky’s 174 districts during his three-year tenure.

Meanwhile, in a separate story, WAVE-3 is also reporting that staffing of the Jefferson County superintendent search committee is under fire because full-time Jefferson County Teachers Association president Brent McKim is being named as one of the two ‘teacher’ representatives on the search committee. McKim is a full-time union head, and it is reported he is not currently teaching in the classroom. Thus, his appointment does not appear to comply with the requirement for the ‘teacher’ category in the search committee program. The Kentucky Office of Education Accountability (OEA) has received a complaint, and the matter may be placed before the Kentucky Attorney General’s office for a ruling.

Having a union leader participate in the selection of a new superintendent could be a serious policy blunder. The superintendent plays a major role in union contract negotiations.

For example, Memorandum of Agreement negotiations between the union and the Jefferson County School District have already been called into serious question by a recent OEA report, “Analysis of Collective Bargaining Agreements in Kentucky Districts.” Under the heading “Teacher Distribution” which begins on page 40 in the report, the OEA indicates the school district and the union entered into a MOA that violated provisions of House Bill 176 from the 2010 Regular Legislative Session. This improperly disrupted the assignment of experienced teachers to Jefferson County’s Persistently Low-Achieving Schools. That is the kind of thing that happens when the union helps select ‘tame’ superintendents.

This isn’t the first time the Jefferson County Teachers Association has run afoul of committee staffing rules.

Several years ago, a Jefferson County Teachers Association officer was improperly named to the Kentucky Board of Education. That person was forced to leave after the impropriety became public and the Kentucky Senate refused to confirm the nomination.

How’s that? Create tests without looking at curriculum?

Big surprise raises doubts

A surprising revelation in a recent Education Week blog item, “Can the Federal Government Fund Curriculum Materials?” creates more concern that the two federally funded attempts to create Common Core State Assessments are heading for significant trouble.

EdWeek’s blog contains a surprising revelation: federal law prohibits federal money from being used to fund curriculum for schools.

But, it’s not possible to create good state assessments without considering the curriculum. Otherwise, you wind up with tests that don’t measure what is taught, tests which may not even measure material that should be in the curriculum.

As discussed below, Kentucky’s assessment history provides rich evidence in this area. Click the “Read more” link to find out how the attempts to create nationwide education assessments are poised to run afoul of the very same issues that doomed not one, but TWO assessment programs in the Bluegrass State.

Read more »

State pension reform: Who do you believe?

Gov. Beshear won’t support ending guaranteed pensions proposed in Senate Bill 2. The governor says in 15-18 years it will fix itself "if we stick with that schedule" of payments agreed upon during a special session in 2008.

IF, IF and IF!

Using his logic, you will have to believe politicians will do what they say they will do. You will have to believe a politician committing to do "efficiency" studies will actually do them. 0 for 2.



Others see it differently. We could all go broke if this issue isn't forced to be seriously dealt with now.

Sen. Damon Thayer, R-Georgetown, says the current programs are not affordable for state or local governments.

Senate President David Williams, R-Burkesville, said last year alone, the state government retirement plans added more than $1 billion in unfunded liability, and the local government plans added $796 million.

Mike Burnside, executive director of the Kentucky Retirement Systems, said the unfunded liabilities of both state and local pension systems are worrisome.

It’s time for Governor Beshear, Senator Williams, Senator Thayer and executive director Burnside to put all the facts on the table at the same time, in the same place. Kentuckians get it: Guaranteed state pensions are unsustainable. This is not too complex or too complicated -- it's politics.

Stop the spin. Other states face bankruptcy because of this issue. This is a high stakes game for Kentucky taxpayers that only politicians get to play.

Politicians win if the state pension programs remain unchanged. Taxpayers lose big time. The pension deck is stacked against the taxpayer and Kentucky.

Monday links: Operation Open Records, Facebook, budget cuts

• Operation: Open Records 2011 - The new year is here and you know what that means, it is open records time.  The Bluegrass Institute has already begun the search for information this year but we would like your input on what you want to see.  What questions do you want answered?  Where should we dig?
• Help us spread the word on Facebook and stay in touch with us by becoming a fan of The Bluegrass Institute!
• Great letter via Cafe Hayek regarding the reality of the proposed federal "budget cuts".
• The Lexington Herald-Leader has done a great job recently making a lot of public records available on their website Kentucky.com.  Check out the database page here!

'Super' evaluations ignore the facts about Kentucky schools

A year-long open records project by the Bluegrass Institute reveals a woeful deficiency when it comes to assessing academic performance as part of local school boards' evaluations of superintendents. This is especially true in failing Kentucky school districts.

Click here to read the latest Bluegrass Beacon.

No surprise here: Meeting of social scientists reveals huge bias in attendees’ attitudes

Check out:

“Social Scientist Sees Bias Within” from the NY Times.

At a recent meeting of 1,000 social scientists who study issues of bias, only three admitted to being conservatives. Doctors, heal thyselves.

Noisy teacher mob in Indiana doesn’t stop charter school legislation

Legislators on both sides of the aisle, Dems as well as Republicans, in Indiana get it – charter schools work, and their state deserves more of them.

And, those legislators have the …… (choose your own term) to stand up to a mob-like group of teachers who don’t get it.

Gov. Mitch Daniels also laid it out plainly about his state’s teacher’s union officials:

“Their priority is their organization, not the young people of Indiana. Their special interest domination of education policy from the local level to the Statehouse has hurt Indiana children for too long and this year, change must finally come.”

Read all about senior leaders in Indiana with courage and conviction to do the right thing for students here.

I sure hope this will finally inspire some of our legislators to do the right thing for kids instead of cowering before noisy educators who selfishly stand in the way of educational progress.

Thursday links: superintendent Op/Ed, Huffington mention, Twitter

• The Bluegrass Institute's own Jim Waters had an Op/Ed published today regarding superintendent evaluations! Check it out here.  The Op/Ed is yet another discussion about a severe lack of accountability in how the most highly paid and knowledgeable education officials in a district are evaluated.  Read more here.
• Do you follow BIPPS on Twitter? If not, you should!
• BIPPS was mentioned today in Huffington Post regarding public pension reform.  We were described as a "cookie-cutter think tank" that basically blames public-sector employees for state budget shortfalls.  Not even close.  You can read more about the Kentucky pension system here.

Advancing freedom, defending liberty on Kentucky's airwaves

The Bluegrass Institute is watching -- and exposing -- what's happening with YOUR tax dollars in Frankfort and defending your freedom in the face of ever-encroaching government policies.

I will be evaluating the 2011 session of the Kentucky General Assembly tonight at 7 p.m. (eastern) on Kentucky GrassRoots Radio. Listen in at BlogTalkRadio.com.

BTW, find the contact info for all legislators on FreedomKentucky.org, the institute's government transparency Web site.

All that educational progress: Part 2?

I’ve been assembling more comparison maps with the powerful NAEP Data Explorer tool from the National Assessment of Educational Progress.

Here is one I put together to show how Kentucky’s white students’ latest available NAEP writing performance compares to white students in other states that participated (five states shown in blue plus Washington, DC, didn’t participate in this voluntary assessment). I look at whites because they comprise 85 percent of the student population in Kentucky and because with demographics in other states now very different from Kentucky’s, simplistic comparisons of overall NAEP scores are misleading.


According to the NAEP Data Explorer, after all the time we spent on writing in Kentucky, as of 2007, white students in the 31 states shown in green, including a number in the South, were doing a better job than our white students. NAEP says with a 95 percent level of confidence that all states shown in green got writing scores that were statistically significantly higher than Kentucky’s on this sampled assessment.

Twelve states tied us, including Mississippi.

Only West Virginia did worse.

Now, how is that again about all the progress?

All that educational progress????

Once again, the Prichard Committee is talking about all the educational progress we have made in Kentucky at the same time they admit we have a long way to go.

I most definitely agree with the part about having a long way to go, but I just don’t see that what has happened so far is significant.

Take a look at this graph, which shows the latest available proficiency rate scores (percentage scoring at or above Proficient) from the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). The full bars show the most recently reported proficiency rates by subject and grade. Inside of each bar I show the earliest available proficiency rate data for that same subject and grade (click on the graph to enlarge it, if necessary).


Overall, notice that after 19 years of KERA (17 for writing, which was last given in 2007) we generally only find about one in three students are proficient in Kentucky in the listed subjects. For eighth grade math and writing, the proficiency rate is little more than just one in four.

Now, consider where we started on grade 4 reading and math and grade 8 math in the early days of KERA (other subjects didn’t start to test until 1996 or later).

In grade 4 reading, between 1992 and 2009, a 17-year period, our proficiency rate only increased by 13 percentage points. That works out to an average improvement rate of only 0.765 point per year. At that rate, it will take us more than 70 years to reach a proficiency rate of 90 percent! Clearly, we’ve barely started on the journey towards high academic performance, and we are a long way from attaining that goal in fourth grade reading.

I have run more estimates to reach 90 percent proficiency for other subjects in the graph, and you can click the “Read more” link to see that.

Bottom line, anyone who thinks the proficiency rates in the graph above signal significant progress doesn’t have very high standards. And, it is for certain that if we don’t do something dramatic (like establishing charter schools) to stimulate the sluggardly pace of improvement in our schools, the competition is going to bury our kids.

Read more »

Quote of the day: Teachers' unions

“I think they are looking out in too many cases for their own good and not for the good of the students.” --Lee Todd, University of Kentucky president, on the state's teachers unions

Kentucky Tonight on education legislation now on line

You can now hear the entire exchange between Kentucky Tonight show host Bill Goodman and Representative Carl Rollins and Senator Gerald Neal as they discuss what is REALLY in a report that Rollins has been citing to support his claim that charter schools don’t work.

The pertinent comments begin at 32 minutes and 28 seconds into the video.

First, Rep. Rollins cites the same numbers, again. Then, at 34 minutes and 19 seconds, Sen. Neal says the Stanford study is the best out there.

Finally, at 34 minutes and 33 seconds, Host Goodman starts to do some real education. The lesson is short and simple.

By 35 minutes and 29 seconds, Rep. Rollins admits he now isn’t sure about what is in the CREDO report.

Then, Goodman asks Rep. Rollins the question I raised: since the CREDO study doesn’t support his assertion that charters don’t work, would Rollins be willing to hear bills on charter schools?

Sadly, instead of providing a direct answer, Rep. Rollins changes the subject to another bill that does not come close to providing Kentucky what charter legislation would.

Hopefully, as Rep. Rollins has more time to consider the real evidence – instead of relying on what teachers union people are telling him – he will come to realize that Kentucky’s children can benefit in a number of ways if we get real charter schools in this state. That is what is happening in 40 other states that already have charters.

Citizens, tell your state representatives, senators: 'Just say no' to meth bill

While bills requiring a prescription to buy cold medicines containing ingredients used to make the drug meth might be well-intentioned, they would nevertheless be harmful to the health – and pocketbooks – of Kentucky families.

Click here to read the entire news release.

UK’s president lays it out clear and simple: Unions are blocking educational progress in Kentucky

UK’s President Todd lays it out clear and simple: Kentucky’s teachers’ unions block policies that would better serve Kentucky students.

According to Ryan Alessi at cn2, President Todd says of the unions:

“I think they are looking out in too many cases for their own good and not for the good of the students.”

Todd singled out the Jefferson County Teachers Association for special ire because that union local has steadfastly blocked the very excellent AdvanceKentucky program from signing up even one high school in the Jefferson County Public School District.

Todd also jumped on some state legislators who too often take union positions because of the campaign donations unions give those legislators. Says Todd:

“It’s not just the teachers unions. It’s the politicians that need to step up and make some decisions on the fact that we’ve got to make some changes.”

Wow! Talk about candor.

I’m not impressed by the selfish comments made by the president of the Jefferson County Teachers Association in the article.

What kind of people want to hold colleagues back from making more money for doing the hard work required to teach advance placement courses?

It should also be noted that while this union chief wrings his hands that the AdvanceKentucky program might suck experienced teachers out of some schools, this very same union local negotiated what the Kentucky Office of Education Accountability says was an inappropriate agreement on restaffing in Jefferson County’s Persistently Low-Achieving Schools. As a result, too many inexperienced teachers were assigned to those schools.

This union isn’t concerned about doing what’s right for students – it just wants the best possible deals for adults in the school system.

By the way, while Alessi’s article doesn’t say so, I am currently reviewing some “Report of an Independent Expenditure” documents I recently got with an open records request from the Kentucky Registry of Election Finance. One candidate for state representative got over $145,000 from the Jefferson County Teachers Association PAC in 2010! The January 26, 2011 edition of the print-only Kentucky Gazette has a front page article about the teachers union PACs topping the list of campaign contributors in 2010, as well.

That’s just great for teachers. It isn’t so good for students. Just ask President Todd.

Charter School Rally at Frankfort

Charter school coalition partners assembled in the Capitol Dome in Frankfort today to urge legislators to authorize charter schools in Kentucky.

Many speakers including Kentucky Representatives Brad Montell, Tim Moore, and Mike Harmon, augmented by our own Jim Waters, MC Pastor Jerry Stephenson who is a BAEO contact in Kentucky and a founding member of the Kentucky Education Restoration Alliance, PIKE’s Charity Edmonston, two gubernatorial candidates and others participated, making it really hard to decide who to You Tube first.

But, one speaker’s enthusiasm specially struck me, so here are the rally comments from Lenora Yarbrough.



We’ll have more for you later, so stay tuned.

TEA party lawmakers' votes on meth bill will speak louder than words

Here's a message to newly elected lawmakers who rode into Frankfort on the wave of a TEA party vote: How you're voting is speaking so loud, I can't hear what you're saying.

Lawmakers who claim the TEA party principles of limited government, more individual liberty and the accompanying personal responsibility cannot become establishment candidates when the heat is hot and then claim limited-government status in the next election.

While I respect our law enforcement officers, I don't subscribe to the hard-sell tactics by the bureaucrats who lead their various organizations to get legislation passed that would drive up health care costs and further diminish our individual freedoms by requiring a prescription to purchase cold medicines that contain pseudoephedrine just because the ingredient is used by criminals to make the dangerous drug methamphetamine.

There's a big difference between supporting our law enforcement officers and the pencil pushing bureaucrats who have nothing better to do than to play legislative games apparently just to show their relevance.

All concerned Kentuckians should get on Facebook tonight and the phone tomorrow and tell their legislators to vote against making cold medicines containing pseudoephedrine a controlled substance.

To reach your legislator, call 502-564-8100 and ask for your legislator's office. Be polite but firm as you leave your message or speak with your representative. Ask them to refrain from further intrusion into your personal freedom.

Think about it: Would you rather pay $1.89 for your favorite cold medicine over the counter or have to visit the doctor and pay $100 to get a prescription?

Think about this, too: At what point do we say we've had enough of fat-cat politicians trying to dictate every single decision in our daily lives when they can't even get their own fiscal house in order.

Finally, read my recent column on the issue by clicking here.

Frankfort should stay out of the payday lending business

The "government-can-solve-every-problem-we-have" crowd was out in force at the Capitol today.

Only those who don't understand that just about everything government tries to take away from the private sector winds up making the problems worse would vote for House Bill 182, which would cap interest rates charged by payday lenders.

No candidate who claims to adhere to TEA party principles will dare touch this.

If state government does this, when will there will be a bill introduced that caps the amount banks can charge for overdrafts or bars can extract for admittance?

Another KET shoot out on education issues

It’s no secret. State Rep. Carl Rollins, D-Midway, chair of the House Education Committee, has stated repeatedly in public forums that charter schools don’t work. He said essentially the same thing again tonight on KET’s Kentucky Tonight show. Asked about charter schools by show host Bill Goodman, Rollins replied:

“We know that most of the time, charter schools don’t work or at the very least don’t make much difference in children’s performance.”

He then went on to cite some, but only some, of the statistics from the CREDO study that I have abundantly discussed before.

As he has done in the past, Rollins said the CREDO study shows students in only 17 percent of charter schools outperform traditional public schools, while 37 percent of the charters do worse, and the other 46 percent perform no differently than the traditional public schools.

State Senator Gerald Neal, D-Louisville, then chimed in that CREDO’s is the best assessment around.

But, Host Bill Goodman was ready for all of this.

Goodman first read some background information that I submitted, which points out the CREDO report actually shows that once students have spent three years in charter schools, they do outperform. Thus, when completely considered, CREDO’s findings do not support the idea that charters don’t work. However, it does take time for charters to work with kids who come to charters with very bad prior educational experiences. This finding is also supported by other research from different groups, as well.

Goodman then continued my question, which asked if Rep. Rollins would reconsider his stand on blocking charter school legislation and asked if Rollins know about the rest of the CREDO findings.

Said Rep. Rollins about whether there were more positive findings in CREDO:

“There may be; I’m not sure.”

Rep. Rollins then pulled a typical politician maneuver, changing the subject to other legislation rather than dealing with the obvious fact that he has been relying on a report as support for his unfavorable position when the report really doesn’t support that position.

See for yourself what CREDO says about how students perform in charters over time. The discussion starts on page 32 in “Multiple Choice: Charter School Performance in 16 States.”

You can also see quick summaries of these findings on pages 6 and 45.

If you read this, you will be a lot surer than Rep. Rollins is about what is really in the CREDO report.

And, if you know Rep. Rollins, you might suggest to him that he needs to start reading the Bluegrass Policy Blog. A lot of knowledgeable folks, including those at KET, do.

Ky. Chamber president reacts to Obama's speech on PBS News Hour

Dave Adkisson, president of the Kentucky Chamber of Commerce, appeared tonight on PBS News Hour to react to President Obama's speech to the U.S. Chamber.

Obama acknowledged his administration's "rocky start" with the business community but laid out plans for collaboration.

Adkisson responded by stating that the President's speech was an important gesture and toward the business community. He also emphasized that trade would be a pivotal party of the economic recovery.

Adkisson referenced areas where there has been the most tension in the business community but seemed optimistic about the President's plans for investment in infrastructure, citing examples in Kentucky.

Ultimately, Adkisson said that the business community shared the same goal as the President: "for this recovery to be a jobs recovery."

But will Obama's policies match his rhetoric? Stay tuned.

Monday links: Fayette schools, rewarding failure and Lincoln quote

• Fayette County Schools...didn't make progress on ACT benchmarks?
• Do you care about education accountability in Kentucky?  If you do, you should share this with your state representatives.
• "The philosophy of the schoolroom in one generation will be the philosophy of government in the next." - Abraham Lincoln

Drill, or be killed

I just spent a snowy afternoon watching the excellent movie, “Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World.”

In this fictional tale of a British Man O’War in 1805, the captain of an outgunned warship realizes he must drill his gun crews until they can fire two broadsides in the time his much more heavily armed French adversary can fire one if the odds are to be evened.

The alternative to the drill – is being killed.

Flash forward to modern times in the real world. When KERA began, education Progressives told Kentuckians that requiring students to practice skills like mathematical operations and learning phonics were “Drill and Kill” activities that destroyed students’ desire to learn. These educational gurus assured us that if we followed their fanciful dreams about education, all would be wonderful in Kentucky’s public schools.

The problem: those gurus were wrong. Unlike the hero in Master and Commander – who knows what he is about – the “Drill and Kill” crowd was long on unproved theory, but woefully short on reality.

Result for Kentucky’s students, especially in mathematics, have been stark.

In 2009 Kentucky’s ninth grade white students were bested in federal testing by whites in every state shown in green in this map. Only in one state in the entire country, West Virginia, did whites get scores that were statistically significantly lower. Since whites make up about 85 percent of Kentucky’s public school population, it is clear that the vast majority of our students perform behind their peers in other states.


With math now recognized as a key skill for the 21st Century’s economy, it is clear that, thanks to bad advice from education gurus, our kids didn’t drill enough. The resulting deficiencies could kill our kids’ chances for a highly productive working life.

You can read a lot more about the mistakes in KERA in the Bluegrass Institute’s report series, KERA @ 20.

Governor's proposal threatens next year's budget

Today's Courier-Journal editorial should have been entitled: "Vote for 'Caretaker Governor's' reelection."

By supporting Gov. Steve Beshear's attempt to borrow $167 million from next year's budget to close Kentucky's Medicaid spending gap, the newspaper is essentially defending a political move designed to spare the pain of tough decisions until after this fall's election.

Fortunately, our founders established a system of checks and balances in Frankfort. Making budget decisions during the current non-budget legislative session would require a supermajority of lawmakers to agree.

We're hoping they won't.

Fayette County Schools didn’t make progress on ACT Benchmarks

Students who score at the ACT Benchmark Scores have a 75 percent chance of earning a “C” and a 50 percent chance of earning a “B” in their first related college courses, so this is a rather important statistic to watch.

With the announcement of the departure of Stu Silberman from the Fayette County superintendent’s position, I was asked to take a look at the school district’s ACT performance.

This shows what I found, which quite frankly was an unpleasant surprise.


Between 2008 and 2010, Fayette County juniors testing on the ACT posted the results shown, and in every subject, that performance got worse.

The least damage was in English, where the percentage of students making the cut only dropped by 0.4 point. But, the drop was a full point for reading, and it was two points or more for the critical subjects of math and science.

Sort of makes you wonder, doesn’t it?

Lawmakers, education leaders set new expectations low

The House Education Committee passed House Bill 225 that prohibits 16- and 17-year-old students from dropping out of school.

That’s okay, but here’s the rest of the story:

- No homework was done to estimate the bill’s cost.

- No homework was done to estimate the bill’s savings.

- No solid numbers were provided on how many 16- and 17-year-olds drop out each year.

There were great emotional arguments and pleas for innovation to address this problem through more new technical and alternative programs.

Education Commissioner Terry Holliday said he can’t get a good count on dropouts until 2013! That must be spin for "we neither have a key performance indicator on dropouts nor do we want to know."

I’ll bet any entrepreneur in the commonwealth could provide the leadership to get the numbers... now. Here's how it would happen:

- Provide clear instructions.

- Direct each school district to use pencils, paper and the telephone to provide a number each week to the commissioner.

- Create a spreadsheet that will document weekly and cumulative statistics for each school, district and the state system.

- Act on the information.

High-performance organizations do such things when they want to win performance excellence awards.

It's ironic that the leaders in the education committee meeting talked about raising expectations to keep 16- and 17-year-olds in school when their own personal expectations on understanding the cost, benefit and impact are so low. But words are easy...actions always speak louder.

They demonstrated great examples of "groupthink" and "it's not my job" to get facts or measurements and offered a real negative lesson in leadership for all of our kids. They also set a new low for leading by example that said you don’t need facts to justify anything in Kentucky education- just emotions and empty words.

What a sorry example of leadership and not taking ownership.

Truly embarrassing! Our children deserve better.

'Ask and ye shall receive' verse lost on state leaders

British philosopher Francis Bacon once said: “Who questions much, shall learn much, and retain much.” Jim Waters has many questions for Kentucky's leaders.

Click here to read the latest Bluegrass Beacon.

Busing nonsense busted in Louisville

WAVE-3 has the goods!

They went undercover and found that idiocy still reigns in Louisville’s school busing mess despite nonsense from the local school district folks that all is getting better.

Kids are still being ‘taken for a ride’ in a nightmare system with bus routes running over an hour, one way, that leave children exhausted and obviously less likely to learn effectively.

The school system is also playing fast and loose with definitions. A U-Turn isn’t a U-Turn if the bus does it in a parking lot instead of on an active roadway (which would place kids at considerable risk, obviously). WAVE-3 busts the district’s credibility on that sham, too.

Fact: A recent survey shows 79% of the school system’s parents said their child should be allowed to attend the school closes to their home even if that increases segregation. In this country, that huge degree of agreement would settle any policy discussion, if the people making the policy were close to rational.

Fortunately, some rationality seems to be appearing in the Jefferson County Board of Education. They finally are getting the message – they were sold down the river by a superintendent who is more concerned about images of social reform than in providing better educations that can create real social reform and integration.

Thursday Links: rewarding failure, meth hearing, trade agreements

• Rewarding Failure: If you haven't had the opportunity to check out "Rewarding Failure", the Bluegrass Institute's recent commentary on the sad state of education accountability, please do.  This short, honest, and alarming commentary discusses how superintendent evaluations are "rubber-stamped" and neglect to force any real accountability in Kentucky's education system.  You can read the full commentary here.
• Meth Hearing: The Bluegrass Institute provided live Twitter updates during the hearing/debate over proposed legislation that would block the sale of cold medicines in Kentucky as an attempt to curb meth production in the state.
• Maximize Trade Agreements: Once again, Don Boudreaux is right on point with his take on trade in a letter to Rep. Dave Camp.  I particularly enjoyed this statement: "I ask you and your Congressional colleagues, however, to keep in mind the following fact: successful and productive trade negotiations occur millions of times daily, without any government involvement."

Meth bill: Don't lawmakers have more important things to do?

Clear-thinking legislators should reject Shepherdsville Rep. Linda Belcher's bill requiring a prescription for cold/allergy medicines containing pseudoephedrine -- an ingredient used to make methamphetamine, a dangerous, highly addictive drug.

Not only is it unnecessary government intrusion, it would drive up health care costs, take away yet more of our individual liberties and would actually make it more difficult to track the purchases of these products for illegal meth.

MethCheck, the current tracking system in place gives law enforcement officials real-time information about who is making these illegal purchases -- allowing them more success in finding meth labs -- and currently prevents 10,000 grams of purchases of these products for illegal purposes per month in Kentucky.

Click here for the latest radio ad exposing the fallacy of this proposed legislation.

Governor optimistic about the state of the Commonwealth

Tuesday evening, Gov. Steve Beshear addressed a joint session of the General Assembly in his State of the Commonwealth address.

The governor remained optimistic about the future of Kentucky. While acknowledging the difficult times the Bluegrass State has endured during the last few years, Beshear said the economy is improving and cited examples from his administration.

He distanced himself from Democrats in Washington, touting his commitment to cut spending while fairly assessing: "Kentuckians are rightly disgusted by a federal government that defines fiscal management as the speed at which you can print money."

The governor took a strong stand for Kentucky's coal economy, vowing to protect the industry from federal regulations and overreach.

The address was not without party politicking, as Republican gubernatorial candidate and current senate president, David Williams, looked on.

The governor noted that he supported Williams in Senate Bill 8, an electronic portal to help reduce complexity for Kentucky businesses. However, Williams did not conceal his feelings about the Beshear administration: "The man has no agenda."

He said the governor is not adequately addressing pressing fiscal issues in the commonwealth, referring to Medicaid costs, the pension crisis, and the tax code.

Watch the entire speech archived here.