Within the System or Without? Mitchell and Cheek Square Off on Technology

Turns out that would-be Kentucky Education Commissioners Mitchell Chester and Dennis Cheek squared off in June, in Philadelphia. The contrasts are notable.

This from Alana Goodman at Campus Report Online:

School of Future Shock

At Philadelphia’s School of the Future (SOF), textbooks have been replaced with laptops and high schoolers are taught core curriculum through technology-based programs like YouTube and instant messenger.

SOF is a charter school in the Philadelphia School District serving mostly low-income students, and was created through a 2006 partnership with the Microsoft Corporation. But the school, once hailed as “the next big thing” by National Public Radio, is struggling to live up to these high expectations.

SOF’s original goals were to supply each student with a laptop computer that he would personally care for, open the school to the community in order to educate urban adults in technology and use technology and a project-based curriculum to increase student learning. Unfortunately, problems have been plaguing the school since the beginning: Students are unable to properly care for their laptops, there is very little community involvement and test scores have been inconclusive in measuring student achievement.

On May 28, teachers, administrators and researchers got together at the American Enterprise Institute to analyze the successes and failures of the school.

Some analysts expressed concern over what seemed like the lack of clear goals for SOF. “It’s very easy to convolute ends and means. Online learning is not the end…You need a very clear vision,” said Mitch Chester, commissioner of the Massachusetts public schools.

“When not wanting to be like what exists becomes one of the main qualities, you can’t grow on what’s good,” Chester added. “You reject what might be worth saving.”

...However, some analysts believe that SOF will never be able to foster innovation as long as it is working within the public school district.

Dennis Cheek argued that technology in schools has an inverse relationship to the strength of teachers unions. “The system is resistant to technology,” he said. “Technology is going to take some of the jobs of teachers.”

Chester E. Finn, president of the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, agreed that working within the system is not going to yield results. “Vendors are not reformers. Consultants are not agitators,” he said. “At the end of the day, are we talking about school reform, or are we talking about being consultants to a system that does not want to change?”

Margaret Cullinane, the director of innovation and business development for the Microsoft Corporation, disagreed that innovation could not happen within the public school districts, saying that you “can only change the system if you’re involved in the system.”

Massachusetts Goes to a Value-Added Assessment

Mitchell Chester continues to innovate in Massachusetts. This week he introduced a type of value-added assessment system - the kind Kentucky should now be considering.

Oh by the way... he's the guy the Kentucky Board of Education should have hired instead of flirting with Barbara Erwin.

This from the Boston Globe:

Mass plans to track students' progress, not just scores

MALDEN—Each fall when the state releases MCAS scores, principals often blame a dip in scores on the students, tactfully arguing that the class in question was perhaps not as superb a group of mathematicians or voracious readers as their predecessors.

State education leaders plan to inject a reality check this fall into the "good class
vs bad class" debate by tracking the performance of individual students as they advance from one grade to the next. The new measurement could shed light on who is falling short -- teacher or pupil -- and lead to fundamental changes in the way students are taught.

Mitchell D. Chester, the state commissioner of elementary and secondary education, said yesterday that the new analysis will make it harder for local school leaders to be dismissive of poor test scores.

"It takes away a lot of the excuse-making," Chester said at yesterday's meeting of the state Board of Elementary and Secondary Education where the new system was unveiled.

Under the current system, the state judges a school's success by comparing its MCAS scores at each particular grade level to the scores posted by that grade the year before. The English and math MCAS tests are given in grades 3 through 8 and in grade 10.

Many teachers and adminstrators have chastized the approach as an apples-and-oranges comparison because the variation could simply reflect a class of particularly gifted or challenged students. The problem can be especially acute at small schools, where there are only a few dozen students at each grade level and the performance of a handful of students can create dramatic shifts.

Using the new tool, the state will augment that analysis by examining the performance of individual students or classes of students over the period of several years, starting in the third-grade.

The examination of current and past scores will allow them to predict students' likelihood for improvement in the future and assess whether they are on track to meet expectations. If a number of a students at a particular school are exceeding the statistical predictions, that could indicate that the administrators and teachers there have identified promising teaching methods. If a number of students are falling short of predictions, that would indicate there could be a problem...

Tougher NCLB Standards Challenge Top States

This from the Boston Globe:

Half of schools in Mass. fall short

Federal standards getting tougher

Half of all Massachusetts public schools this year failed to meet achievement standards established by the state under the No Child Left Behind Act.

That includes 100 of 143 public schools in Boston, according to a report released yesterday by the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education.

The number of underachieving schools rose sharply from last year, when 37 percent failed to meet performance standards under the federal law.

Commissioner of Education Mitchell Chester said the schools aren't getting worse - federal guidelines are getting tougher...

Mitchell Chester Goes to Massachusetts

Remember him?

He's Mitchell Chester.


Of the three original finalists named by the Kentucky Board of Education in April for the Commissioner's job, he's the one they should have hired, rather than going throught that whole mess with Barbara Erwin. The Board did avoid pursuing Richard La Pointe - who would have arguably been even worse.

But yesterday, the Massachusetts Board of Education hired Mitchell to be their new commissioner - the first out-of-stater since the 1980s. Massachusetts Board Chair Paul Reville said Chester's "national presence was a strong factor, but at the same time, he had the local experience that's very important to people in the field."

Massachusetts was the top state in the most recent round of NAEP testing but that only earned them a B on their Quality Counts report card. Even so, the typical problem for top performers is addressing the achievement gap - and that will be Chester's chore #1 in New England.

This from the Boston Globe: Photo by Tracy Jan Globe Staff/January 18, 2008:

New education chief facing a big test

Chester must address an achievement gap
between rich, poor

An Ohio education official with a national reputation for inspiring change beat out two other finalists for the top education post in Massachusetts, becoming the first out-of-stater to hold the job since 1986.

Mitchell Dan Chester said he is "not interested in coming to Massachusetts to manage the status quo."

Mitchell Dan Chester, senior associate state superintendent in Ohio, impressed the Massachusetts Board of Education by declaring in an earlier public interview, "I'm not interested in coming to Massachusetts to manage the status quo." ...

...Massachusetts routinely scores at the head of a list of states on national tests, but it also has one of the worst achievement gaps between poor and rich students in reading and math, said Chester, citing a recent national study. More than a third of public high school graduates attending Massachusetts public colleges must take remedial courses.

The state needs to address graduation requirements that are too lax to adequately prepare students for college, Chester said. He has called for extending the school year in underperforming, high-poverty schools and attracting top-notch teachers to those schools by paying them more.

"The gaps are large, and there's no reason why we shouldn't be doing a better job in the state of educating our poor and underrepresented populations," Chester said in a phone interview yesterday. "I'm very excited to be selected, to have the confidence of the state board. I'm looking forward to serving the students and educators of Massachusetts."

Growth Models Across America -- And More Pilots To Come

Alexander Russo @ This Weeek in Education asks:

"...[W]ho needs a reauthorization when you can just change the law as much as you want without anyone really protesting?"

...[Yesterday] the EdSec announced more growth model approvals. The latest three include Alaska, Arizona, and (last week) Florida.

...Additional waivers/pilots to look for in the coming months while reauthorization languishes include: that "just missed" AYP designation that she talked about last week in USA Today, a blanket waiver of some kind on [Highly Qualified Teachers] (statutorily, it's time to declare 40-plus states out of compliance and start doing compliance agreements).

This from the U S Education Secretary's press release.

To date, seven states have been fully approved to implement their growth models. In May 2006, North Carolina and Tennessee received full approval for the 2005-2006 school year. Last November, Delaware and Arkansas received full approval for the 2006-2007 school year. Additionally, Florida was conditionally approved by the Department in November and received full approval on June 26 to implement their growth model for the 2006-2007 school year. Ohio’s growth model [Does anyone remember Mitchell Chester, one of Kentucky's Commish finalists? He's in charge of Ohio's testing program and might have provided much needed leadership and competence to a state with a jumbled assessment system - and apparently a newly dumbed down test.] was approved in May on the condition that the state adopt a uniform minimum group size for all subgroups, including students with disabilities and limited English proficient students, in AYP determinations for the 2006-2007 school year. The Department plans to approve no more than 10 high-quality growth models for the pilot program.

"A growth model is a way for states that are already raising achievement and following the bright-line principles of the law to strengthen accountability," Secretary Spellings said. "Alaska and Arizona were recognized by our impressive group of peer reviewers to have written strong growth models that adhere to the core principles of No Child Left Behind."

...The bright-line principles for high-quality growth models are:

· Ensure that all students are proficient by 2014 and set annual state goals to ensure that the achievement gap is closing for all groups of students;

· Set expectations for annual achievement based upon meeting grade-level proficiency and not upon student background or school characteristics;

· Hold schools accountable for student achievement in reading/language arts and mathematics;
· Ensure that all students in tested grades are included in the assessment and accountability system, hold schools and districts accountable for the performance of each student subgroup, and include all schools and districts;

· Include assessments, in each of grades 3 through 8 and high school, in both reading/language arts and mathematics that have been operational for more than one year and have received approval through the NCLB standards and assessment review process for the 2005-06 school year. The assessment system must also produce comparable results from grade to grade and year to year;

· Track student progress as part of the state data system; and
· Include student participation rates and student achievement as separate academic indicators in the state accountability system.

Finalist Mitchell comments on multi-state effort to write national algebra II standards

The Cleveland Plain Dealer reports:

NOTE: Mitchell Chester, who is quoted in the article, is one of 3 finalists for Kentucky Education Commissioner.

Educators will soon be able to determine whether students taking Algebra II in Lakewood, Ohio, are learning as much as students taking the same class 490 miles away in Lakewood, N.J.

That's because the two states are part of a nine-state consortium that has developed a common, end-of-course Algebra II exam. It marks the largest effort a group of states has undertaken to develop a common assessment based on common standards...

The exam, which will be available to districts in May 2008, will give Ohio educators an external gauge of how their classes measure up against very similar standards in other states, said Mitchell Chester, associate Ohio superintendent for policy and accountability.

Districts do not have to administer the exam. But interest in such an assessment appears to be high, Chester said.

About 200,000 students in nine states - Kentucky, Arkansas, Indiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania and Rhode Island, as well as New Jersey and Ohio - are expected to take the exam.

"This kind of end-of-the-course exam will provide districts with a lot of feedback on how their curriculum is matching up," Chester said. "We have to have our eyes open as to whether our students are leaving high school prepared to compete in a global economy."
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Kentucky Education Commissioner finalist: Mitchell Chester

Finalists for Kentucky Commissioner of Education
Published comments from various newspapers


Mitchell ChesterAge: 55 Education: Master's and doctorate degrees in administration,
planning and social policy from Harvard University.
He also holds advanced degrees from the University of Connecticut
and the University of Hartford.
Family: Married with a daughter and two sons.

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Academic report cards increasingly complex
Plain Dealer, The (Cleveland, OH)August 20, 2006

…In 2007-08, [school report cards] will include data from Ohio's nascent "value-added" model - a new and sometimes controversial data analysis that measures the effectiveness of schools based on the amount of academic progress students make from year to year.The value-added system uses a mind-boggling array of data to track the performance of public school students in third through eighth grade.

Every student in the state has been assigned an individual identification number that will allow educators to monitor performance, regardless of how many times he or she changes districts."We think we're providing a very robust, accurate picture of the district," Mitchell Chester, associate state superintendent for policy and accountability, said during the release of this year's reports. "We like to think the mystery is taken out of the system."

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Some schools feel left behind - State report cards show improvement, but some districts bemoan federal act
Columbus Dispatch, The (OH)August 15, 2006

A third of Ohio school districts improved their grades last school year, but many districts struggled to ensure that their poor, disabled, minority and non-English-speaking students were keeping up. Last year's test scores boosted 200 of the state's 610 school districts to a higher rating, the Ohio Department of Education announced today. Now, 491 districts are rated excellent or effective -- equal to an A or B, respectively. None landed in academic emergency, the equivalent of an F. Of the 262 charter schools receiving report cards, about 49 percent are rated in the bottom two categories, compared with 71 percent on the previous report card."This is real improvement," said Mitchell Chester, who oversees testing and accountability for the state. "Almost 97 percent of districts improved their (performance) over last year."

… "I think this shines light ... on where the gaps exist," Chester said in defending the federal progress measure. "The situation probably existed in the past, but we didn't unmask it."

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Report cards show A's for effort
Plain Dealer, The (Cleveland, OH)August 15, 2006

"It's as the law is titled - No Child Left Behind," said Mitchell Chester, the state's associate superintendent for policy and accountability. "It's not about making exceptions. We think it's the right thing to do. We look at all children and not just some children."

…The optimism surrounding the testing gains is tempered by concerns about funding. Many districts have been forced to lay off teachers and make deep program cuts during the last two years, and public enthusiasm for raising taxes to pay for schools remains low. In the Aug. 6 election, 71 percent of the school tax issues statewide failed."Investment in public education is crucial," Chester said. "Educators can't do it alone."

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No Child Left Behind yields unfair state ratings, districts say
Columbus Dispatch, The (OH)February 4, 2006

…David Estrop, superintendent of Lakewood schools, said the ratings are biased against diverse districts. Homogenous schools that don't have enough students in any subgroup aren't asked to meet most federal standards, he said.But state education officials argue that Ohio should have one rating system, not separate state and federal standards.

"We believe 'excellent' should be 'excellent' for all students in the districts, not just some of the students," said Mitchell Chester, who oversees testing and accountability for the Ohio Department of Education.

McVey fires back that state education officials are "out of touch" on the issue. Hilliard's population, he said, has grown rapidly, and a number of new students have little English-speaking ability."We cannot expect these students to become academically proficient within a few short years," he said.

Chester said state lawmakers already have built in plenty of leeway for districts.The bill that created Ohio's new testing and report-card system in 2003 says a district's rating is not hurt unless it misses federal standards for three straight years.

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A new way to evaluate success in schools
Plan will use data analysis to measure the progress for each Ohio student
Plain Dealer, The (Cleveland, OH)October 13, 2005

Ohio is preparing for a revolutionary change in the way it measures how schools and teachers are performing. The “value-added” model – a new and sometimes controversial data analysis used in only a handful of states – measures the effectiveness of schools based on the amount of academic progress students make from year to year.

“In a lot of educators’ minds, the benefit of value-added is that it takes into account the fact that we don’t all work with the same kids,” said Mitchell Chester, an assistant superintendent with the Ohio Department of Education. He addressed a task force Wednesday charged with implementing value-added statewide by the 2007-08 school year.Value-added could radically redefine how Ohio’s school districts are performing. Districts with chronically low test scores might be lauded for making significant progress, given where their students started. Likewise, the state’s best-performing districts based on test scores could have their egos deflated if it is found their students are not progressing year-to-year…

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Schools make strides
Cincinnati Enquirer, The (OH)August 16, 2005

…Mitchell Chester, the state's associate superintendent for policy and accountability, said he was proud of the progress of all of Ohio's eight largest public systems. "For the first time since we've given these designations, three of the Big Eight are in continuous improvement," he said, listing Akron, Cincinnati and Toledo public school systems. Two of the big urban districts, Columbus and Canton, are in "academic watch." He declined to comment on the other three…

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Fewer schools meeting goals
Cincinnati Enquirer, The (OH)August 16, 2005

…”We've seen results going up for four or five years," said Mitchell Chester, the state's associate superintendent of policy and accountability. "We know school districts are delivering improved instruction and higher test scores, and they're doing it with the resources they have…"

..."We know we need to focus more on math and science, statewide and in the middle grades," Chester said. He said the state would push for more teacher training in math and science…

… Chester said the bar for federal standards rose this year for the first time and will continue to rise. Schools and districts that don't make adequate yearly progress for two years or more face sanctions from having to bus students to other public schools and districts, to having to pay for vouchers to send them to private schools.Chester said Ohio schools have made progress narrowing the achievement gaps of minority, poor and disabled students. Nevertheless, black high school students drop out at three times the rate of their white peers, and nearly 30 percent of Ohio's Hispanic students do not graduate from high school, he said…

… As an educational alternative, charter schools are growing in numbers in large, urban districts like Cincinnati. However, fewer than half the 264 charter schools in Ohio received state ratings on the various indicators this year, Chester said. Of the 130 that received ratings, 71 percent were in "academic watch" or "academic emergency," an increase from the 56 percent that rated so low last year, Chester said.

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Grades are in; Results unclear Ohio scores chasing tougher standards
Plain Dealer, The (Cleveland, OH)August 16, 2005

…Under No Child Left Behind, states are required to raise academic targets every two years. That’s why fewer schools (76 percent) and fewer districts (56 percent) met AYP. Districts and schools that continually miss AYP face sanctions ranging from using tax dollars to offer students outside tutoring to converting to a charter school. “There’s no question that raising the bar on standards for AYP has had an impact,” said Mitchell Chester, an assistant state superintendent…

… “We’ve seen results go up, but we are very concerned we may be reaching a point of diminishing returns if we don’t invest in Ohio’s education system,” Chester, the assistant state superintendent, said.

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LAGGING STUDENTS CAN TRY NEW TEST

Ohio begins switch to graduation exam to earn a diploma
Columbus Dispatch, The (OH)March 6, 2005

… Students rarely make it all the way to 12th grade and don't pass the exam, said Mitchell Chester, who oversees Ohio's testing program. Those students haven't learned material the test is designed to measure, he said…

… Chester said juniors and seniors might do better on the new test simply because they've been in high school longer and have taken more courses…

… Passing rates, called "cut scores," for the science, social-studies and writing portions, won't be set until June, Chester said, after the state sees how well students do on this month's tests….

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Bill would relax school sanctions
Plain Dealer, The (Cleveland, OH)December 2, 2004

… The bill that passed the Senate Wednesday states that a failing-grade group, as long as others have shown academic progress over the previous year, will no longer drop a district into the lower category…

… “This bill doesn’t change at all the fact that every district has to demonstrate to its community that students from every group are learning at a grade-level standard,” said Mitchell Chester, assistant superintendent for policy and accountability for the education department…

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BILL WOULD SOFTEN 'NO CHILD' ACT'S RULES

Ohio plan may make sanctions less likely for school districts
Columbus Dispatch, The (OH)November 26, 2004

Some call it flexibility. Others call it backtracking. But if a recently proposed education-accountability measure becomes rule in Ohio, this much will be true: It will be harder for school districts to be labeled failures. "It is a watering down of rigor and of standards and expectations," said Terry Ryan, program director for the Thomas B. Fordham Foundation in Dayton, which supports the charter-school movement…

… State education leaders say Ohio's accountability system won't be weakened. "People should not see this as backtracking or weakening or lowering standards," said Mitchell Chester, who oversees testing and accountability for the Ohio Department of Education. "It really focuses on those districts not showing good achievement at any level and distinguishes those districts having success at some levels that require a lesser form of intervention."In central Ohio, the Columbus, Hamilton, Newark and South-Western districts are on the list.

Chester speculated that none of them would be affected by the change because they are not close to meeting the improvement goals.The Education Trust, a Washington-based nonprofit that tracks changes in No Child Left Behind, is supportive of the change -- as long as it affects only districts…

… Progress goals -- and the sanctions in place when they're missed for too long -- will remain in place at the school level, Chester said….

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Achievement gap remains in Ohio schools
Plain Dealer, The (Cleveland, OH)November 12, 2004

Six years of steady academic gains have failed to erase Ohio’s large achievement gap between white and minority students, according to a just-released report.

…“In some sense, Ohio is a victim of its success with all students,” said Assistant State Superintendent Mitchell Chester. “One of the concerns I have with the report is that someone might conclude that no progress has been made, and that would be an inaccurate conclusion. You see very, very strong progress.”The Ohio report is different from other state data because it compares the average raw test scores of students year-to-year rather than the test passage rate for each group of students. Chester said he believes the passage rate is a better gauge because it is the standard to which schools and districts are held accountable…

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Student test scores improve
Cincinnati Enquirer, The (OH)August 24, 2004

Mitchell Chester, assistant state superintendent for policy development, said he's concerned that many black and Hispanic students are not reaching an education level to ensure success as adults. "Most of our students, regardless of the group that they're from, are making gains," he said. "However, there is a large gap."On the reading section of the fourth-grade test, white students outperformed blacks by 29 percentage points. The gap was 33 percentage points for math and 37 percentage points for science.

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SPECIAL-ED STUDENTS GIVE SCHOOLS NEW CHALLENGE

Disabled students' scores can hinder state ratings, some officials say
Columbus Dispatch, The (OH)August 25, 2003

Some central Ohio school officials attribute lower ratings on this year's state report cards, in part, to the inclusion of all disabled students' proficiency-test scores. They question whether the new requirement is fair for students with mental or physical disabilities.

Helping all students reach their potential is the overriding goal of the No Child Left Behind Act, said Mitchell Chester, assistant superintendent for policy development for the Ohio Department of Education."Accountability for students with disabilities has been a tremendous lightning rod in this new federal legislation," he said. "Are there superintendents that are frustrated? Yes. And then there are superintendents who think it is the right thing to do."

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DO THE MATH - Practice test shows where schools need to help more students
Columbus Dispatch, The (OH)July 15, 2003

…"In many high schools, there are too many students who are not experiencing the kind of math curriculum that the state board and math educators think is essential," said Mitchell Chester, assistant state superintendent, such as algebra and geometry classes.School districts need to match their curricula to state standards, which were designed to prepare students for life beyond high school. Those efforts should begin soon, because this fall's freshman class will have to pass the test to graduate…

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OHIO STUDENTS SCORE BETTER THAN NATIONAL AVERAGE ON TEST

8th-graders ahead of curve in writing
Columbus Dispatch, The (OH)July 12, 2003

Ohio's eighth-graders can write better than many of their peers across the United States…
… "It's a testament to having a coordinated effort around literacy," said Mitchell Chester, Ohio assistant superintendent…

… But achievement gaps in Ohio remain. "They're troubling," Chester said. Solving them, "is one of the state board's top priorities. It's about offering challenging courses to all."In Ohio, white fourth-graders' average scores were 21 points higher than those of their black peers. White eighth-graders' average scores were 32 points higher than black eighth-graders.Chester said the state is studying methods used by schools across Ohio where gaps seem to be closing. For example, in Steubenville in eastern Ohio, black fourth-graders met standards on all state tests and are catching up with white peers."One thing you hear very clearly there -- it's a no-excuse attitude," Chester said of Steubenville. "You can't say the problem is the kids. It's not a matter that they're from tough backgrounds. It's our job to educate them."

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NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND ACT
SCHOOLS FEAR LAW'S EFFECT ON TEST SCORES
Columbus Dispatch, The (OH)April 17, 2003

Gov. Bob Taft doesn't like it; state school Superintendent Susan T. Zelman doesn't like it; Columbus Public Schools Superintendent Gene Harris and many of her counterparts across the state don't like it. But the federal No Child Left Behind Act is about to force Ohio to change the way it calculates student proficiency rates. As a result, districts and schools can expect lower scores on state "report cards" this summer…

… "We've pushed back hard on them because we don't think the policy makes a lot of sense," said Mitchell Chester, assistant superintendent for policy development with the Ohio Department of Education.Chester described the state's ongoing tangle with federal officials as a "dogfight" that Taft and Zelman have weighed in on with letters to U.S. Secretary of Education Rod Paige…

… A bill under consideration in the Ohio House to bring the state into line with No Child Left Behind eliminates multiple rounds of testing in favor of an annual exam, Chester said.The Department of Education believes lawmakers should retain multiple testing dates but move the first test from October to March to give teachers more time to work with students, Chester said.But that would take away the October test as an evaluation tool for teachers to assess which students need help with reading.So state officials are considering a compromise in which districts could offer an October proficiency test that isn't officially given by the state, Chester said. That way, it wouldn't count in the state report card…

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OHIO'S PROFICIENCY TESTS 13TH BEST IN NATION, SURVEY FINDS
Columbus Dispatch, The (OH)June 19, 2002

…The Ohio Department of Education is working to develop assessment tests for students with disabilities and those with limited English proficiency, said Mitchell Chester, an assistant superintendent of the department.

Though students with disabilities have been tested differently for the past two years, the test for limited-English students will be new, he said.Those tests are part of a $33 million program that in the next two years will revamp the department's testing system, by developing more exams to replace current fourth-, sixth- and ninth-grade tests and more scoring categories to better identify struggling students.

The testing changes were prompted by the "No Child Left Behind" Act, which ties federal education money to schools' performance on accountability testing. Since President Bush signed that act earlier this year, evaluating testing has become especially important, Kutno said.

As for students from different places being given different tests, Chester said Ohio would rather have tests consistent across the state, so students can be measured against the same standards."There's a tension that exists between tests that address different learning styles and a system that is consistent," Chester said. "We come down on the side of consistency…"

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Kentucky Education Commissioner finalists

I spent most of yesterday researching the public comments of the three candidates for Kentucky Education Commissioner. My tentative findings will follow in 3 separate posts.

The finalists for the job are Mitchell Chester, an official with the Ohio Department of Education; Barbara Erwin, a superintendent in Illinois; and Richard LaPointe, a deputy assistant secretary from the U.S. Department of Education.

This from the Kentucky Post.

Three finalists picked for education chief

The Lexington Herald-Leader reports:

The state board of education released the names of three finalists for the commissioner of education position, at the urging of Gov. Ernie Fletcher.

Barbara Erwin, superintendent of St. Charles community Unit District 303 in Illinois, began her career as a teacher in 1971. She previously was superintendent in various settings in Indiana, Texas and Arizona and was principal of an elementary school.

Mitchell Chester, the senior associate state superintendent for the Ohio Department of Education's Office of Policy and Accountability, is the department's chief contact for implementation of the federal No Child Left Behind Act. He previously was executive director for accountability and assessment for the Philadelphia school district and chief of the Connecticut Department of Education Bureau of Curriculum and Instructional Programs.

Richard La Pointe, deputy assistant secretary for the U.S. Department of Education's Office of Vocational and Adult Education, previously was superintendent of public instruction in Virginia, where he developed a nationally recognized education-reform package. He also served as director of the Fund for the Improvement and Reform of Schools and Teaching, a federal discretionary fund to promote elementary and secondary reforms.

And this from the Courier-Journal.