Brown Hangs it Up

Surprising news out of Warren County today as former Superintendent of the Year and Commissioner candidate Dale Brown announces his retirement. Hummm.

This from the Bowling Green Daily News:

Warren County Schools Superintendent Dale Brown made the surprise announcement at Monday night’s school board meeting that he plans to retire effective Sept. 1.

After nine years supervising a district that has exploded with growth, Brown said “it’s time for a change.”

“I’ve always been told that when it’s time for a change, you know it,” he said. “And I feel I need to move on and pursue other opportunities in education and that’s what I intend to do. I’m going to take some time, but I always want to work in education. It’s been my life.”

The superintendent would not specify his future plans, but did tell the board there was “no plan B” when jokingly asked if he would reconsider.

Brown has spent the past 29 years of his life in public education, beginning as a speech pathologist in the Hart County school district in 1980 and touring the county as a head teacher, principal and director of gifted and special education.

In 1990, Brown became the assistant superintendent in Carroll County public schools before moving to Warren County as the director of finance and personnel and assistant superintendent in 2000.Almost nine years to the day since he was appointed superintendent on Aug. 14, 2000, Brown said he will miss the students, staff and administrators of Warren County the most when he leaves.“

Anything that has taken place in Warren County schools has been the result of teamwork and everyone working together for the community and the good of the child,” he said. “And that’s what I’m most proud of.” ...

Bill in state Senate would overhaul CATS, but some parts viewed skeptically

This from the Daily News by way of KSBA:

Western Kentucky Superintendents want testing changes to be modest

A bill currently sitting in the lap of state senators may change the way Kentucky students are assessed each year.

Senate Bill 1 suggests several changes to the Commonwealth Accountability Testing System, which for the past 10 years has been used to determine how well students are grasping fundamental learning and communication skills.

While the Senate was expected to vote on the bill Friday, it tabled the decision for further discussion this week. And while local superintendents agree that it’s time to re-examine CATS, not every suggested change is welcome.

One of the most dramatic changes would be the elimination of student writing portfolios from the annual assessment.

Dale Brown, superintendent of Warren County Public Schools, served on the task force for state assessment and accountability for the Kentucky Department of Education in 2008. He said the discussion of removing the writing component was proposed in session, and that the committee “finally had to agree to disagree.”

“I think writing is critical,” Brown said. “We possibly need to look at changes, but not removing writing from the assessment.”

The bill also proposes removing the evaluation of practical living, vocational studies, arts and humanities from the test, while still requiring the school to provide a separate assessment of those fields on its own...

...Brown said he thinks there are too many standards required in assessment, and that it may be best to identify the most critical ones and have students master those for assessment purposes. He also said it’s critical to student success that instruction be directed toward national standards, and that in turn the students will test better.

“This is not about chasing CATS,” Brown said. “It’s about identifying key standards and making sure students meet those standards.”

In his State of the Commonwealth address Wednesday, Gov. Steve Beshear suggested reviewing the Kentucky Education Reform Act as a whole, announcing he
will launch a task force to provide more consistent services....

...[Bowling Green Independent Schools Superintendent Joe] Tinius said he would like to see the current programs fully funded, in order to see if they could be successful, before abandoning them completely.

“We’re only getting 80 percent of what the (funding formula) says we should get for transportation,” he said. “Before we go into a different direction, we should fund the programs as they were intended and see.”

He also said scrapping the whole KERA format and starting over is not the solution...

Dale Brown on CATS Task Force

This from the Daily News by way of KSBA:

Brown will help review CATS test

A task force of educators from around the state, including Warren County Schools Superintendent Dale Brown, will get the opportunity to shape Kentucky’s education accountability model.

Brown will join other educators and members of the General Assembly to review the current design of the Commonwealth Accountability Testing System. Brown will be representing the Partnership for Successful Schools - a Lexington-based nonpartisan education advocacy organization - on the task force. “With any assessment, we should always be open to review,” Brown said.

The task force will seek input from teachers, administrators, parents, business people, elected officials, education advocacy groups and others. The group will be looking at each component of the accountability model - to determine the effectiveness in meeting the needs of students - and make recommendations toward the future assessment design, Brown said.The group will have its first meeting in July.

The task force is a result of years of legislators looking at ways to overhaul how tudent growth is measured, said Lisa Gross, director of communications for the Kentucky Department of Education. The testing system is key part of the Kentucky
Education Reform Act.“There are a lot of people that just don’t like CATS,” she said. “There has been criticism of the system, and there are legislators that are just not fond of it.”

After Senate Bill 1, which would have replaced CATS with other standardized tests, failed to pass the legislature this year, the Kentucky Department of Education said a statewide task force would be put together by Education Commissioner Jon E. Draud to review the student-testing system after the General Assembly ended.

CATS includes the Kentucky Core Content Test, in which students are tested in seven subject areas; nonacademic data; writing portfolios; alternate assessments for students with severe disabilities; and the ACT college entrance exam and its precursors, PLAN and EXPLORE.

While many legislators question the effectiveness of the state’s accountability model, Brown said it has worked for Warren County Schools.“We are making progress toward proficiency and some schools have already met proficiency,” he said. “But we must always be open to study and make recommendations to improve the current system.”

Commissioner Chatter

Stu said No. Roger says maybe.

Board members met Saturday for a special meeting and decided they wanted a Kentuckian for the Commissioner's job. Fayette County schools Superintendent Stu Silberman is not interested in becoming state education commissioner, but Marion County Superintendent Roger Marcum said he would strongly consider it.

...Marcum, who is president of the state's superintendent association, said he was contacted during the first search but wasn't sure if he wanted to take on the task. But after watching the controversy with Erwin unfold, he's rethinking his stance.

"It just reaffirms to me that we've got some folks in Kentucky that are very capable of providing that kind of leadership," Marcum said. "I hope this time we find the right person."

Marcum also heads the Council for Better Education, a group representing most of the state's 175 school districts, which sued the legislature in 2003 for failing to adequately fund Kentucky schools. In February, a Franklin Circuit Court judge sided with the legislature. The CBE originally asked the case to go to trial, but recently dropped the lawsuit.

In addition to Silberman, Marcum suggested Warren County Superintendent Dale Brown and Blake Haselton, executive director of the Kentucky Association of School Superintendents, as noteworthy candidates.

This from the Herald-Leader.