tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5776587.post3242283141327401092..comments2023-11-03T04:00:24.785-04:00Comments on Kentucky School News and Commentary: Like We Have Money to BurnRichard Dayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14586435007687942849noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5776587.post-29974334341353631242014-01-21T15:05:20.301-05:002014-01-21T15:05:20.301-05:00wHO PAYS FOR THESE LAWSUITS? aRE TAXPAYERS FOOTIN...wHO PAYS FOR THESE LAWSUITS? aRE TAXPAYERS FOOTING THE COST?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5776587.post-42729874259662042642014-01-20T09:33:56.828-05:002014-01-20T09:33:56.828-05:00I don't think any of this has to do with commo...I don't think any of this has to do with common core at all but rather a generalized discontent by some educators and parents with how education policy has been approached in this state.<br /><br />(1) Create a piece of well intentioned legislation with enormous, long term expectations, (2)use this as a justification to allow KDE to impose whatever it unilaterally determines is best under a fabricated sense of immediacy and media hype, (3) legislature not only doesn't fund the ed reform legislative expectations but actually reduces funding (resources, personnel), (4) KDE tries to sell a highly ambitious reform plan in hopes of getting fed RTTT funds in the absence of state funding (which doesn't happen). (5) Keep plodding down the path of increasing state reform expectations in practice and accountability while funds diminish, all the while pointing to educators as the point of ineffectiveness. (6) See state interventions result in greater work for teachers without equal proportionate student growth, (7) See KDE not only impose practice expectations but then continue to alter them after implementation thus undermining trust in practitioners, (8) see isolated student performance increases being credited by KDE leadership to reforms which were actually the result of a cumulative effort started before SB 1 reform initiatives were ever in place. Now mix that all together in a pot and let it simmer over the fire for over half a decade and you are going to get a pretty bad tasting stew boiling over.<br /><br />Like the other contributors, I don't see anything particularly wrong with common core. I believe it is simply a tangible, symbolic target for folks who are fed up with how educators are being treated and are tired of a government who seems to believe it knows what is best for its citizens when it can't even run its own house (underfunded retirement system, corrupt cabinet members and legislators, in ability to implement tax reform, etc).<br /><br />Holliday, King and other know this are using KY as their spring board to move on. Soon they will be gone in the next year and a half and then Kentucky educators will be faced with a year of flux and then another set of folks from outside who are going to "fix" us.<br /><br />Neither Appalachians, Kentuckians or Americans are quick to embrace external forces of "one-size-fits-all" change when they are being unilaterally forced upon them by folks who think they know better than the people who have been busting their tail for years trying to do what is right for their fellow citizens and their children.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5776587.post-31142511807987287562014-01-18T09:38:48.808-05:002014-01-18T09:38:48.808-05:00I know it's a long shot, but Heaven help us if...I know it's a long shot, but Heaven help us if this thing passes. Those poor math and ELA teachers who are just now getting Common Core under their belt will have to go through the upheaval of new standards all over again, and for what? There's nothing wrong with Common Core. There's no political indoctrination--they don't even contain any social studies standards.<br /><br />This should be renamed the "Educational Anarchy Act" because it encourages every little educational fiefdom (we have 170 school districts in KY) to chooses any set of standards it wants----except for CCSS or NGSS, of course. So the authors want you to have local control, but only as long as you don't decide to use the ONE set of standards that is now in place statewide and that is being used in the majority of other states. Does that mean KDE will have to develop a new test for every district, or will they all be teaching their own unique standards and then failing a common statewide test miserably? How much would that add to the cost?<br /><br />Is a district that has spent the last three years doing PD for Common Core really going to decide to scrap all that work and start all over again? If this bill passes it appears the option still exists for a district to voluntarily choose Common Core because only the state is forbidden to use it, not the districts. Small districts that are already short on funds would likely just keep on using the standards they already have in place rather than spend money they don't have to develop new ones and buy new books, at least until the new standards from KDE are available. At a local level this abominable bill probably wouldn't have an immediate impact in most districts until the new standards are developed. How long would that take and what happens in the meantime? <br /><br />This is such a mess!KY Teachernoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5776587.post-87818794600451234632014-01-16T21:27:01.279-05:002014-01-16T21:27:01.279-05:00I'm not surprised that Stan Lee has signed. Fo...I'm not surprised that Stan Lee has signed. For being such a family values guy, I wish he'd clean his up act. He looks somewhat like a 70's star in adult film.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com