Stimulus Includes $5 Billion Flexible Fund for Education Innovation

This from the Washington Post:

Education Secretary Arne Duncan would have $5 billion under the stimulus bill to back new approaches to improve schools, a fund that could prod states to raise standards and reward top teachers as the Obama administration presides over a massive infusion of federal education aid.

The Race to the Top Fund, as Duncan calls it, is part of about $100 billion the bill would channel to public schools, universities and early childhood education programs nationwide, helping stave off teacher layoffs, keep class sizes in check and jump-start efforts to revamp aging schools.

But the windfall also could mark the beginning of a deeper transformation of schools seven years after the No Child Left Behind law mandated an expansion of testing and new systems for school accountability.

"This is what I see as just an absolute historic opportunity," Duncan told reporters yesterday. He said the stimulus bill would help the Obama administration hammer three themes: "First and foremost, protecting children. Secondly, saving and creating jobs. And third, pushing a significant reform agenda."

President Obama in recent days has repeatedly stressed a bold approach to improve public education. In a surprise foray out of the White House last week to read to schoolchildren, he chose a D.C. public charter school as a backdrop.

"What I've asked Arne Duncan to do is to make sure that he works as hard as he can over the next several years to make sure that we're reforming our schools, that we're rewarding innovation the way that it's taking place here," Obama said at Capital City Public Charter School.

Obama campaigned on promises to increase federal funding for schools, responding to complaints from teachers unions and many educators who have long argued that Washington has made demands on schools without paying its fair share. But he also said he would shake up the status quo, drawing on a host of methods, including performance-pay plans with teachers' blessing, alternative teacher training programs and charter schools, which are publicly financed but independently run.

The stimulus presents an unheard-of opportunity to push both agendas -- at least in the short term...

Error on test spotted by Kan. student 1 year later

This from the Washington Post:

WICHITA, Kan. -- A high school student's keen eye has caught a state test error that managed to slip past teachers, test coordinators and other students for almost a year.

Geoffrey Stanford, 17, discovered during a Kansas writing test last week that an essay question concerning greenhouse gases incorrectly used the word "omission" for the word "emission," prompting the Wichita East High School junior to point out the error.

"I thought, `Surely they're not talking about leaving out carbon dioxide altogether.' It just didn't make sense," Stanford said. "It had to be a mistake."

The state Department of Education has e-mailed a corrected version of the essay question to test coordinators around the state, but the incident already has caused a lot of red faces at the department, which used a committee of more than 30 state teachers to develop the test almost two years ago...

Tuition time

This from Nancy at C-J's Learning Curve:

Tuition -- and how much they will rise at public postsecondary institutions next fall -- will be the subject of a special meeting of the Kentucky Council on Postsecondary Education on Monday.

The council will not make any decisions at the meeting, which begins at 1:30 p.m. at the council's offices in Frankfort. Instead, the meeting will serve as a primer on institutional budgeting and tuition setting criteria.

It is expected the council will set ceilings for how high institution will be allowed to raise tuition for the coming academic year. The council is expected to vote on tuition parameters in March...

Fixing schools' broken accountability system

This from JCTA President Brent McKim - refreshingly, sounding more like a professional teacher than a union thug - in the Courier-Journal:

Kentucky's education accountability system is broken and must be fixed. When the Kentucky Education Reform Act created our ground-breaking accountability system, the concept was simple: Identify clearly what schools are to teach and hold them accountable for doing so through a high-stakes statewide assessment.

Although many of the highest performing countries in the world, such as Finland and Singapore, do not use accountability as the basis for school improvement, the KERA model is certainly a workable one. However, there are some critical assumptions that must be met if the system is to promote good teaching and learning, which should be the ultimate goal:

The expectations for what is to be learned each year must be clearly identified for educators, students and parents.

The amount to be learned in a given year must be reasonable and teachable...

...Unfortunately... [t]he process for defining what we want students to know and be able to do was essentially to bring in groups of teachers, provide them technical assistance, and ask them, "What should we teach in your grade level or course?" Put a dozen teachers in a room, each with their own favorite topics, and the answer comes back "Everything!" every time. No one began by listing all the topics and asking the teachers, "How long would it take to teach each topic to a typical class of learners?" No one then said, "OK, now we are going to determine our content standards, but the rule is, we can't pick more standards than there is time to teach them." ...

... [L]ittle or no thought was given to whether there was enough time in a school year to teach all the standards... Because educators are expected to teach a "mile-wide" set of standards, we find ourselves jettisoning our best teaching methods in an attempt to blaze through all the content for the given year in hopes that enough will "stick" to allow our students to do well on the state assessment. It's all about covering topics, not about teaching to mastery for all students. We simply don't have time for that...

...As we move into the 21st Century, where an overwhelming amount of information (and misinformation) is just a "Google" away, we need a system that focuses less on what facts students know and more on what ability they have to acquire and make judgments about information. This focus on student capacities should guide us as we redesign our school improvement system...

Don't kill CATS, fix it

This from the Herald-Leader:

The challenge for lawmakers is to fix what drives people crazy about CATS without dumbing down what goes on in Kentucky classrooms.

The Senate has approved a plan that would set the state back 20 years to its days as the nation's education bottom-dweller.

All most people want, however, is some relief from weeks of test practice and endless re-writing of portfolio pieces.

Many parents would be astounded to learn that in most grades, CATS (the Commonwealth Accountability Testing System) requires no more than a dozen hours of testing a year.

The anti-CATS backlash is not so much a reaction to the test's content as to the numbing time drain it has become on teachers and kids.

It's not surprising that educators went overboard coaching students for a test that can get a school branded a failure. But it's poor education practice, bordering on cheating, and should be reined in.

Schools can prepare for CATS in the regular rhythm of teaching and classroom assessment. That's how it was always supposed to be.

What no one needs is the dumbing down that would be the inevitable, if unintended, effect of Senate Bill 1, which emerged from the Senate last week...

Quick Hits

Jefferson County Public Schools has too many inexperienced teachers at its at-risk schools: The findings from the $250,000 study also said the district's labor contract with teachers could be hindering classroom instruction by preventing principals from moving educators where they are needed most. (The Courier-Journal)

Jenkins' Bill Requires Defib Machines At All H.S. Practices: Rep. Joni Jenkins of Louisville has proposed legislation that would require portable defibrillators at every high school sports practice and game. The bill also requires that ice baths be avaiable at any practice or game when the temperature is above 94 degrees. The bill is in reaction to the heat related death of a PRP football player last year. His coach has now been charged with a felony in connection with the death. (Mark Hebert)

MBA students seek backup plan in tough times: For decades, investment banking was a well-worn path to affluence for business-school graduates. But as Wall Street teeters, many are scrambling to find alternate routes into a brutal job market. (CNN)



Hundreds Of Chicago School Students Beaten By Teachers; Beaten With Brooms, Choked, Pushed Down Stairs...: Hundreds of students have allegedly been beaten by teachers, coaches and staff at Chicago Public Schools. 2 Investigator Dave Savini continues his ongoing investigation involving the illegal use corporal punishment. (CBS News)

Few women on colleges' boards: The percentage of women attending college nationally has increased dramatically in recent decades, but their representation on the schools' governing boards has crept up much slower. (Post and Courier)

Group threatens lawsuit over public schools' graduations at church: Several Waukesha County schools that use Elmbrook Church for graduation ceremonies should move their events to secular locations or risk a lawsuit, a national organization that advocates separation of church and state warned Wednesday. (Milwaukee Journal Sentinel)

Charter school bill for autistic kids advances: The Senate education committee Thursday voted to create up to three charter schools to serve children with autism and related disorders. (Rocky Mountain News)

SRC poised to greenlight six charter schools: The Philadelphia School Reform Commission appears poised to approve seven new charter schools, six of which would open this fall. (Philadelphia Inquirer)

Cyber charter suit raises free-speech questions: For months, parents from the Agora Cyber Charter School in Devon were e-mailing about their difficulties obtaining information on the financial arrangement between the school's founder and her management company. (Philadelphia Inquirer)

Time for that 'sextortion' talk with your teen: As a parent, I thought I knew a few things about teenagers. And as a male, I figured I understood how guys think. After hearing last week about the New Berlin Facebook sextortionist, I'm not so sure. (Milwaukee Journal Sentinel)

What to do when children share nude photos via their cell phones: The Overland Park high schooler thought her boyfriend would appreciate some naughty photos of herself. It would be their cell phone secret. (Kansas City Star)

Cyber sex case stumps parents: Talking to kids about sexuality, body issues and intimate relationships has never been easy, but add in the youth phenomena of social networking and cyber behavior, and many parents have little generational advice to offer. (Milwaukee Journal Sentinel)

District pays to chauffeur murder suspect to school: Special arrangement has teen accused in the murder of a beloved Pahokee high school football star "swaggering," observers say. (Palm Beach Post)

Minnesota charter schools are in for a change: As interest in the independently run but publicly funded schools explodes, so does legislators' desire to monitor them more closely. (Star Tribune)

AG urged to enforce black history classes in schools: Members of the Tallahassee Inter-Civic Council are asking the Florida Attorney General's Office to enforce a 1994 state law requiring black history to be taught in all school districts. (Tallahassee Democrat)

Economics sore subject for public schools: When states are forced to slash their budgets, schools are considered so important they’re usually immune from cuts — but not this time. See what’s at stake for K-12 and higher education in this excerpt from State of the States 2009, Stateline.org's annual report on significant state policy developments and trends. (Stateline. com)

Consensus on Assessment and Accountability

Calling themselves, 3KT, The Kentucky School Boards Association (KSBA), Kentucky Association of School Superintendents (KASS), and Kentucky Association of School Administrators (KASA), three of the state's most influential education advocacy groups joined in a statement of support for changes to CATS, Kentucky's assessment and accountability system.

KSBA, KASS, and KASA agree on many of the core issues in the debate to create a second generation of assessment and accountability in Kentucky’s education reform efforts. The founding members of the 3KT advocacy group do not collectively endorse all of the same concepts and issues; however, we can support the following common threads:

• Any new assessment must be valid at the student level and provide for longitudinal analysis of student achievement.
• Any new accountability system must include student level accountability.
• Any new assessment must include both norm-referenced testing (NRT) and criterion-referenced items. Our testing system should permit us to make comparisons available under an NRT model, but it must also establish proficiency standards and measure student performance against this
  goal.
• Any new assessment and accountability system should take a balanced approach that includes formative and summative assessments.
• Any new assessment and accountability system should incorporate end-of-course exams in core content areas to ensure curriculum alignment and
  rigor.
• Any new assessment and accountability system should align with NCLB/ESEA requirements and produce single, coherent results for students, parents, teachers, administrators, and our communities.
• Any new assessment system should reduce the amount of time spent testing, shift testing to the end of the school year, and provide more immediate results (60 days).
• Any new assessment system should include both multiple choice questions and open response items.
• Any new assessment system should eliminate the portfolio requirement at the 4th grade.
• Any new assessment and accountability system should be developed AFTER the revision of standards, and state standards should be narrowed, deepened, and amended to reflect accepted national standards.
• Any new assessment and accountability system should remove arts & humanities and practical living/vocational skills as long as these areas remain in the core content and a rigorous program evaluation is completed on each.

Beshear signs tax bill after Senate approval

This from Tom Loftus at C-J:

FRANKFORT, Ky. — Gov. Steve Beshear this afternoon signed into law tax-increase legislation that is a key part of the effort to eliminate the state’s $456 million revenue shortfall.

House Bill 144, given final legislative approval earlier in the day by the Senate, raises the state’s 30-cent-per-pack cigarette tax to 60 cents; also doubles taxes on other tobacco products; and applies the 6 percent sales tax to the retail sale of alcoholic beverages. The sales tax already applies to by-the-drink alcohol sales.

The tax increases take effect April 1.

The vote this morning in the Senate was 24-12, with 23 votes required for passage in the 38-member body.Twelve Republicans and 12 Democrats voted for it. One Democrat, Joey Pendleton of Hopkinsville, didn’t vote, citing a conflict.And Democrat Mike Reynolds, whose election to the Senate in a special election on Tuesday was certified by the State Board of Elections just this morning, was absent.

Senate President David Williams, R-Burkesville, said after all senators had voted that this week’s bipartisan approval of the emergency revenue measure sent a message that “Kentuckians have come together, Republicans and Democrats, House and Senate and the executive branch.” ...

This from the Governor:

Beshear, legislative leadership sign budget legislation

Cooperation, bipartisanship cited

in passage of package that will protect education,

health care, public safety

FRANKFORT, Ky. (Feb. 13, 2009)– Hailing a spirit of bipartisanship and Gov. Steve Beshear today signed a budget package that he said protects funding for basic education, health care and public safety.

“We believe we can’t move Kentucky forward tomorrow if we slide backward today in areas like education, public safety and health care,” said Gov. Beshear, flanked by Senate President David L. Williams and House Speaker Greg Stumbo. “I want to applaud and thank my colleagues – President Williams, Speaker Stumbo, Sen. Ed Worley and Rep. Jeff Hoover – for their leadership and commitment to this state.

“We don’t agree on everything. But we share certain values and priorities … With compromise from all parties we have been able to put together a package that solves this immediate problem while preserving our ability to react to future challenges.”

“By the passage of these two bills, we have faced the immediate problem and now we must turn to the hard work of the long term challenge,” Senate President Williams said.

“Today is an important step forward for Kentucky, and not just because of these bills being signed into law. The partnership that made this legislation possible is a firm foundation for taking on the problems we still face in the months and years ahead. I look forward to building on these efforts to see what more we can do for the commonwealth,” said House Speaker Stumbo.

In November 2008, a team of independent economists projected that the commonwealth would have a $456 million budget shortfall in this fiscal year. In December, Gov. Beshear put forward a proposal that combined additional spending cuts with modest revenue measures to close the shortfall.

The package approved today by the Kentucky Senate, and earlier this week by the House, includes some $150 million in additional spending cuts combined with a 30 cent increase in the cigarette tax and applies the state’s 6 percent sales tax to store sales of beer, wine and liquor.

Under the package, the basic education funding formula would be preserved from any cuts, while higher education would only be cut 2 percent. Medicaid funding also would be preserved from further cuts as would significant areas of public safety. Most other state agencies would be cut 4 percent. The downturn in the economy resulted in over $430 million in cuts in the state budget last year.

Gov. Beshear acknowledged that the budget package adopted today is not perfect and he also said that he will need to work in the near future with legislative leaders on an approach to next year’s budget, which will likely involve an even larger shortfall. Yet, the governor said that the level of cooperation between the executive and legislative branches should be a model for future discussions and negotiations going forward.

“We have not worried about credit or political points. We have not let the idea of what’s perfect be the enemy of what’s necessary,” Gov. Beshear said. “We have, simply put, practiced the politics of what’s possible.”

“We know today’s action – as significant as it is and as important as it is for our children – is but a temporary solution,” the governor said. “But I’m convinced that if we maintain the level of commitment and the spirit of cooperation that we’ve demonstrated in recent weeks, next year’s mountain – no matter how steep – will be overcome.”

SOURCE: Gov's press release

Has Ramsey's Post-Felner PR Campaign Resorted to Lies?

The allegation being made over at Page One Kentucky is that UofL President James Ramsey "lied his rear end off" in a radio interview this week on WFPL's "State of Affairs."

When the interviewer asked Ramsey about the "damage to trust" due to numerous faculty grievances that were swept under the rug at UofL's College of Education, and whether those concerns were "heard and responded to" Ramsey responded that his trust was violated by former Dean Robert Felner.

To a degree, that must surely be true.

But still surprisingly, he treated the whole matter as if the only problem was a failure of the process - that Felner, not being from Louisville, did not follow the process. But Ramsey seemed to wash his hands of the process saying,

"I'm not involved in it, and really, the Provost is not involved in it." ...

"There were four grievances filed, against the former dean and none of them really made it to my desk as a problem."

Really? ...as a problem?

So is Ramsey suggesting that he was unaware that there were real problems? This, despite as many as 33 grievances consultations for sexual harassment and intimidation, four of which lead to formal grievances being filed under UofL's process, but most of which did not due an acknowledged fear that complaints would only lead faculty to be retaliated against.

And if Ramsey didn't see any real problems, why not?

As PageOne Kentucky reported, in 2005 the College of Education and Human Development was responsible for 42% (13) of faculty grievance consultations campus-wide. The 2006 report from Faculty Grievance Officer Suzanne Meeks showed that 15 (56%) of the 27 grievance consultations that took place were from the CEHD. Meeks confirmed in her letter that the Provost was very well aware of the problems.

Due to the number of consultations from CEHD, and the level of negative affect associated with those consultations, I have worked with the Provost’s office to recommend that they use administrative mechanisms to restore morale, faculty governance, and collegial interaction there. Although I believe interventions have been attempted, it is not be sense that they have yet been effective.

Again in 2007 more than 33% of the grievance consultations on campus came from the College of Education.

No problem?

Meeks reported to the Faculty Senate,

As with previous years, a disproportionate number of consultations have related to the College of Education and Human Development (one-third). Over the three years of my tenure as FGO, I have consulted with at least one-third of the CEHD faculty. Throughout this time, I have heard talk of retaliation against faculty members who file grievances or requests for mediation. The majority of those I have spoken with are not willing to file grievances because of this fear of retaliation, which extends to those who testify at grievance hearings as well. This situation demonstrates a significant weakness in the grievance system, in that there is no way to prevent such retaliation when one files a complaint against someone who has the power to determine work load agreements and salary increases, approve expenditures, and allocate resources.

Is Ramsey suggesting he and Provost Shirley Willihnganz were unaware of faculty senate proceedings? Both admitted they discounted the rare "no confidence" taken against Felner.

More likely, they didn't want to see the complaints as "a problem" - therefore, they weren't. In their minds Felner deserved credit for raising CEHD's ranking in US News and World Report. In his now famously unfortunate quip, Ramsey reduced such complaints to "anonymous crap." Calling faculty who were afraid to put their names on such complaints “cheap,” Ramsey credited Felner with “bringing about change that needed to be made.”

Willihnganz acknowledged that "the heat on this one is on us."

Now Ramsey says, "We're taking this very seriously," and called the whole episode "an opportunity to improve."

In an August letter, Ramsey assured the university community that an audit would take place. Now, the quality of that audit is being called into question. Page One Kentucky now reports,

Thanks to open records requests, we have been able to determine that there isn’t an audit per se. ...What is available, however, is a PowerPoint presentation from [Cotton + Allen] given to the Board of Trustees. It’s ‘Grants Management Internal Control - Preliminary Report to the Board of Trustees.’

See it here.

Ramsey called for a review of the grievance process and the entire shared governance model but the faculty committee that undertook the review was not charged with exploring infractions at the university, so it didn't.

Meanwhile, WLKY reports, a federal judge will hear arguments on March 25th about whether to suppress evidence in Felner's fraud case. Judge Charles R. Simpson also ruled against a separate motion asking him to suppress evidence taken from Felner's new office at the University of Wisconsin-Parkside.

Teacher caught under bleachers with camera

Wow. Two Animal House references in one day.

This from WAVE-TV:

BURNA, KY (AP) - Police in Mayfield have arrested a middle school teacher after he was seen under some bleachers allegedly photographing beneath cheerleaders' skirts.

The Paducah Sun reported 51-year-old Steve L. McCuiston of Murray was charged with voyeurism, eavesdropping, disorderly conduct and evidence tampering.

Mayfield Police Detective Mark Green arrested McCuiston at the Mayfield-Murray high school basketball game Monday night. Two parents and a teacher had restrained him after he ran.

Green's report said police found numerous images of cheerleaders and girls competing in pageants, apparently taken without their permission. McCuiston is on paid leave from his job as a science teacher at Livingston County Middle School.

An Abundance of Caution?

I usually read the Eastern Progress at lunch. Today I chuckled from salad to dessert.

This from the Eastern Progress, Photo by Rachel Stone:

Safe is Sexy at EKU

While some students are showering their sweethearts with flowers, cards and over-sized stuffed animals this Valentine's Day, others may be giving a gift that's a bit more exciting than heart-shaped boxes of chocolates...

Kelsey Bennett, a freshman nursing major, and Mary Turner, a freshman physical education major, both from Elizabethtown, race to put condoms on fake penises during a sex education event...

Is it just me, or is this the funniest safe sex picture since Mandy Pepperidge, frustrated by Gregg Marmalard's lack of concentration, snapped off the latex gloves?

What's with the goggles? Are Eastern girls are being warned to protect themselves against the dreaded "snapback?" Or are those things loaded?

Meghan Scott, a health educator for student health services, said the programs are important because of the dangers involved with having sex.

House Passes Revised Budget Bill

KSBA is reporting that the House passed the revised 2008-2009 budget bill, including the higher tobacco and alcohol taxes. The vote was 77 yes, 23 no.

The measure now goes to the Senate, which is expected to begin its consideration of this bill tomorrow.

Obama Pushes Resources and Reform

President Barack Obama said in a prime-time news conference this week that more money for education must be followed by more reform. Meanwhile, Congress is considering at least $80 billion in expenditures for education programs. Obama waants something in return.

"I think there are areas like education where some in my party have been too resistant to reform and have argued only money makes a difference. And there have been others on the Republican side or the conservative side who said, 'No matter how much money you spend, nothing makes a difference, so let's just blow up the public school systems.' And I think that both sides are going to have to acknowledge we're going to need more money for new science labs, to pay teachers more effectively, but we're also going to need more reform, which means that we've got to train teachers more effectively, bad teachers need to be fired after being given the opportunity to train effectively, that we should experiment with things like charter schools that are innovating in the classroom, that we should have high standards."

Politics K-12 reports,

The statement seemed to be a response to GOP lawmakers—and some Democrats—who say that the proposed stimulus package working its way through Congress pumps too much money into schools, without enough strings...

...Obama made it clear that he also considers federal funding of school construction to be a key economic stimulus and investment in the future, even though a huge chunk of the funding for school facilities is slated be stripped out of the Senate's bill as
part of an agreement forged by moderate lawmakers to win passage of the measure.

"I visited a school down in South Carolina that was built in the 1850s," Obama said.

"Kids are still learning in that school, as best they can. ... It's right next to a railroad. And when the train runs by, the whole building shakes and the teacher has to stop teaching for a while. The auditorium is completely broken down; they can't use it. So why wouldn't we want to build state-of-the-art schools with science labs that are teaching our kids the skills they need for the 21st century, that will enhance our economy, and, by the way, right now, will create jobs?"

Why, indeed?

President Obama should be careful to assure that any new NCLB accountability model accounts for growth, and does not exceed the bounds of solid science. That is to say, it should not be used inappropriately in running off new teachers. He should also be mindful that charter schools are by nature disequalizing.

But that said, the rest of us should be open-minded about the changes and work together for the benefit of our students.

Photo and CNN transcript of the press conference.

Kentucky Board of Education Discusses Testing, Leadership and Legislation

(FRANKFORT, Ky.) – At its regular meeting Tuesday and Wednesday, the Kentucky Board of Education heard presentations, had in-depth discussions and made decisions on a number of items.

Board members agreed to formally accept the position paper on assessment and accountability, which outlines the direction for the next generation of the state’s public school testing and accountability system.

The board heard a presentation on the Harvard Executive Leadership Project, which involves the Boone, Daviess, Jefferson and Kenton County school districts.

To recognize the contributions of former Education Commissioner Jon E. Draud to Kentucky’s public education system, the board approved a resolution in his honor and presented him with commemorative gifts.

Other reports and presentations included:

• the status of the Covington Independent and Union County school and district support plans
• an update on Kentucky’s adolescent literacy plan
• 2009 elementary and secondary education legislation
• 2010-2012 biennial budget

The board took the following actions:

• agreed to approve the continued removal, by razing, of Lee Hall on the campus of the Kentucky School for the Deaf and the declaration of two additional land parcels on campus as surplus property
• approved revisions to state regulations related to nutrition and health services
• agreed to grant waivers of the March 1 deadline for allocations to school councils
• agreed to rescind the declaration of emergency for the Covington Independent school district, based on the district’s improved financial health
• gave final approval to 702 KAR 4:160, the state regulation related to the capital construction process
• gave final approval to 702 KAR 7:065, the state regulation related to interscholastic athletics; includes changes to the Kentucky High School Athletics Association’s constitution, bylaws and tournament rules
• approved district facility plans for Fayette, Lincoln, Mercer, Muhlenberg and Powell counties
• approved local district tax rates levied for Boyd, Green and Martin counties
• agreed to hold items on the board’s legislative agenda related to high school dropouts until full implementation of a nationwide graduation rate calculation occurs

The board also discussed the criteria for the next commissioner of education. In general, the board will seek candidates who have led large organizations, demonstrate a vision of high-quality education, understand Kentucky’s culture and environment, demonstrate a commitment to producing measurable results in low-performing schools, have a proven record of addressing achievement gap issues and more.

The board plans to interview search firm candidates on March 5 in Louisville.

The board’s next regular meeting will be March 4 at the Kentucky School for the Blind in Louisville. More information about the board is available here.

SOURCE: KDE press release

The Mythological Methodological Silver Bullet

"The U.S. curriculum is not only a mile wide and an inch deep, it also is very redundant. Not much new material is introduced and what is introduced is but to a small percentage of students because of tracking, an issue few wish to discuss."

By Skip Kifer:

FIMS, SIMS, and TIMSS

The international arena in general and the results of surveys from the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA) in particular are fertile grounds for those who wish to cite successful practices that deviate from existing ones:

If custom and law define what is educationally allowable within a nation, the educational systems beyond one’s national boundaries suggest what is educationally possible (Foshay et. al., 1962).

At one time, French schools closed on Wednesday afternoon. New Zealand children began school on their sixth birthday, not on the first day of school that year. Long ago the Swedes were literate before they had schools. They still introduce each student to a second foreign language. In Norway “the ultimate aim of education is to inspire individuals to realize their potential in ways that serve the common good.” School children in the United States recite a Pledge of Allegiance each morning.

Systems differ. These international studies, however, focus on identifying commonalities among the systems and seek to identify effective practices.

There has been three generations of IEA mathematics studies. The first international study (FIMS) was conducted about 40 years ago. It was the first study of its kind where empirical methods were used in a comparative context. Seven European systems, plus Australia, Japan, Israel, and the United States participated. Two main populations were sampled: students in a grade where the modal age was 13 and students in the terminal years of secondary schooling. The first was chosen because it was the last year when the entire cohort of a system was still in school. The latter was chosen because it contained mathematics specialists who represented the best a system produced.

FIMS asked big questions. How were outcomes related to school organization, curriculum, teacher competence and societal factors? Among their many findings was that talented students in comprehensive secondary schools did just as well as those in the highly differentiated schools of Europe. Hence, there were major school reforms across the Atlantic.

FIMS investigators knew that it was impossible to build a fair international test. Was the test, they asked, equally unfair to all the participants? In order to understand better their results they invented a measure called Opportunity to Learn (OTL). It was based on teachers’ judgments about whether the mathematics taught in an educational system was reflected in the mathematics test. Measures of OTL remain in international studies.

The two volumes of FIMS results contain no rank ordering of countries. The study was not designed to be an “international contest.” Rather it was to answer questions within “a framework of comparative thinking in education.” Instead of focusing mainly on the average achievement within a system and producing rank orders, FIMS asked questions about “yield.” How much mathematics did a system produce?

Perhaps the best example of yield comes from the Second International Study of Mathematics, SIMS. At that time 80% of a cohort remained in high school in the United States while a comparable percentage for Hungary was 50. In the United States a very small percent of students took advanced mathematics while in Hungary all of the 50% took calculus. Hungary’s yield, the culture’s mathematic knowledge, was magnitudes higher because of the participation in advanced mathematics.

SIMS, designed and conducted in the late 70’s and early 80’s, built on the first study and introduced a number of innovations. The most striking one was that eight of the twenty-odd systems included a pretest for the sample of eighth graders. That design change lead to a number of crucial findings.

First, it was possible to distinguish between the status of achievement (measurements at one time point) and the growth in achievement (differences between the beginning of a school year and the end of the year). This lead to questions about whether the correlates of status were the same as the correlates of growth. The answer was no. Background characteristics of students were much more highly correlated with status while characteristics of schools and teachers were much more highly correlated with growth.

Analyses of pretest variation showed that the United States did more and earlier tracking of students then did any of the other systems. The tracking was related to OTL and showed that students in other systems were exposed to much more material that was reflected in the test. OTL results and the tracking lead to findings about an “underachieving curriculum,” the title of the U.S. national report.

TIMSS, the third international study of both mathematics and science, has been reported in the media as mainly a series of rank orders. That is too bad because TIMSS has produced numerous volumes and reports providing rich contexts for understanding the results. One imaginative part of the study was video taping teachers from various international systems and comparing approaches to instruction in mathematics. One generalization of the results was that varied methods of instruction are used in the high performing systems. There is no methodological silver bullet!

Continuing the IEA tradition of focusing on the curriculum, where SIMS called the U.S. curriculum “a series of one night stands,” TIMSS used the language of a curriculum a “mile wide and an inch deep.” Educators seem aware of that jingle but it is not clear what has been enacted as a result of the findings.

The rank orders produced at least one interesting question: Why do U.S. 4th graders do comparably well and 8th graders not do well? SIMS may provide some answers to that question.

The U.S. curriculum is not only a mile wide and an inch deep, it also is very redundant. Not much new material is introduced and what is introduced is but to a small percentage of students because of tracking, an issue few wish to discuss.

As a way to end this piece I am presenting a copy of policy implications derived from the results of SIMS. This was written in the 1980’s, more than 20 years ago. I find it striking how “relevant” the findings seem - and, how little has been done to respond to them.

Policy Implications of International Comparisons

I. A richer mathematics education in the middle school

A. Findings
1. Much of the grade 8 instruction in the USA is review
2. Not much growth is seen
3. Except in classes where new content is presented
4. As in some other countries, where algebra is learned

B. Implications
1. Introduce more content-especially, algebra
2. Promote greater variety of content and approaches

II. Reduction in early tracking in mathematics

A. Findings '
1. The tracking is inconsistent and ineffective
2. The effect is to reduce opportunities for many to zero

B. Implications
1. Track by speed where absolutely necessary
2. But not at the expense of introducing new content for everyone

III. Intensification of mathematics training for specialists

A. Findings
1. Content in other countries is more advanced, and learned
2. Especially calculus
3. If more students take math, more learn
4. And the best students do not suffer
5. And the eventual selection of specialists is improved

B. Implications
1. Promote more calculus availability
2. Or develop good alternatives for intensive training
3. Increase the number of students taking more mathematics

IV. Advanced application of computers in mathematics education

A. Findings
1. Teaching is very textbook bound
2. Textbooks are limited tools and very conservative
3. Teachers are limited in training for curriculum development

B. Implications
1. Improvement must come from technology
2. By which is meant advanced applications of computers in schools
3. Which also changes the nature of the mathematical content
4. So invest heavily in R&D and innovation/experimentation

V. Monitoring of student opportunities and achievements

A. Findings
1. Student achievement is best viewed as growth in a course of study
2. Also, achievement depends on intensity and content of exposure

B. Implications
1. Statistical monitoring should include growth
2. And systematic surveys of OTL
3. Not just student normative testing

Measley $500 K is Real Money to Educators

By Penney Sanders:

This week President Obama proposed capping executive compensation in corporations that took “bail out” money to $500K/annually.

The hue and cry is most interesting to “school people” who have been on fixed and capped salaries our entire careers. To describe a $500K salary as measly is laughable. For me, it sounds like real money.

According to the talking head experts, limiting executive compensation stifles creativity, is counter to entrepreneurial zeal and limits the risk taking so necessary for successful corporate executives. So why did they need a “bail out”??

Fast forward to the discussions surrounding public school teacher/administrator compensation.

Educators, whose salaries come from public moneys, have historically, been on a standardized, fixed salary scale determined by either the state or a local school board (within state parameters).

In a school district everyone is paid the same, regardless of skill, results, creativity, success or failure.

Concurrently with President Obama’s proposing restrictions on executive compensation, the Washington,D.C. schools chief , Michele Rhee, has proposed decoupling educator compensation from a fixed salary schedule. In exchange for significantly higher salaries (upwards of $130,000 annually), teachers will forfeit tenure. This represents a classic “no risk, no reward” approach to compensation.

While many DC teachers support Rhee’s proposal, the opposition, led by the AFT, has been intense. Opponents describe the tenure for salary exchange as unfair, potentially abusive, and teachers don’t like it.

If it can be argued that fixing CEO compensation is “stiffling and restrictive” isn’t fixing educator compensation equally “stifling”? If limits are too restrictive for CEOs, are they too restrictive for educators from whom we expect leadership, creativity and results?

Has the time come to disengage educators from a fixed salary schedule? Should student progress and classroom results be rewarded? Does a fixed salary schedule reward and therefore, encourage mediocrity?

If fixed, predetermined salary schedules are sufficient for those who do the important work of teaching children, than surely salary caps are good enough for those corporations who had to be bailed out with taxpayers’ money.

Public money is public money.

Let’s Hear it For Clear Standards

By Skip Kifer:

About 20 years ago the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) produced its first set of standards. About 20 days ago Kentucky’s Republican Senators discovered NCTM’s latest set.

During the interim NCTM standards have informed Kentucky’s and most other state’s assessments, President Clinton’s Voluntary National Test, and the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). The standards were used both as statements of instructional content and, when refined, as frameworks for assessments.

The standards emerged after the Second International Mathematics Study (SIMS) identified an “underachieving” U.S. mathematics curriculum, declaring instruction to be a “series of one night stands” in a curriculum that instead of “spiraling was a set of concentric circles.” Rather than take on the political task of establishing a national curriculum, NCTM promulgated content standards.

Talk about standards then was understood to be talk about content standards – what should be taught, when. Not now. Increased emphasis on assessment in the country brings into play other sets of standards. As the Kentucky legislature seeks to change the Commonwealth’s assessment, a robust standards discussion means distinguishing one set from another and knowing when each applies.

Clarity is needed.

Here is an example of an NCTM content standard:

Data Analysis and Probability Standard Instructional programs from prekindergarten through grade 12 should enable all students to—

Formulate questions that can be addressed with data and collect, organize, and display relevant data to answer them

Grades 6–8 Expectations In grades 6-8 all student should:

formulate questions, design studies, and collect data about a characteristic shared by two populations or different characteristics within one population;
select, create, and use appropriate graphical representations of data, including histograms, box plots, and scatterplots.

The Lexington Herald-Leader reported a rationale for adopting the new NCTM standards: “we need higher standards,” and we need “more precise and rigorous standards.” It is unclear how restating a content standard would meet such demands. Those of us who have worked with content standards know the issues are not whether they are high or low. Content standards are tricky but on other dimensions: if too broad, they are hard to operationalize; too narrow, and they miss stuff; too many, and they confuse things; too few, we don’t know about since that’s never been done.

Those who call for “higher standards” are probably talking about different standards -proficiency standards. Proficiency standards are based on test scores. Below is a picture of the distribution of KIRIS reading scores with the proficient cut-point for 4th grade Kentucky students.

About 1/3 of the students scored at or above the cut-point of 311 and would be labeled proficient. Clearly one can ask whether this standard is too high or too low. Should one move the cut-point up or down? Interestingly, six years earlier just 10 percent of the students exceeded this cut-point. What might look low one time might earlier looked like high.

There are at least two other sets of standards worth discussing – Opportunity to Learn (OTL) standards and standards for educational and psychological testing. The latter are published by the American Educational Research Association, American Psychological Association, and the National Council on Measurement in Education (AERA/APA/NCTM).

OTL standards reflect whether or not a student has had a chance to learn the material in the test. They are fairness standards. International tests of 8th grade mathematics, for example, typically contain heavy doses of algebra and geometry. Since most of our students are not exposed to substantial amounts of algebra or geometry by the 8th grade, while other systems’ students are, we are at a disadvantage. We lack the opportunity to learn. Hence, we wonder about the validity of international comparisons.

OTL comes into play, too, when tests are used for purposes such as graduation or grade promotion. Have the students had the opportunity to learn the material covered by the test? If not, then the test is not valid for the purpose it was intended.

Using a single test score for important educational decisions is, in any case, considered bad testing practice. That dictate and other proscriptions are in the AERA/APA/NCTM standards volume. Among others, there are standards for properly constructing tests, reasonably interpreting test scores, and providing information about a test and its proper uses. Any major testing endeavor is expected to comply with those standards.

So, what does all of this have to do with Kentucky’s Senate Republicans? Well, as they pursue dramatic changes in assessment practices in the Commonwealth, they may not be as informed as they might be. As a first step to better communication, I welcome them to the standards club and to some clarity!

Opus One from Penney Sanders

By Penney Sanders:

Richard has asked me to be an occasional contributor to Kentucky School News and Commentary. I am honored to be included in this “august” group Therefore, in keeping with a career in which I have usually been perceived as provocateur, or simply irritating, it is my hope to continue to do the same on this blog.

After nearly twenty years, education reform efforts are entering their middle age. Educational practices, once considered revolutionary or exploratory, have become part of classroom daily practice. Technology is part of every student’s tool kit. Assessment and accountability have become the standard expectations for every classroom. Educators are doing more, and in most cases, doing it better than we did twenty years ago.

In the world of ideas and influencing learning, one always has to look at issues from many sides. Much of my current perspective has been shaped by my work in high risk, low performing schools in states other than KY, so I now come from a world that is a bit wider than just KY. However, as a daughter of the Commonwealth, my first and enduring passion has been for KY and her school children. As Judge Bert Combs once said, when describing the KY Education Reform Act, “it is about the children and our future”.

Indeed, it is all about the children; that is the eternal premise and promise of education.

Now let us begin, with what, I hope, will be an interesting journey whose itinerary and destination will be determined as we travel along.

Kifer and Sanders join Kentucky School News and Commentary

For the first time in my life, I'm actually trying to keep a New Years Resolution. This year I resolved to add new voices to Kentucky School News and Commentary, and today it begins.

KSN&C is pleased to announce that Skip Kifer and Penney Sanders - a couple of kindred spirits - will be the first new voices on board.

Don't expect us to agree with one another. That's not the deal. It may happen, but just about as often I suspect we will diverge on topics as well.

Kifer and Sanders were recruited - not for their compliance to any ideology - but for their experience and insights informed by years in the field. Both are dedicated to improving Kentucky schools and I respect their professionalism.

Edward "Skip" Kifer's expertise is measurement, evaluation and statistical analysis and I believe you will find his commentary surprising, challenging and refreshing. Following a stint in the army, Kifer was educated at the University of Chicago, was a Fulbright Scholar, taught at UCLA, SUNY Buffalo, the University of Stockholm, UK, UofL and Georgetown College. Professor Kifer was an AERA Senior Research Fellow working with NCES and NSF and has an established reputation as a reliable designer of assessments; one who has served on numerous technical panels including the NAEP Design and Analysis committee.

Dr. Penney Sanders is a retired Kentucky educator who served as a math teacher, school counselor, assistant principal and principal. She was Kentucky's first Director of the Office of Educational Accountability, and as far as I can tell, it's most effective. Under Sanders, adherence to KERA was an expectation enforced with panache. Veteran Kentucky educators still remember the good ole days when Sanders stalked the hills; kicking butt and taking names. In her "retirement" she works as a consultant with a special focus on high-risk, low performing schools. She continues to write and pursue a number of interests in education.

And we're not done.

Invitations to a few other contributors have been, and will be, made. They will fall into two categories, "veterans" and "newbies." Kifer and Sanders are examples of the veterans, but I am also hoping to include a few of my masters/doctoral level students who are themselves practicing teachers in Kentucky - to keep us focused on what is really happening in Kentucky's schools.

If all goes well, Kentucky School News and Commentary will add more value to the public debate while remaining realistic about the implications our decisions have on Kentucky's teachers and students.

Lessons on Student Journalism from a "Bigmouthed troublemaker"

This from David Hawpe at C-J:

Cosmo, spit shines and HB 43

There are a couple of sensible ways for school officials to deal with student journalists who they believe have gotten out of hand.

One is to counsel with them, talk through questionable stories they have published or broadcast, and try to reach some kind of voluntary understanding about future coverage.

Another is to let the dust settle. Give it some time. See what the allegedly offending story produces in the way of reaction or consequences. Then decide whether further action is needed.

The way not to react is to conduct a purge, like some second-rate scholastic dictator -- confiscate undistributed papers and/or archived tapes, fire the student editors and/or their adviser, insist on red pencil review of all future stories and scripts by somebody in the principal's office.

It happens.

And when it happens, it's not much of a lesson in journalistic responsibility for the young folks involved.

That's why the General Assembly should pass House Bill 43, the Kentucky
Student Press Bill, which was introduced by Rep. Brent Yonts, D-Greenville. It
would extend free speech and free press protections to high school
journalists...

Read on for Hawpe's "Cosmo," and "spit shines" stories.

JCPS Report Cites Labor, SBDM Problems

This from Toni at C-J:

JCPS study cites problems with councils, teachers

Jefferson County Public Schools has too many inexperienced teachers at its schools with higher numbers of low-income students and too many ineffective school councils, according to a study commissioned by the district.

The findings from the $250,000 study also said the district's labor contract with teachers could be hindering classroom instruction by preventing principals from moving educators where they are needed most. Prepared by the Denver-based Mid-continent Research for Education and Learning, the report, called the Greater Louisville Education Project, evaluated five areas — funding, safety, college and career readiness, instruction and advancing competiveness.

It was paid for by several local foundations through the Jefferson County Education Foundation and formally presented to the school board during a work session last night."We wanted to find a way to benchmark our progress and look at ways to reform the district,"

Superintendent Sheldon Berman said of the report. "I think that what they
found reaffirms the goals and strategies we have put together, but it also raises some serious concerns, particularly about the SBDM (site-based decision-making) councils and the labor contracts."

Review KERA, but don't throw it out

This from the Messenger-Inquirer (subscription):

The drive to review the Kentucky Education Reform Act is picking up steam since Gov. Steve Beshear called for a "thorough review" of KERA during his State of the State speech in Frankfort last week.

House Speaker Greg Stumbo called KERA a 20-year plan, and now is the time to see what changes should be made or new initiatives begun.Rep. Brent Yonts, a Greenville Democrat, said the CATS testing program is directing teaching and leaving many students unprepared when leaving school. He said it is hated in this area.

Even Rep. Harry Moberly, the Richmond Democrat who has championed KERA in Kentucky since its inception, agreed that a consensus has formed to take a "fresh look" at KERA, although he said he is hoping reform principles are not abandoned.

And Sen. Tim Shaughnessy, a Louisville Democrat who has resisted frequent Senate attempts to alter or eliminate the CATS tests, now says CATS needs to sunset because it has run it course.

This newspaper has been a staunch support of KERA and the CATS tests. KERA is all about setting high expectations for learning for all students, rigorous accountability and adequate and equitable funding. A year ago, when Senate Bill 1 sought to deep-six CATS in favor of fill-in-the-circle, machine graded standardized tests, we argued that answering a series of multiple-choice questions was far less revealing about a student's knowledge and reasoning ability compared to requiring that student to write an answer.

Moreover, we stressed that learning to be good writers would be wonderfully advantageous for students throughout their lives. We haven't changed our minds about the standards and accountability aspects of education reform.

As for this new push to review KERA, we don't object, but like Moberly we sincerely hope it doesn't turn into a drive to scrap a movement that has moved Kentucky elementary and secondary education farther in two decades than anything before it.

And we definitely do not want reform of reform to derail or make irrelevant the 2014 goals that schools and school districts are pursuing to score 100 on the 140-point CATS tests.

Many schools are already at the proficient level of 100, and many others are closing in. If the main tenants of KERA, including the CATS test, are tossed aside, the efforts of tens of thousands of students and teachers are suddenly not as meaningful.

KERA isn't perfect. It wasn't the day it began in 1990. It has been reviewed and tweaked many times. Whatever is done now should be done without haste and with great care to protect what is good about education reform in Kentucky and with an eye toward making it better.For a poor state like Kentucky, its only real hope rests with a better-educated work force and more dynamic leaders exiting its colleges, universities and technical schools.

Twenty years ago, Kentucky made a bargain with itself to rise from the near-bottom of national education rankings. That has been accomplished, but much more must be done.

Kentucky needs to ask itself if it is still interested in providing its young citizens the best, most rigorous education available.If the answer is yes, then the seemingly irresistible urge to review KERA upon its 20th birthday will be done in an evenhanded way, with the only goal being to improve it.

Superintendents Separate Wheat from Chaff in SB 1

On behalf of the Kentucky Association of School Superintendents, Susan Weston outlined a response to Senate Bill 1 over at the Prichard Blog.

In the report Weston outlines the superintendents' agreement and concerns over the piecemeal SB 1 proposals.

So what do they see as WHEAT?

• a substantive redesign of the state assessment system
• one coherent testing and reporting system (state and NCLB)
• shortened time for testing
• an accountability “package” that includes a combination of assessments: norm-referenced
  and criterion-referenced, formative and summative, college readiness,
  program evaluation, and varied testing formats including multiple choice, open
  response, on-demand, writing portfolios at grades 7 and 12, and end-of-course
  tests
• increased student accountability
• narrowed standards, especially in mathematics
• requiring any other component required to comply with No Child Left Behind
• requiring core content assessment to be administered during the final seven days of each
  district’s school year, and to take no more than five days
• requiring all test results to be reported to schools and districts to no more than sixty days
  after testing

But the superintendents would also get rid of the CHAFF in SB 1 and oppose:

• the elimination of open response questions
• the elimination of accountability for writing portfolios at the 7th & 12th grades

KASS advises:

Rather than eliminating the criterion-referenced test, the Department should consider
using a carefully designed NRT that can be converted soundly into a criterion-referenced
test that would measure state standards and use open response along with multiple choice
formats.

KASS members strongly support more student accountability than provided in the current
version of SB1.

They note that changes in math standards identified in SJR 19 are not included in SB 1 and that SB 1 has no plan for changes in standards in the other content areas, including who will conduct the evaluation process and how often.

With the strong probability of significant changes in NCLB under the Obama administration, is action now to make significant changes in KY’s assessment and accountability system wise in regard to future compliance with NCLB?

Getting Accountability Right

This from Richard Rothstein in Ed Week, Illustration by Nip Rogers:

The federal No Child Left Behind Act has succeeded in highlighting the poor math and reading skills of disadvantaged children. But on balance, the law has done more harm than good because it has terribly distorted the school curriculum. Modest modifications cannot correct this distortion. Designing a better accountability policy will take time. We cannot and should not abandon school accountability, but it's time to go back to the drawing board to get accountability right.

The first step is to understand today's curricular distortion. It has arisen because No Child Left Behind holds schools accountable for only some of their many goals. When we demand adequate math and reading scores alone, educators rationally respond by transferring resources to math and reading instruction (and drill) from social studies, history, science, the arts and music, character development, citizenship education, emotional and physical health, and physical fitness.

This shift has been most severe for the disadvantaged children the law was designed to help, because they are most at risk of failing to meet the math and reading targets. But they are also most at risk of losing curricular opportunities in other domains. In these other areas, NCLB has widened the "achievement gap." ...

Quick Hits

Snuff 'em out?: Senate President David Williams dropped a bombshell a few weeks ago when he came out in support of a statewide smoking ban similar to those in Louisville and Lexington. And while he hasn't yet filed a bill, Williams, R-Burkesville, said he is still working on it and may propose it this session. But in the meantime, Williams said he is looking into the status of smoking in the Capitol Annex, where legislators have their offices and meeting rooms. (C-J)

School makeup waiver bill gets mixed reaction: A bill that would allow school districts shuttered by last week's ice storm to waive 10 makeup days got mixed reaction from educators Friday. (H-L)

Ky. budget deal would raise tobacco, alcohol taxes: Higher taxes on tobacco and alcohol are part of a plan to balance the state budget that legislative leaders tentatively agreed to yesterday. (C-J)

Time to end Black History Month?: New York is among several states that have passed laws mandating or encouraging teachers to broaden their history classes. New Jersey was the first to do so, in 2002, after Assemblyman Bill Payne conceived and wrote the Amistad Commission bill, named after the Africans who took over their slave ship, ended up in Connecticut and won freedom in court. (Education Week)

Lawrence Summers sees fight on $40B for state, local govt: One of President Barack Obama's top economic advisers forecast yesterday a difficult struggle with Congress over Senate cuts of $40 billion for state and local governments from the administration's massive spending and tax cut package to stimulate the failing economy. (Boston Herald)

What to do when your kid provokes you into an inhuman rage. It's as if they had commissioned a study of the most effective ways to set you off and then implemented the findings with great care and foresight. (Slate)

Student Fights Record of ‘Cyberbullying’

This from the New York Times:

MIAMI — Katherine Evans said she was frustrated with her English teacher for ignoring her pleas for help with assignments and a brusque reproach when she missed class to attend a school blood drive.

So Ms. Evans, who was then a high school senior and honor student, logged onto the networking site Facebook and wrote a rant against the teacher, Sarah Phelps.

“To those select students who have had the displeasure of having Ms. Sarah Phelps, or simply knowing her and her insane antics: Here is the place to express your feelings of hatred,” she wrote.

Her posting drew a handful of responses, some of which were in support of the teacher and critical of Ms. Evans. “Whatever your reasons for hating her are, they’re probably very immature,” a former student of Ms. Phelps wrote in her defense.

A few days later, Ms. Evans removed the post from her Facebook page and went about the business of preparing for graduation and studying journalism in the fall.

But two months after her online venting, Ms. Evans was called into the principal’s office and was told she was being suspended for “cyberbullying,” a blemish on her record that she said she feared could keep her from getting into graduate schools or landing her dream job.

“It was all very quick the way it happened,” said Ms. Evans, now a freshman at the University of Florida.

She is suing the principal of her school, Peter Bayer, for ordering her suspension. She is asking for no monetary compensation beyond her legal fees, said her lawyer, Matthew Bavaro, and she simply wants to have the suspension removed from her record...

Internet Overtakes Newspapers As News Outlet

This from the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press:

The internet, which emerged this year as a leading source for campaign news, has now surpassed all other media except television as an outlet for national and international news.

Currently, 40% say they get most of their news about national and international issues from the internet, up from just 24% in September 2007.
For the first time in a Pew survey, more people say they rely mostly on the internet for news than cite newspapers (35%). Television continues to be cited most frequently as a main source for national and international news, at 70%.

For young people, however, the internet now rivals television as a main source of national and international news. Nearly six-in-ten Americans younger than 30 (59%) say they get most of their national and international news online; an identical percentage cites television. In September 2007, twice as many young people said they relied mostly on television for news than mentioned the internet (68% vs. 34%).

The percentage of people younger than 30 citing television as a main news source has declined from 68% in September 2007 to 59% currently. This mirrors a trend seen earlier this year in campaign news consumption...

Hat tip to the Rural Blog.

Stimulus Plan May Boost Governors' Clout

This fro Ed Week:

Authority over federal aid could grow

in short term in shift of historic pattern

Along with an infusion of money for schools, the economic-stimulus package working its way through Congress would give governors unprecedented control over how federal K-12 dollars are spent, adding to a long-standing debate over who should control federal education aid.

Congress historically has given state education officials—chief state school officers or state boards of education—authority to allocate such money using tightly controlled federal formulas.

But governors have long argued that they have the constitutional authority to ensure that their states properly oversee public education, and so should have a significant say in how federal education aid is spent. The stimulus legislation—which the Senate was still amending last week—would give them that power, if only temporarily...

Clear Thinking from the Daily Independent

This from the Daily Independent:

Revisiting KERA

Changing the 1990 education law

not the same as gutting it

Gov. Steve Beshear is right: After almost 20 years, it is time for a thorough review of the landmark Kentucky Education Reform Act of 1990.

But taking another look at the law is not the same as gutting it.

In their rush to change things they don’t like about the law, legislators must be careful not to scrap the many good things KERA has done for public education in Kentucky.While far from being the perfect law, the positives of KERA outweigh the negatives.

KERA needs to be fixed, not abolished.

While his comments about KERA during last week’s State of the Commonwealth address were brief, Beshear’s call for the “thorough review” of the 1990 law have generated much interest from both KERA’s supporters and its opponents. The former see the governor’s comment as an opportunity to improve the law; the
latter see it as a chance to scrap the law.

But the governor has the right idea on KERA when he said, “Let us now bring education, business and legislative leaders to not only check our course and see if any corrective steering is necessary, but just as important to renew and re-energize our commitment to education.”

KERA came about because of a landmark Kentucky Supreme Court ruling that declared unconstitutional the state’s system of funding public education. The
state’s highest court rightly ruled that education cannot be equal in the state when the amount of money spent per student in poor counties is a fraction of what wealthier counties spend per student. Thus, the justices ruled, those born in poor counties are destined to receiving an education that is inferior to children born in wealthier counties.

However, in response to the ruling, the Kentucky General Assembly went far beyond simply addressing the problem of unequal funding. They used the ruling to revolutionize education in the state.

During its almost 19 years of existence, KERA has not been a stagnant law. It has been adjusted to meet changing needs.

It originally mandated ungraded primary classrooms, with all students in grades one, two and three bunched together. The only real requirement was that they would be ready for the fourth grade after three years.Well, we don’t know of any school in this part of the states that still has ungraded primaries. It was an experiment that didn’t work and was wisely abandoned — or at least made optional instead of mandatory.

Republicans in the state Senate now want to scrap the CATS tests, in favor of standardized multiple choice tests that would be taken in the final week of each school year. At least some senators believe that once the CATS tests have been completed in April, education largely ceases for the year. If that’s true, then that’s a problem with individual teachers and administrators, not CATS.

Just because tests have been completed doesn’t mean learning has to stop. Teachers should fully use every day of instruction. Those who don’t show a lack of commitment to education.

The CATS test is not the first statewide exam of the KERA era. It replaced KIRIS. In fact, Kentucky has been constantly adjusting its tests in an effort to more fairly evaluate what students are learning and to get the results to schools as quickly as possible.

If Senate Bill 1 is approved by the 2009 General Assembly, it will essentially return testing in Kentucky to the pre-KERA days — and that, in our book, would be a giant step backwards.

Remember the “Lake Wobegone Effect”? That was the name critics gave standardized tests where all the children — like those in Garrison Keillor’s fictional Lake Wobegone — were deemed to be “above average.”Standardized tests have the advantage of being easy to grade and of accurately and consistently presenting children’s scores. However, multiple choice tests reward guessing and tell us nothing about whether students can apply their knowledge in practical ways.

That’s what CATS tries to do, and while grading takes longer and is somewhat arbitrary, the results tell us a lot more about what students are actually learning than the standardized tests.

Former Gov. Wallace Wilkinson and legislative leaders actively sought the advice of business executives — including then Ashland Inc. Chairman John Hall — and received their private support of KERA. That same sort of input should be sought this time around. After all, employers should know as well as anyone how well Kentucky’s public schools are preparing young people for the workplace and they have a vested interest in quality schools.

An entire generation of young Kentuckians have been educated under the edicts of KERA. That makes it an ideal time to take a closer look at both the strengths and shortcomings of the law.But it need not be done before the end of this legislative session. Instead, the governor and legislators should create a task force of educators, business leaders and legislators to review the law and recommend changes to be considered by the 2010 General Assembly.

That’s the right approach.

8,296 miles and in "excellent condition."

This from Toni Konz at C-J:

State to try again to auction Draud's car on Ebay

First effort on eBay came up short

The state is trying for a second time to sell the car of former Education Commissioner Jon Draud on eBay -- after no one met the reserve price the first time.

The starting bid for the 2008 Chrysler 300 -- purchased at Draud's request last year -- was $10,000. As of late yesterday there had been seven bids and the highest was $19,600.

The first time "we received quite a few bids on it, but they did not meet the reserve so it did not sell," said Deputy Finance Secretary Glenn Mitchell. "We lowered the reserve a bit, added more of a description and put it back on eBay."

The listing will run through Friday, unless it sells before then, Mitchell said.

Draud, 70, initially said he would reimburse taxpayers for the car, which he ordered with $13,000 in add-ons...

...Joe Brothers, chairman of the Kentucky Board of Education, said Draud asked the board that he not be obligated to reimburse the state for the cost of the vehicle when he resigned.

Brothers said board members agreed to let him out of that commitment, if he waived the 90-day separation requirement in his contract.

If Draud had been paid for the remainder of the 90 days, it would have cost the state about $40,000...

KSN&C Backstory.

Educators Tell Legislators: Don't cut funds

This from Patrick Crowley at NKy.com:

HIGHLAND HEIGHTS - For years Northern Kentucky legislators have told citizens that for them to be heard in Frankfort they need to speak up, show up and let lawmakers know how they feel.

Saturday morning the public showed up and spoke out in a big, passionate and forceful way.

A crowd estimated at between 500 and 600 jammed into a room at Northern Kentucky University for a meeting of the Northern Kentucky Legislative Caucus.
It was one of the largest - if not the largest - crowds ever to attend a gathering of the region's lawmakers.

The message from most of those in attendance was clear: don't cut public education, and find a way to raise new revenue, even if that means increasing taxes.

"Do your job," Barb Martin, a Kenton County schools administrator, told legislators. "Focus on finding new revenue, focus on bringing the state of Kentucky back where it should be, quit hiding behind the no (new) tax pledge."

Martin was one of hundreds of local teachers, school administrators and staff, parents, school board members and education advocates - nearly all of them wearing red in sign of solidarity - who showed up at Saturday's two-hour hearing. Dozens more were turned away, unable to fit into the standing-room-only meeting...

On a personal note: Way to go Barb ! We were classmates for 13 years and graduated from Ludlow High School together - sometime during the last century. Barb is a great American who always could say what was on her mind.

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...