Historic Snaps

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.

Ellis to Appear on One to One with Bill Goodman

On the next One to One, Bill Ellis, foundation professor emeritus of history at Eastern Kentucky University, and my newest lunch buddy, discusses his new book, A History of Education in Kentucky. Tuesday, September 6 at 7:30/6:30 pm CT on KET2

Goodman is also one of three moderators who will lead discussions about the major events that shaped that history and current issues in P-12 education on Thursday September 8th at Eastern Kentucky University. (More details here) Former Courier-Journal Editor David Hawpe will lead a discussion of higher education. Author and former Herald-Leader Managing Editor Tom Eblen will moderate a discussion of the issues raised during the day with members of the press.

Goodman's One to One features in-depth interviews with a variety of interesting people. Guests are drawn from a wide range of fields, and conversations cover an enormous array of topics. While many noteworthy Kentuckians are featured, Bill also talks with fascinating visitors from around the world.

Book review: Ellis does good job of chronicling erratic path of education in state

This Book Review by Carlton Jackson (Butler County) in the Bowling Green Daily News:

Let’s say that it’s the early 20th century, and you aspire to be a teacher in the Kentucky school system; therefore, you need a certificate. You have to travel to Frankfort and take a two-day test, which requires an average of 90 to pass. Included are questions such as “your remedy for whispering,” “locating three principal rivers and five cities” of the commonwealth (p. 149), and how do you get the general public interested in the “work of the school”?

Let’s say further that either you are afraid to take this test or that, after you do, you have misgivings about whether you passed. One remedy for this dilemma is to obtain the services of a “Question Peddler” (p. 150). He or she would make the rounds of candidates on the night before the test and offer them the answers to stolen questions (p. l50).

Such a system had not been practiced before, and after some important changes, they were not used in the future. This process, among others, is ably described and explained in William E. Ellis’ “A History of Education in Kentucky,” published by the University Press of Kentucky. Ellis, a Foundation Professor Emeritus of History at Eastern Kentucky University in Richmond, has done a most creditable job of chronicling the erratic path of Kentucky’s educational systems.

He starts with a lengthy segment, “1775 to the Beginning of the Civil War,” and alternates between discussions of elementary and secondary educational systems and higher education, which, like its junior counterparts, developed in “ups and downs,” largely depending on which political party was ascendant. Kentucky politicians proved over and over that yes, they were in favor of an educated citizenry, just as long as it meshed with their own ideologies. To an uncomfortable degree, this situation is still true today. The present-day Kentucky public education system began with the fourth Constitution of the State in 1891 (pp. 97-98). The only state behind Kentucky in creating such a system was Mississippi. There were all kinds of schools established or continued by this constitution. “Blab” schools were popular and denominational schools were added to the system, as well as vocational “academies.”

Unfortunately, the long arm of politics intruded into the newly created school system. The election of school superintendents brought into power some officials who had not been in a classroom in their entire lives. Also, it encouraged nepotism and, along with the “trustee ship,” catered to local ideologies, causing teachers’ jobs to be in constant jeopardy. The author points out that “as the trustee system entrenched itself into the county systems, it became one of the leading causes for the inefficiency of education” (p. 23). The author hints more than once that if the Kentucky school system had separated from money-grubbing politicians, it could have been one of the best in the country.

With elementary and secondary education systems, Ellis continues his narrative to the creation of the Kentucky Educational Reform Act. In l988, Judge Roy Corns of the Circuit Court in Frankfort found that Section l83 of the Kentucky Constitution was grievously violated. The section required the legislature to treat all school districts equally in administering budgets. The discrepancies were especially glaring between urban and rural, and black and white. Most people, including President George H.W. Bush, believed that with this court ruling, “Kentucky had arrived again at an important crossroads in the history of public school education” (p. 403). Renowned historian Thomas D. Clark called it “Sunrise in Kentucky” (p. 403).

KERA had great promise when it was activated in l990. There would be new cooperation between parents and teachers (site-based decisions), anti-nepotism rules, taxing of property at its full value and, above all, accountability. (It soon appeared, however, that the only “accountability” the public wanted was that of the teacher - hardly ever that of the principal and superintendent, the parent, or even the pupil).

KERA soon became inundated with “test results,” which made critics argue that it “taught to the test.” This was especially true when President George W. Bush’s No Child Left Behind entered the scene. Portfolios, it has been said, led more than one good Kentucky teacher into early retirement. While KERA still has its advocates, especially among administrators and colleges of education, many teachers are averse, even hostile, to it. Ellis quotes a Kentucky teacher: “What has happened in the 18 years since KERA was introduced has moved beyond a paradigm shift into a full-blown paranoid slide into a sludge pit of indexes, calculations, punitive measures, debilitating demands on time and energy, threats, empty promises and above all, assessment, assessment, and more assessment - assessment that has to be calculated, measured, graphed, analyzed and adjusted, looked at, shared, discussed, celebrated and wept over” (p. 409).

As one can easily see, the judgment on KERA is far from complete.

In reference to higher education in Kentucky, the author gives full discussion of Transylvania, the first college west of the Appalachians, as well as to denominational schools, such as Georgetown, Bellarmine, Brescia and Centre. He devotes most of his space on higher education to State College, funded by the federal Morrill Act in 1862, later called “State University,” which in 1916 became the University of Kentucky. Other publicly funded schools were the “Normals,” which ultimately became “State Teachers Colleges,” and still later, simply “State Colleges.” Included were Eastern Kentucky in Richmond, Morehead, Murray, Kentucky State in Frankfort and Western Kentucky in Bowling Green. As might be imagined, great wrangling occurred between UK and the “regionals” for public monies. Budget battles became even more complicated with the University of Louisville’s entry into state support.

In the picture section of this book is a photograph of Gov. Ned Breathitt signing a bill in 1966 creating universities out of the “regionals.” As the saying goes, one picture is worth a thousand words. The visage of UK President John W. Oswald is anything but serene, while the newly minted university presidents (Carl M. Hill of Kentucky State, Robert R. Martin of EKU, Kelly Thompson of WKU, Ralph H. Woods of Murray and Adron Doran of Morehead), look upon the event with satisfaction.

One quibble with this book is that Ellis constantly refers to EKU, WKU, et al, as “regional universities.” These institutions may have been “regional” while normal schools or teachers’ colleges, but once they attained university status they were not regional. In a way, if you’re regional, you’re not a university; if you’re a university, you’re not regional. The operative word here is “comprehensive.”

This book will long be the definitive account of education at all levels in the commonwealth. Professor Ellis is to be congratulated for bringing together such disparate parts - and in such a readable fashion - of this important and fascinating subject. He has a lengthy bibliography and a workable index. This book is highly recommended.

A Forum on the History of Education in Kentucky

September 8, 20011
8:30 AM – 4 PM
Eastern Kentucky University
Perkins Building
(Free parking at Perkins)

 

Schedule below

 

Before the Forum
Book Chat with Bill Ellis
September 7th, 4:30 PM
John Grant Crabbe Library
Grand Reading Room
A book signing will follow
until 6:30 PM

 

Cost: $70 + $3 for credit card processing
Credit card reservations may be made
by phone at (859) 622-1444

 

Education in Kentucky, the first state west of the Appalachian Mountains, got off to a poor start. An incongruous land system created a society dominated by the wealthy who had little interest in educating the masses, and thus, until the advent of the 20th century, no taxing system approaching “adequate” supported a democratic common school system. Like citizens in other slave states, early Kentuckians did not highly value public common school education.

Emeritus EKU History Professor Bill Ellis argues in his new book A History of Education in Kentucky that the Commonwealth more closely followed the old English system of education rather than the more democratic system found in New England. 

Ellis’s book is the first single-volume history of schooling in the state and the first of any kind since 1964. Much has changed since the 60’s, and it’s time to talk about it.

To celebrate the book’s release, EKU and WEKU radio have partnered with the University Press of Kentucky, and Kentucky Educational Television to present a forum on education in the state on September 8th at the Perkins Building on the south side of the EKU campus. The Forum will run from 8:30 AM until 4 PM. The response from the education community has been very positive and I believe we can promise attendees a good cross-section of educators, scholars and writers who will examine our past and forecast the future of schooling in Kentucky.

From the beginning the educational system in Kentucky has been fraught with inefficiency, politicization, and localism. The efforts of Robert J. Breckinridge to develop a common school system in Kentucky highlighted the reformism of the late antebellum period. Throughout the 19th Century and well into the 20th Century, taxation laws to fund and improve the public schools were often ill-conceived, haphazardly collected, and the funds were even raided by the legislature. Poorer counties found themselves incapable of adequately funding needed education improvements. When reform came it was often negated by a tight-fisted General Assembly and localism that thwarted needed change. Ellis points to the Sullivan Law, the Normal School law, the Minimum Foundation Program, the Kentucky Education Reform Act, and reorganization of higher education during the Patton administration as improvements to both public school and higher education in the state, but says “the Commonwealth of Kentucky remains, by most standards, among the average to lowest states in the nation in funding, literacy, school dropouts and other areas of educational attainment."

Ellis says he wrote the book to “educate Kentuckians about our educational history and heritage and then [to] encourage us to push for even greater sacrifice and change. We must do better in the 21st century,” he says.

The development of institutions of higher education is also treated in the history. Ellis describes how colleges, most of which were little more than high schools, abounded but many lasted only for a short time. The highlight of early Kentucky higher education history was the administration of Horace Holley at Transylvania. Ultimately sectarian controversy led to his resignation and the development of other colleges, including Centre and Georgetown, until the Civil War devastated education in the state. Following the Civil War higher education actually recovered quite quickly as numerous private colleges were formed including Asbury College and Seminary, Central University, Union College, Thomas More, Cumberland, Campbellsville and Nazareth Colleges. From its origins as a normal school for blacks in Frankfort, Kentucky State Normal and Industrial Institute became the under-funded, politically sensitive, land grant school for African Americans. What would become the University of Kentucky in 1916 evolved from the Agricultural and Mechanical College of Kentucky University (1865-78), the Agricultural and Mechanical College of Kentucky (1878-1908), and State University (1908-1916).

While the majority of college students were attending private colleges at the turn of the 20th Century, a major change came with the founding of the Eastern and Western normal schools in 1906. Morehead and Murray would follow in 1922. All four schools evolved into four year colleges and by World War II public higher education began to outpace private colleges. Later Governor Paul Patton confronted the issue of governance of the commonwealth’s system of higher education in House Bill 1 which created a new Council on Postsecondary Education, removed UK’s hold on community colleges, and redefined the goals of UL, Kentucky State, and the regional universities.

After a campaign led by State Superintendent Wendell Butler, the legislature passed the Minimum Foundation Program in 1954, a further attempt to equalize state funding of the public schools according to need based on a per capita basis with an equalization fund. The passage of a sales tax in 1960 under the leadership of Governor Bert T. Combs improved school funding. For the first time, teacher retirement became a priority. Two years later the legislature authorized the beginning of Kentucky Educational Television. Kentucky education followed national trends in reaction to numerous federal mandates, including Title I, Title IX and civil rights legislation. The Prichard Committee for Academic Excellence was formed in 1983 to study education and seek needed changes.

An attempt to rectify the continued inequities between poor and more affluent school districts finally began to bear fruit with a 1985 lawsuit in Franklin Circuit Court. “Sixty-six” school districts and twenty-two students (through their parents) filed a law suit claiming that the General Assembly failed in their duty to uphold Sections 183 and 186 of the Kentucky Constitution by not treating school districts equitably. The state Supreme Court unanimously concurred and ruled the education system of Kentucky to be unconstitutional. After an extensive study by a legislative task force, the General Assembly passed the Kentucky Education Reform Act in 1990, radically reconstructing public education.

To assure a stimulating treatment of the issues surrounding education in the state, we are assembling an impressive group of practitioners, scholars, writers, and remarkably few politicians. And we are using a roundtable format which I will describe below… and here’s the tentative schedule:

The Forum
September 8, 2011

• 8:30 AM: Refreshments

 

• 9 AM: Opening Comments and Introductions, Richard Day

• 9:15 AM: Bill Ellis: Reflections on the history and future of education in Kentucky

• 10 AM – 11:30 AM: P-12 Forum
• Bill Goodman, KET, Moderator. Confirmed panelists include…

• o P. G. Peeples, Lexington Fayette County Urban League
• o Stu Silberman, Prichard Committee for academic Excellence
• o Elaine Farris, Clark Co Superintendent
• o Ruthanne Palumbo, Fayette County legislator
• o Kevin Noland, KDE/UofL
• o Richard Angelo, UK Education Policy
• o Terry Holliday, Kentucky Education Commissioner
• o Sharron Oxendine, KEA President
• o Erik Myrup, History, UK/FayetteABC

• 11:45 AM – 12:45 PM: Lunch
o Former Kentucky Governor Paul Patton, President of UPike

• 1 PM – 2:30 PM: Higher Education Forum
• David Hawpe, Courier-Journal, retired, Moderator. Confirmed panelists include…

• o Doug Whitlock, President, EKU
• o Lindsey Apple, History, Georgetown
• o Bob King, President Council on Postsecondary Education
• o John Hardin, History, WKU
• o Gary Cox, President, Assn of Independent Kentucky Colleges and Universities
• o Peg Pitman Munke, Murray, COSFL
• o David Atkisson, Ky Chamber of Commerce

• 2:45 PM – 4 PM: Media Forum
• Tom Eblen, Herald-Leader, Moderator. Confirmed panelists include…

• o Linda Blackford, H-L
• o Mark Neikirk, NKU
• o Mark Hebert, WHAS/UofL
• o Ronnie Ellis, CNHI News
• o Richard Wilson, C-J/Independent Colleges

• 4 PM: Adjourn

The Idea:

When Bill Ellis asked me to plan a symposium that would deal with the issues raised in his new book, A History of Education in Kentucky (University Press of Kentucky, 2011), I was both honored and challenged.

I have attended a few symposia in my day, but they all featured three or four professors reading their own papers, and a few speeches, typically delivered by deans or politicians. That didn’t seem quite right for a topic as wide-ranging as the history of schooling in the Commonwealth. It seemed to me that we needed more voices.

As I thought about the problem, my mind traveled back to my youth and a program I used to watch on KET. The program was a moderated debate that was conducted in the round. The moderator would raise issues around the theme of that week’s debate and pose questions of policy to smart advocates who came from a variety of backgrounds and who looked at issues from different perspectives. It led to many lively discussions.

The program I was recalling may have been “The Advocates,” which originated from Vanderbilt University (and was produced by KCET, Los Angeles and WGBH, Boston; not Harvard Law, as I originally thought), ran from 1969 to 1979, and featured some of the leading thinkers of the day, including several Harvard Law professors.

It is – roughly - this design we are hoping to replicate in three panel discussions related to education in Kentucky – its past, present, and future. What began as an idea for a symposium has become more of a Forum. Because of the quality of panelists who have agreed to participate, I believe it may end up as a Master Class for those who attend. There will also be an opportunity for questions from the audience.

The moderators play a key role and are free to guide the discussion in whatever direction they (and the panelists) determine to be most interesting. Along the way, panelists are sure to engage key topics.
• Who is it that has access to an excellent education?

• • Has Kentucky overcome its history of educational inequities?
• • What constitutes an adequate education?
• • Does “all” really mean all?
• • How has (and will) technology change schooling?
• • Is the need for higher education changing?
• • What is the likely result of increased privatization of educational opportunity and for-profit education in Kentucky?  

I also hope panelists will touch upon some of the stories that help us understand how students have experienced our schools and what schools mean to the communities they serve.

Our third panel (Media) is a little different. Here we are hoping our media panelists will do what the press does – reflect on our past, question the popular narratives, and opine on the direction schools should go. Media panelists may also reflect on stories they have covered.

It should be a great day.

EKU to host Forum on the History of Education in Kentucky

Here's another little project of mine...organizing the program for this:

A day-long forum at Eastern Kentucky University on Thursday, Sept. 8, will examine the “History of Education in Kentucky.”

Governmental leaders, historians, educators, journalists and others will discuss the past, present and future of the Commonwealth’s public and private P-16 educational system.

The forum was prompted by the recent release of A History of Education in Kentucky by Dr. Bill Ellis, EKU Foundation professor emeritus of history. A History of Education in Kentucky is the only up-to-date, single-volume history of education in the Commonwealth.  Ellis illuminates the successes and failures of public and private education since the settlement of Kentucky and demonstrates how 19th-century political leaders created a culture that devalued public education and refused to adequately fund it. He also analyzes efforts by policy makers and teachers to enact vital reforms and establish adequate, equal education.  Ellis discusses ongoing battles related to religious instruction, integration and the Kentucky Education Reform Act (KERA). The book is published by University Press of Kentucky.

Sponsors of the event, which will take place from 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. at Eastern's Perkins Building, are EKU, the University Press of Kentucky, Kentucky Educational Television and WEKU-FM.

Confirmed participants include:

• The keynote luncheon speaker, former Gov. Paul Patton, now president of the University of Pikeville
• Dr. Bob King, president of the Kentucky Council on Postsecondary Education
• Dr. Terry Holliday, Kentucky commissioner of education
• Dr Doug Whitlock, president of Eastern Kentucky University
• Stu Silberman, executive director of the Prichard Committee
• Renee Shaw, producer with Kentucky Educational Television
• Elaine Farris, Superintendent of the Clark County Schools and Kentucky's first African American superintendent
• Ruthanne Palumbo, legislator
• Kevin Noland, who co-authored KERA and served as interim Commissioner of Education on more than one occassion; presently teaching at UofL
• Richard Angelo, Professor of Education Policy Studies at UK
• Dr Lindsey Apple, Professor of History, Georgetown College, retired
• Dr John Hardin, Professor of History, Western Kentucky University
• Linda Blackford, reporter, Herald-Leader
• Mark Hebert, Director of Communications, UofL and former reporter for WHAS-TV
• and we are awaiting confirmation from several more panlelists

The forum will utilize three moderator-lead roundtable discussions:

• P-12 Education: moderated by Bill Goodman, Kentucky Tonight host on KET
• Higher Education: moderated by David Hawpe, retired editor of the Louisville Courier-Journal
• Media Panel: moderated by Tom Eblen, columnist with the Lexington Herald-Leader

These lively roundtable discussions will explore the historical issues facing Kentucky schools, many of which are still issues today. 

The registration fee of $70 (plus $3 handling fee) includes a continental breakfast, lunch and a signed copy of Ellis’s book. To register with Visa or MasterCard, call EKU Conferencing and Events at 859-622-1444 and provide name, title, school/business, telephone number and e-mail address.

For more information about the event or to be placed on the forum’s mailing list, contact Marc Whitt, associate vice president for public relations at EKU, at marc.whitt@eku.edu.