Teachers use literacy centers to help students improve reading skills: Some Kentucky elementary-school teachers will make literacy centers part of daily instruction beginning in the fall -- part of an effort to improve reading skills. Teachers attended recent training sessions on how to best use the centers, which are stations throughout the classroom where students can work alone or with a group. "[Literacy centers] give students ownership over their own learning, and they're a better use of time in a classroom where you have kids reading at all different levels," one instructional coach said. (Courier-Journal)
Principal works to rebuild struggling Ky. high school: Federally mandated efforts are under way to effect change at one of Kentucky's worst-performing schools. Half of the teachers at Shawnee High School will not be returning next school year, and Principal Keith Look's job is also in question if "considerable progress" is not made. The 82-year-old school serves some of Louisville's poorest students and had a graduation rate in 2008 of just 61%. (Education Week)
BGHS, Gatton make Newsweek list - academy named one of nation’s elite public schools: Bowling Green High School and the Carol Martin Gatton Academy of Mathematics and Science in Kentucky have been recognized by Newsweek’s 2010 America’s Best High Schools list.Newsweek each year selects the schools based on offerings of advanced placement college-level courses and tests. This year, just more than 1,600 schools, 6 percent of all the public schools in the U.S., made the list. (The Daily News)
Race to the Top Recipients to be Decided in August: Kentucky Education Commissioner Terry Holliday says the state will learn in early August if it’s a finalist in its second bid for federal Race to the Top dollars. Holliday remains cautiously optimistic, but says the lack of charter schools in Kentucky’s application probably hurt. “I think we’re probably in the 12 to 15 range,” says Holliday, “and it depends on any large states that might get funding as to how far they’ll get. I think there are a minimum of ten funded. It might go up to 15. We might squeak in on the bottom end.” (WFPL)
2 comments:
I have to admit I am disappointed that the Newsweek rankings are even mentioned here. They are horrible.
For evidence of that, just consider that the Holmes Junior/Senior High School in Covington was ranked among the top 1,000 high schools in the entire country by Newsweek.
What's wrong with that? Holmes, if you don't remember, was among the first group of four schools that lost their SBDM authority in 2008 due to extremely poor performance.
Since then, Holmes has not exactly blazed a trail with either its 11th grade ACT results or the PLAN test results.
Newsweek does a tremendous disservice to much better performing schools in Kentucky and elsewhere with this obviously flawed ranking scheme.
For more details on how Newsweek gets it very wrong, check my article posted today in the Bluegrass Policy Blog
Very disappointing news
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