Patton: Still a long road for Ky. education

Yesterday's history forum is now history. Whew. Many thanks to many folks for their participation. The associated press covered the event and posted this story.

This from the Houston Chronicle:

Education reform in Kentucky has come fast and furious in the past 20 years, but the state's public schools still have a long road as they embark on a new path, former Gov. Paul Patton said Thursday.

"We have made tremendous progress," Patton told an audience of education officials and educators at Eastern Kentucky University. "But we started at a very low point."

Patton, governor for two terms from 1995 to 2003, was instrumental in creating Kentucky's community college system. He is now president of the University of Pikeville, formerly Pikeville College.

He was the keynote speaker at a forum looking at the history of education in Kentucky that also featured school experts, lawmakers, superintendents and the president of the state's teachers' union. 

His speech, like much of the discussion, heaped praise on the 1990 Kentucky Education Reform Act, which overhauled the state's school system, as the foundation for a new set of reforms that began this school year. Senate Bill 1, enacted in 2009, required educators to do away with some KERA mandates such as writing portfolios and certain assessments and focus instead on a new set of criteria designed to ensure passage of benchmarks for college and career success.

Patton said Kentucky historically lagged behind in public education because the state's earliest settlers were farmers and coal miners who lived in isolation and whose livelihoods did not depend on education. The state's earliest education champions spent decades trying to initiate meaningful reforms, but their pleas fell on deaf ears, he said.

"That legacy haunts Kentucky today," Patton said.

Kevin Noland, former deputy commissioner of the state Department of Education, said KERA transformed public education into a system that focused on the end result, rather than on "bean counting" such items as how many hours were spent on a particular task. He and others also praised KERA's creation of school councils that make on-site hiring decisions, public preschool programs and Family Resource Centers, which assist low-income students with things like new shoes and school supplies.

He reminded the audience that there was no "magic bullet," and that KERA had been tweaked over the years.

Teachers received considerable praise for being on the front lines of education reform.

"People are working their fingers to the bone," said Stu Silberman, former superintendent in Daviess and Fayette counties and now executive director of the nonprofit Prichard Committee for Academic Excellence. "It's a complex issue. Educating our children is extremely complex."

State Rep. Ruthanne Palumbo said teachers do much more than teach; they play the roles of social worker, pastor and nurse for their students.

"The toughest job is ... being a teacher," she said. "I cannot imagine what full-time teachers experience," Palumbo said.

"I think sometimes ... (teachers) take a hard rap because teaching and learning is not where it should be in this state," said Sharon Oxendine, president of the Kentucky Education Association.

But she added that after "governor after governor after governor would propose" school reforms, the state has been focused like a laser for the past two decades on making lasting improvements.

"It will take a few generations to make that become a reality," she said.

Noland said in the future, he sees teachers playing more of a "coaching" role, guiding students who come up with their own projects to learn their lessons.

Terry Holliday, commissioner of the education department, reiterated his message that the state is entering a new era in public education.

"The challenge for the next 20 years is the same challenge we had for the last 20 years," Holliday said.

He added that specifics of the latest reforms are still being hammered out, saying he had an afternoon conference call with lawmakers to discuss how some subjects, such as arts and humanities, will be measured under the new system.

The EKU forum was organized around a new book, "A History of Education in Kentucky," by EKU history professor emeritus Bill Ellis.

And this was posted the day before at the Washington Examiner:

Forum to look at history of education in Ky.

As Kentucky's public schools embark on new reforms this year, a forum at Eastern Kentucky University will look at the history of education in the state.

The forum is scheduled for Thursday on the EKU campus in Richmond.

It will feature state education leaders, historians and journalists. Also on hand will be Bill Ellis, foundation professor emeritus of history at EKU, who recently released a book on the subject.

Among those expected to speak will be former Gov. Paul Patton, who is now president of the University of Pikeville; Bob King, president of the Kentucky Council on Postsecondary Education; Terry Holliday, Kentucky's commissioner of education; and Stu Silberman, former Lexington schools superintendent and now executive director of the nonprofit education group the Prichard Committee.