Kentucky Board of Education names 4 out of 5 finalists

FINALISTS NAMED FOR COMMISSIONER POST

(FRANKFORT, Ky.) – The Kentucky Board of Education has selected five finalists to for the position of Kentucky education commissioner.

During a special-called meeting today, the board announced the names of four of the finalists. The remaining finalist’s name will be released after that individual is contacted and confirms his or her continued interest in the position.

The four names released today are:

· Jon Draud, state representative for the 63rd District and a former superintendent of the Ludlow Independent school district

· Richard Hughes, a professor at Morehead State University and former superintendent of the Hardin County school district

· Larry Vick, superintendent of the Owensboro Independent school district

· Jim Warford, executive director/CEO of the Florida Association of School Administrators and a former chancellor for Florida’s public schools

“These candidates best represent the qualities that this board believes are essential for Kentucky’s next commissioner of education,” said Board Chair Joe Brothers. “We had many outstanding applicants, and these are extremely qualified and able.”

Pending final background checks, the full board will interview the finalists and deliberate on the selection in closed session on Tuesday and Wednesday, November 13 and 14, at the Embassy Suites Cincinnati RiverCenter in Covington.

The public is invited to comment on the finalists by accessing this Web site:
http://education.ky.gov/FormServ/?ID=NextCommissioner

SOURCE: KDE press release.

And this from the Cincinnati Enquirer.

Draud in running for state post

EDGEWOOD - State Rep. Jon Draud has made the latest cut in Kentucky's search for a new education commissioner.

Draud, an Edgewood Republican, said Sunday night he is one of five people still being considered for the position. The State Board of Education met Sunday afternoon and reduced the list of potential candidates from nine. Draud said in a phone interview he was told he is still in the running...

..."I'm looking forward to meeting with members of the board," said Draud, a five-term lawmaker and the retired superintendent of the Ludlow schools. "I feel like I can work well with them. And if I don't get the job, I hope they do pick someone from Kentucky."

Cliff Wallace of Grant County, the former superintendent of the Williamstown and Pendleton County school systems, said Draud would make "an outstanding commissioner."

"I've known Jon for 30 years," Wallace said during an interview late last week. "As a legislator, he always follows through with what he says he is going to do. "He knows all or most of the superintendents in the state, he knows the problems and issues school districts face, and he knows the issues from the legislaitve side. So hiring him would bring some continuity; Jon knows the school systems and he knows the legislative process."About the only downside is we would be losing a good legislator," Wallace said.

BGI smacks schools; C-J smacks BGI; BGI smacks C-J...

In recent weeks the Bluegrass Institute has refocused its crosshairs on public education in Kentucky, and the Courier-Journal took notice.

In the last couple of weeks the Bluegrass Institute blog has issued forth with:

• A pro-charter school piece that promises Kentuckians "better results for less money."
• An anti-SCHIP piece that accuses Congress of "slouching to the 'for the children' propaganda level" and suggested that passage of the bill would be like "Feeding our children to big government monsters."
• One opposed to Rep. Jon Draud's HB 60, a bill that "proposes to cover education-related expenses not met by other grant programs for anyone under 150% of the federal poverty level."
• A few about how screwed up the CATS assessment is right now.
• A few doubting the Kentucky Board of Education's selection process for the next Commissioner, one titled "Kentucky school board is driving again so stay off the sidewalks." (I had to smile at that one.)

And on balance, not much good to say about public schools. So yesterday, the C-J reached out and gave them a little smack saying:

• "The determination of conservative think tanks, in particular, to undermine public education is a fierce thing to see. The market-knows-best types are relentless in smearing the credibility of public schools and teachers."
• Criticized BGI for refusing to reveal "sources of its income or size of its dues-paying membership."
• Called the think tank a "think puddle" and a businessman's "pet project."
• Mentioned an unrealized 2005 BGI boast to "gather 100,000 signatures from supporters of legislation to let children attend schools of their choice, at state expense."
• Accused them of "libertarian anti-government negativism."
• And then went on to cite a "fact-based report just released by the Kentucky Long-Term Policy Research Center."

Late last night BGI fired back claiming C-J:

• hurled "personal insults when it runs out of intellectual ammunition."
• that they "don't give out private financial information."
• and that they hurt C-J's feelings "when we criticize what keeps proving to be shockingly sloppy, wasteful, or even fraudulent actions of Kentucky's public school officials."
• and added, "Boo hoo."
• Then BGI refers to the KLTPRC report.

It all makes me feel ...like a moderate.

My 2 cents.

• Promising Kentuckians "better results for less money" through charter schools is an extraordinary claim. Charter schools weren't designed for that. Any principal worth his salt is going to fight for resources that will allow him to do more for his students; just like when the private schools do fundraising.
• BGI is anti-SCHIP because it is like feeding our children to the big government monsters. I disagree almost completely. Let's feed the kids to the same government monster that takes care of our congressmen and active-duty soldiers.
• Draud's HB 60: No opinion. I haven't really read it yet.
• How messed up CATS is: Too true. The feds and the Ky Board both contributed to making CATS worse.
• The Education Commissioner process: I'm holding my breath. So far, no good.
• Relentless does not seem too strong a term for C-J to describe BGI's stream of articles on the public schools; as is their right. And it's C-J's right to call them out on it. Both organizations are coming at the issues from their own points of view.
• BGI may have refused to reveal sources of its income or size of its dues-paying membership, but being private, they don't have to. On the other hand, why not?
• As for the report just released by the Kentucky Long-Term Policy Research Center, I think it's a mere shadow of the kind of value added system I wish Kentucky had. If BGI can't do any better than to cherry pick data or point out that dropout data from 2004 was used instead of 2005 data - which was clearly shown in the footnotes - then just admit it. Kentucky students are making improvements that extend beyond what the citizens have any right to expect on the present effort. Kentucky's cost/benefit ratio is very good.
• Y'all called each other names, but the attacks were institutional not personal.
• What irked me most in the early days of KERA was the editorial board's tendency (and here I must confess, I am more attuned to the Herald-Leader's positions than I am C-J's, but I think I'm roughly correct) to defend against any changes to KERA, for fear of losing the whole thing I suppose, rather than supporting changes in areas where it was sorely needed, like the failed primary program that is still on the books after years of ineffective confusion and little (anything?) from the edictorial board.
• What makes the C-J's point is BGI's criticism that "cheerleading for the education establishment when it is undeserving is what undermines our public school system." In BGI's hands, it can seem that the public schools are always undeserving. That's just not a true and accurate picture.

Teen challenges moment-of-silence law

CHICAGO --A 14-year-old girl and her outspoken atheist father filed a federal lawsuit Friday challenging a new Illinois law requiring a brief period of prayer or reflective silence at the start of every school day.

The lawsuit asks the court to declare the law unconstitutional, said attorney Gregory Kulis, who represents Dawn Sherman, a freshman at Buffalo Grove High School, and her father Robert Sherman, a radio talk show host.

Kulis said the law is an attempt to inject religion into public schools in violation of the First Amendment. The suit also seeks a temporary restraining order to halt schools' obeying the law until the case is decided. A judge will consider that request at a hearing Monday.

The lawsuit names Gov. Rod Blagojevich and officials of Township High School District 214 as defendants. School district spokeswoman Venetia Miles said schools will continue to comply with the law.

Blagojevich spokesman Abby Ottenhoff said the law was passed over the governor's veto.

"We don't believe requiring time for reflection is the role of government," Ottenhoff said.

Sherman said he went to court after he asked the school board to ignore the law and was rebuffed. The school district informed him it would carry out the moment of silence during third period, beginning Tuesday, the lawsuit said.

"What we object to is Christians passing a law that requires the public school teacher to stop teaching during instructional time, paid for by the taxpayers, so that Christians can pray," Sherman told The Associated Press.

An Illinois law called the Silent Reflection and Student Prayer Act already allowed schools to observe a moment of silence if they wanted. A new measure changed just a single word: "may" observe became "shall" observe.

The Illinois law originally passed during the spring legislative session, but Blagojevich vetoed it, saying he had doubts about its constitutionality. Lawmakers overrode the veto this month.
It's not Sherman's first church-and-state lawsuit and not the first to involve his children. He has sought removal of religious symbols from city seals and a ban on Boy Scout meetings at public schools.

Some school administrators have complained the law is too ill-defined and puts many teachers and some students in an awkward position.

The Shermans may have legitimate concerns, but they are suing the wrong party when they target the school district, said Brian McCarthy, an attorney for the district.

"The General Assembly -- for better, worse, foolish or wise -- passed this law and it's not up to school districts to pick and choose which laws they follow," McCarthy said. "He needs to go after the entity that enforces that law."

This from the Boston Globe.

Whitley County BOE found guilty

Jury awards Shelley $33,000 in damages

A Williamsburg jury found the Whitley County Board of Education guilty of violating the whistleblower law and awarded a former assistant superintendent $33,000 in damages Friday...

...The jury ruled unanimously that the board retaliated against Lester Shelley after he filed a report with the state Office of Education Accountability...

...Shelley, a former math teacher, was assistant superintendent for the Whitley County school district for several years before he officially retired in June 2006.

...Shelley filed a complaint with the OEA in 2006 listing a number of issues, including promotions for Superintendent Lonnie Anderson’s relatives and questionable expenses. The OEA’s findings were read to the board members during the executive session of a June 8, 2006 board meeting.

During that session, Anderson said Shelley had made his life “a living hell” and offered Shelley the choice to resign or retire. Otherwise, Anderson said Shelley would be fired...

This from the Times Tribune.

To Catch a Cheat

The pressure is on for schools to raise test scores.
Some, it seems, are willing to resort to anything.

For a while it seemed as though Forest Brook High School in Houston was a shining example of school reform.

In 2005, after years of rock-bottom test scores, results shot up: 95 percent of eleventh graders passed the state science test. Administrators praised the hard work of the teachers. The governor awarded the school a $165,000 grant.

But that same year, the Texas Education Agency hired a company called Caveon Test Security to ensure that the state's standardized-test results were valid. Caveon—along with an investigative series by The Dallas Morning News—found a host of irregularities at Forest Brook.
The state eventually cleared the school's administrators but made sure last year's testing was monitored by an outside agency.

The scores at Forest Brook plunged Last year, only 39 percent passed science.

It's a jarring but common story. While there have always been students who crib an answer or two, lately teachers, principals and school administrators are being snared for gaming—and sometimes outright cheating on—standardized tests. Under the six-year-old federal education-reform law No Child Left Behind, scores on statewide exams have become the single yardstick by which school success is measured. Struggling schools are being penalized—and some are even slated to be taken over if tests scores fail to rise. Teachers are under pressure to show that kids are learning more, and if they do that, even by fudging the results they can help their borderline school survive...

This from Newsweek.

Court reverses decision on anti-harassment training

LOUISVILLE - An eastern Kentucky school district's anti-harassment policy constituted a "chill" on a student's free speech rights, so the student should be able to pursue nominal damages, the U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Friday.

The three-judge panel of the Cincinnati-based court, in a 2-1 vote, decided that the Boyd County school district's policy effectively barred Timothy Allen Morrison's ability to profess his Christian beliefs and opposition to homosexuality. The ruling sends the case back to U.S. District Judge David Bunning for a trial on damages.

Judge Karen Nelson Moore, joined by Judge John R. Adams, wrote that the allegation of a policy stifling free speech is enough to allow Morrison to seek damages. To make his case, the judges said, Morrison must show that the policy would "deter a person of ordinary firmness" from exercising free speech.

Joel Oster, an attorney for the Alliance Defense Fund, a Scottsdale, Ariz., Christian law group that represented Morrison, said the ruling left him "ecstatic."

Sharon McGowan, an attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union, who represented gay and transgender students in the case, applauded the ruling. McGowan said the ruling recognizes that schools can't violate anyone's free-speech rights.

"Our students have always been about promoting dialogue," McGowan said. "They have never been looking to suppress other people's views."

A message left Friday afternoon at the Boyd County Board of Education was not immediately returned.

Morrison, a senior at Boyd County High School, sued the Boyd County school district over the anti-harassment training, claiming the policy threatened him with punishment for expressing religious beliefs in opposition to homosexuality.

Morrison was never punished under the policy, a fact noted in Judge Deborah Cook's dissenting opinion. She said Morrison suffered no actual harm from the policy.

This from the Cincinnati Post.

Candidates support preschool expansion

Fletcher, Beshear also favor higher teacher pay

As a single mother of a 4-year-old son, Melanie Hughes struggles to pay for the pre-kindergarten program he attends each day.

She works full time and her income is too high to qualify for the state's free preschool program.

"I think preschool should be available to all children, but especially working families who cannot afford it," she said. "It's hard for me to believe that I make too much money in order to qualify for free preschool when I have to rotate my bills each month."

The two candidates for Kentucky governor agree.

Republican Gov. Ernie Fletcher and his Democratic opponent, Steve Beshear, say Kentucky must expand pre-kindergarten and fully fund full-day kindergarten, according to a Courier-Journal interview and survey of the candidates.

They also endorse additional pay raises for teachers. And both say they have serious concerns about the state's testing system.

Where they differ is in the details.

Beshear, who said one of his biggest concerns is the "limited nature of early childhood education," wants to see the program expanded to include more children, and he promised to "create a new tax revenue" through a job program to pay for it.

But Fletcher says he worries about how the state would pay for an expanded program.

"I will not raise taxes," Beshear said, "but I am going to implement an aggressive jobs program that will stimulate our economy and create more tax revenue for the state."

Beshear also said he will do an efficiency study of state government offices that he expects will find savings of $160 million to $180 million annually. "We are going to look at everything from the kind of light bulbs we buy to where we buy gas for the state fleet," he said.

Including more children

About 36 percent of the state's 3- and 4-year-old children -- roughly 39,000 -- attended Kentucky's preschool and Head Start programs for free last year, according to the Prichard Committee for Academic Excellence, a nonprofit organization of Kentucky parents and citizens working to improve education.

But an additional 16,000 children in families whose incomes are 1½ to two times the federal poverty level don't have access to high-quality preschool, said Bob Sexton, executive director of the Prichard Committee.

Beshear said he supports expanding free voluntary preschool to children ages 3 and 4 whose family income is less than twice the federal poverty level -- about $41,000 for a family of four...

This from the Courier-Journal.

Who says kids don't learn the classics?

This editorial from The Atlanta Journal-Constitution:

A principal's immodest response

If students knew enough about Irish-born satirist Jonathan Swift to parody him, it would be cause for celebration in most area high schools. Instead, it led to censorship at East Coweta High.

Senior Justin Jones burlesqued Swift's 18th-century essay "A Modest Proposal" in the September issue of Smoke Signals, East Coweta High's student newspaper. Lampooning complaints about the drag on the economy by poor Irish families, the great Swift wrote: "A young healthy child well nursed, is, at a year old, a most delicious nourishing and wholesome food, whether stewed, roasted, baked, or boiled."

Titling his piece "Another modest proposal," Justin suggested that the euthanasia of low-IQ students could alleviate the world's woes. His essay and a critique of an East Coweta Princess beauty pageant by the paper's managing editor Caitlyn VanOrden spurred a classic example of administrative overkill.

Principal Derek Pitts impounded 500 undistributed copies of Smoke Signals and told the staff that he wanted more positive and uplifting stories. His overreaction effectively turned Smoke Signals into a free-speech crusade. Resigning her editing position in protest, Caitlyn has created a Facebook site about the saga and is organizing a First Amendment rally.

A "positive" school newspaper devoted to winning football scores is not only boring, but it doesn't teach teenage journalists critical thinking skills. It doesn't take courage to report that the high school band bought new uniforms. It does to challenge the status quo, and that's what good school newspapers should do.

While the U.S. Supreme Court granted school administrators the right to censor some student publications, it stipulated that officials show reasonable educational justification. The justification at East Coweta seems neither reasonable nor educational.

~

Here's the article by Justin Jones, which satirically suggested the bottom 25 percent of fifth grade students on a standardized test be euthanized to remove "the bottom of every class." See http://times-herald.com/media/20071012_SmokeSignals2.pdf

Van Orden's column criticized a school beauty contest. "Judging who is the most beautiful in our school certainly does not contribute to our education," she wrote. See http://times-herald.com/media/20071012_SmokeSignals1.pdf

~

Managing Editor Caitlyn VanOrden who formed the Facebook group, "Let Freedom Ring for Smoke Signals" does not go quietly:

East Coweta High School’s student newspaper has been censored and then shut down.

As you probably read on the front page of the Oct. 12 Times-Herald, the opinion page of the Sept. 2007 Smoke Signals issue caused controversy that resulted in the stifling of the students’ freedom of speech and freedom of the press as guaranteed in the First Amendment of the Constitution.

The newspaper came out Sept. 25 and about 1,500 copies were distributed; on Oct. 1, EC principal Derek Pitts confiscated the remaining 500 from the journalism classroom; they are now sitting in his office. When I, the managing editor of the paper, went with my mother to discuss the matter with Mr. Pitts on Oct. 3, I was told the papers were taken due to inappropriate content. He pointed to what he thought was profanity – the word “bastardizing,” which is not a curse word at all; it means to corrupt.

He was also upset that the newspaper printed the word “hell” when quoting an EC senior who is enlisted in the US Army as saying “it was hell” when interviewed about his boot camp experience, during which four of his friends died.

He also took issue with my opinion editorial in which I said the Indian Princess Pageant at EC was shallow and bad for girls’ self-esteem; he felt it was too negative of a reflection on our school.

The newspaper’s opinion editor wrote a piece, also on a page labeled “Opinion,” based on Swift’s “A Modest Proposal,” in which he used satire to humorously suggest stupid people be killed. I was informed by Mr. Pitts that he only wanted “positive, uplifting” news published.

Following the confiscation of the papers and the following ruling that our ewspaper could not run any articles or editorials about Halloween, our newspaper adviser resigned.

Without a faculty adviser, Smoke Signals cannot be produced.

Even with an adviser, our paper will have to be approved before it can be printed; this means only “positive, uplifting” things will run, with no mention of the problems at East Coweta.

Have you ever read a newspaper filled with only happy news?

The “offensive” articles are posted here for all to read. The Times-Herald articles can be found on http://www.times-herald.com/.

Regardless of your opinion on the editorials in Smoke Signals, you must recognize that Mr. Pitts is infringing upon student rights to voice opinions, even unpopular ones. The writers have the right to express opinions, and you have the right to disagree with them and respond to them. This is the beauty of the First Amendment.
National Freedom of Speech Week is October 15-21. Celebrate your freedom as an American and stand up for student press rights.

A stranger called my mom after looking us up in the phone book following the articles in the Times-Herald to tell her to tell me to keep fighting the good fight; he had spent many years in the military defending those very rights.

To fight for student press rights and a clearer, more liberal student publications policy, email Superintendent Blake Bass at blake.bass@cowetaschools.net or call the Coweta County Board of Education at (770) 254-2801. OR write a letter to the editor or soundoff in the Times-Herald.

Read the student publications policy that has allowed Mr. Pitts to effectively shut down the newspaper at www.gsbaepolicy.org/policy.asp?PC=JHCC&S=4046&C=J&RevNo=1.11.

Ed. Dept. Pushes Back Required Changes in Race, Ethnicity Reporting

The U.S. Department of Education has pushed back implementation of controversial new requirements for classifying students by race and ethnicity, but is holding firm in the face of objections to changes requiring that institutions report some students as being members of more than one race.

Under final guidance issued by Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings and published in the Federal Register Oct. 19, schools must update as needed their method of student-data reporting to the Education Department no later than the 2010-11 school year—one year later than was announced when the guidelines were proposed last year.

The revised system conforms to guidelines established in 1997 by the White House Office of Management and Budget and reflected in the 2000 U.S. Census. That census was the first to allow respondents to identify themselves multiracially.

Under the new guidance, schools are to collect data on students’ racial and ethnic identities using a two-question format. First, families are to be asked if the students are “Hispanic/Latino.”

Then they are to be given the option to choose one or more of the following five categories: American Indian or Alaska Native, Asian, black or African-American, Native Hawaiian or other Pacific Islander, or white.

To prevent unnecessary double-counting, the parameters of the data that schools report to the department will be different: In addition to the above six categories, educational institutions may select an additional option, “two or more races,” to reflect a non-Hispanic student who checks more than one category under question two...

This from Education Week. (subscription)

CDC Issues Guidance on Staph Infections

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has provided schools and parents with a concise summary of guidelines on how to prevent the spread of drug-resistant staph infections that have caused concern nationwide.

In the guidelines, federal health officials recommend frequent handwashing to prevent the spread of the bacterium called methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, or MRSA. Students should not share personal items that come into contact with bare skin, such as towels or razors, and should disinfect open wounds immediately and cover them with clean, dry bandages, the Atlanta-based CDC recommends.

The guidelines, released Oct. 19, also say that schools need not be closed for disinfection because of a local MRSA case, as long as other recommended precautions are taken.

“In most cases, it is not necessary to close schools because of an MRSA infection in a student,” the guidelines say. “It is important to note that MRSA transmission can be prevented by simple measures such as hand hygiene and covering infections.”

A report from the CDC earlier this month, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, estimated that MRSA is linked to more U.S. deaths each year than the virus that causes AIDS. The news made headlines nationwide....

This from Education Week. (subscription)

Police Arrest a Student, Then Her Principal, Too

It all began just before 8 a.m. ...when Isamar Gonzales, a 17-year-old senior, walked into East Side Community High School in Manhattan a little early, but was stopped by school safety officers, who asked her to leave and return later. She refused.

The confrontation escalated, according to the police and school officials, and within minutes Ms. Gonzales was under arrest, accused of punching an officer in the face. The school principal, Mark Federman, tried to intervene, and was also arrested on charges of obstructing government activity and resisting arrest. When other students arrived at the school in the East Village, they saw their principal and a fellow student being led away in handcuffs....

This from the New York Times.

And now a message from the Superintendent: “Please go KILL these people....Please, please, please.”

School Chief’s Embarrassment

Is a Lesson for Itchy E-Mailers

First, let’s make one thing clear. Does the local superintendent of schools want to kill any of her teachers? No, she does not.

In fact, for the most part, residents seem relatively pleased with the performance of the Catskill schools superintendent, Kathleen P. Farrell, who in less than three years has gained a reputation as a can-do presence in a tough job.

That said, any time you generate news with headlines reading “Errant E-Mail Leaves School Chief Mortified/ ‘Kill These People’ Message Prompts Apology, Discipline,” you probably have room for improvement. So in one of those cautionary tales for the Internet age, next time you’re about to send that perfectly succinct nuclear e-mail rocket, consider Dr. Farrell’s travails before hitting the button.

An educator since 1970, Dr. Farrell has built a reputation as a hands-on manager — perhaps too hands-on for some teachers — in Catskill, a town with one foot in new exurban gentrification and the other in old exurban isolation.

One issue that apparently drove her a bit batty was a continuing dispute with teachers over enforcing state fire and safety rules, which require that classroom doors be kept closed while students are in class. With temperatures at times near 90 in a school without air-conditioning, teachers had a habit of propping doors open to cool things down a bit, and wanted to know why bathroom doors could stay open but classroom doors could not.

Back and forth the discussion went, until Oct. 3, when Dr. Farrell wrote an e-mail message to the district’s director of facilities, John Willabay. She vented a bit and then allowed: “Please go KILL these people....Please, please, please.”

Then she sent it — not just to him — but, accidentally, to an unknown number of others as well, including Terri Dubuke, a sixth-grade teacher who was one of the critics. Ms. Dubuke read it in shock and referred it to the teachers’ union, and the matter was discussed at a closed-door school board meeting on Oct. 17.

This week it also found its way into the local press, making Dr. Farrell’s private outburst a very public one. Dr. Farrell, 59, said she had apologized to Ms. Dubuke, and chalked it up to a lapse in judgment and the perils of modern communications.

“I can tell you this is my first experience like this, and it will certainly be my last,” she said. “I responded with a poor choice of language that was inadvertently also received and opened by one staff member. I’ve sent her a letter of apology. If I could eat my left foot, I would.” ...

This from the New York Times.

Webcast to air Kentucky Supreme Court's oral arguments

The Kentucky Supreme Court is going live and online.

The high court started showing oral arguments yesterday through a Web site, joining at least 16 other states in employing the technology. The court estimated it had about 1,700 online viewers for its first Webcast, said Susan Clary, a spokeswoman for the court.

It's gone great. No hitches," Clary said.

Kentucky joins states from Alaska to Florida in Webcasting oral arguments.

"Broadcasting Supreme Court oral arguments live gives every citizen access to our proceedings and an opportunity to see their highest court doing its work," Chief Justice Joseph Lambert said.
To see a Webcast, viewers go to the Supreme Court Web site, www.courts.ky.gov, and click on "Supreme Court LIVE."

Kentucky's high court finally had the technology in place to start Webcasting after studying the idea for several years, Clary said. The court is also looking into having attorneys file court records online, which is similar to what many federal courts require, Clary said.

The University of Kentucky law school is host for the site....

This from the Courier-Journal.

The Kentucky Law Review blog reports:

Arguments will be archived and available at the University of Kentucky School of Law's web site for later review and research.

Click HERE for October's calendar.

Click HERE for all the calendars.

This is a huge, historical, and monumental step forward in which the justices, the court, and AOC should all be proud and appropriately commended.

Tight revenue may foil next governor's plans

Candidates vow not to raise taxes

FRANKFORT, Ky. -- The winner of this year's governor's race will have to draft a state budget with little -- if any -- new revenue.

Yet the incumbent, Republican Ernie Fletcher, and his Democratic challenger, former Lt. Gov. Steve Beshear, promise to improve health care and education without raising taxes.

Official projections for revenue growth in the nearly $8.7 billion state General Fund are bleak: 1.1 percent growth this fiscal year, which ends June 30, 2.4 percent in 2008-09 and 3.6 percent for 2009-10.

That's less than the average growth over the past two decades and, in all likelihood, barely enough to keep up with inflation.

An even bigger problem stems from the fact that spending this year is being boosted by more than $300 million in one-time funds, mostly from surpluses accumulated in recent years. That's money that won't be available in the next budget.

"The next governor is going to be challenged," said Rep. Harry Moberly, the Richmond Democrat who is chairman of the House budget committee. Still, Fletcher and Beshear even oppose an increase in the 30-cent-a-pack cigarette tax -- although Kentucky has one of the highest smoking rates in the nation and one of the lowest tax rates.

In fact, each candidate is considering tax cuts...

This from the Courier-Journal.

Miami TV reporter charged with trespassing at school with loaded handgun

A Miami TV reporter was charged with trespassing on school property while carrying a loaded handgun. The irony: Jeff Weinsier of WPLG-TV was doing a story about school violence.

''Miami-Dade Schools Police is a very effective force and they take any incident of anyone bringing a weapon to campus seriously,'' Miami-Dade schools spokesman John Schuster tells The Miami Herald.

Was Weinsier trespassing or was he on public property? Judge for yourself. Here's a report with footage that shows the altercation that preceded the arrest. It shows him arguing with police about his right to stand on a sidewalk outside Central High School. At one point, a burly cop is shown manhandling the cameraman. Moments later, Wiensier is handcuffed and led away from the school's perimeter.

"I've been advised not to say anything," Wiensier tells his own station, according to the Associated Press. "The videotape speaks for itself. ... I was not trespassing."

Wiensier has a permit to carry a concealed weapon, the station says. We tried to reach the police department, but no one answered the phone when we called the non-emergency number.

This from USA Today.

New approach boosts discipline

Ky. joins national move to improve schools

with behavior program

At Bullitt Lick Middle School last year, school uniforms were causing more problems than they were solving.

Put in place a decade ago, the dress code was expected to reduce distractions and discipline problems.

Instead, Bullitt Lick found that more than 75 percent of its disciplinary cases resulted from students breaking the code.

"We were spending way too much time on the dress code" at the expense of academic achievement, said principal Scott Hrebicik.

But with the help of the Kentucky Center for Instructional Discipline, Bullitt Lick has developed a new attitude toward discipline, relaxing its dress code and working to keep kids in class.

The result -- suspensions have dropped to a fraction of the 200 the school issued in 2005-06, and attendance has increased.

Bullitt Lick is one of three schools in Bullitt County and 150 across Kentucky working with the state discipline center to implement a program called Positive Behavior Support.

Rather than having teachers create their own form of classroom management, Positive Behavior Support focuses on a schoolwide set of rules, consequences and reactions for misbehaving students.

"From the time a child steps foot on the school bus to the time they step off the bus, they should know exactly what the expectations are in every situation," said Mike Waford, director of the disciplinary center...

This from the Courier-Journal

Watson cancels Louisville appearance amid furor over racial comment

On Oct. 14 the Times of London Magazine ran a quote from Dr James Watson, who shared the 1962 Nobel Prize for discovering the double-helix structure of DNA.

In the article, the prominent scientist said he was "inherently gloomy" about Africa because "all our social policies are based on the fact that their intelligence is the same as ours - whereas all the testing says not really." He went on to say in the article that, while he hoped everyone was equal, "people who have to deal with black employees find this not true."

He wrote in his book Avoid Boring People: Lessons from a Life in Science, “there is no firm reason to anticipate that the intellectual capacities of peoples geographically separated in their evolution should prove to have evolved identically. Our wanting to reserve equal powers of reason as some universal heritage of humanity will not be enough to make it so.”

His remarks ignited international furor.

Watson was scheduled to appear next month in Louisville. He told Kentucky Author Forum officials on Monday it would be best to cancel.

Since that time, Watson said he was "mortified by what had happened."

"To all those who have drawn the inference from my words that Africa, as a continent, is somehow genetically inferior, I can only apologize unreservedly," he said. "That is not what I meant. More importantly from my point of view, there is no scientific basis for such a belief."

This from the Times of London; Herald-Leader.

Kentucky making educational progress

Out of the basement - onto the main floor

The Kentucky Long-Term Policy Research Center issued their most recent policy brief this monthy that confirms Kentucky's educational progress since 1992.

“Sufficient time has passed since the Kentucky Education Reform Act of 1990 and the Postsecondary Education Improvement Act of 1997 to ask: are we making educational progress in Kentucky and, if so, are we gaining on the nation?

…Using 11 educational indicators we examine Kentucky’s progress from 1992 to 2005 and conclude that we have made substantial progress, both in an absolute
sense as well as relative to the nation. However, we cannot afford to lose the
spirit of reform because we are still trailing roughly two-thirds of the states.

These indicators of educational progress show an across-the-board improvement from 1992 to 2005.

Educational attainment, as measured by the percentage of the population with a high school diploma, two- or four-year degree, and the high school dropout rate, steadily improved. Likewise, each measure of educational achievement, from ACT scores to the percentage of students scoring proficient or higher on the NAEP exams, was at or near its highest level in 2005.”

But as Kentucky has made progress, so has the the nation. The Long Range Policy Research Center calculated relative standings using percentile ranks.

But knowing the rankings does nothing to explain the distances between one position and another. For that, the researchers averaged the top 10 states...to show how far Kentucky still has to go.

The report concludes:

“…As we reach the 10-year anniversary of postsecondary education reform and approach the 20-year mark of primary and secondary education reform, these data illustrate real educational progress, both compared to our past as well as relative to the nation. Kentucky has moved from the bottom fifth of states in educational performance in 1992 to just over the bottom third in 2005. However, comparing Kentucky to the top 10 performing states in 2005 reveals that the Commonwealth has far to go in almost every facet of educational attainment and achievement. We should celebrate our progress to date, and remember that educational reform is not a destination, but rather a constant work in progress.”

Kentucky's funding levels may still be in the basement, and some areas of progress are certainly stronger than others, but overall student achievement gains are undeniable.

Student achievement is a lagging indicator and Kentucky is realizing the benefits of earlier (and continued) effort. This would seem to be the very definition of "an efficient system of common schools throughout the state," which is the legislature's constitutional mandate.

Viewed as a cost/benefit ratio, Kentucky schools are providing its citizens a better educational program than the state has a right to expect.

This is essentially what Judge Thomas Wingate alluded to when he struck down the Council for Better Education's most recent effort to force the General Assembly to keep its commitment to school reform. All in all, student achievement is progressing pretty well.

Kentucky Board of Education to Meet

(FRANKFORT, Ky.) – The Kentucky Board of Education will hold a special meeting on Sunday, October 28, in the State Board Room of the Capital Plaza Tower in Frankfort.

The meeting will begin at 2:30 p.m., and the board will enter into closed session after the roll call. The focus of the agenda is a discussion of candidates and next steps in the process to select a new commissioner of education.

A full agenda follows.

AGENDA
KENTUCKY BOARD OF EDUCATION
SUNDAY, OCTOBER 28, 2007
2:30 P.M. (EDT)

STATE BOARD ROOM
FIRST FLOOR, CAPITAL PLAZA TOWER
FRANKFORT, KENTUCKY

I. Call to Order
II. Roll Call
III. Discussion of candidates for the commissioner's position (Closed Session)
IV. Discussion of next steps in the selection process
V. Consideration of finalists for the commissioner's position
VI. Adjournment

SOURCE: KDE press release

Commish candidates and gubernatorial ramblings

Gentlemen, start your search engines

The boys over at the Bluegrass Institute are apparently ferreting out Commish finalists...or are they semi-finalists...or, do they just want the job?

Hard to tell what's what with this board, but KBE has called a meeting for Sunday when we are supposed to learn who the real finalists are. Then, there's a (way too brief) two-week period for public input - or, if it's anything like last time - perhaps it should be called the discovery period.

Let's hope they don't name their finalists and their favorite in the same breath this time around. That's so disingenuous.

A quick review

Roger Marcum's out.

Jon Draud confirmed he's in the mix and also indicated he was not married to the CATS test, which may be becoming a litmus test for some.

Kentucky Progress reports: "Sen. Ken Winters (R-Murray) confirmed this morning he is interested in the Kentucky Education Commissioner's job."

What about former OEA Honcho Penney Sanders and veteran Super H M Snodgrass? Are they still in play?

Since Doug Whitlock is going to be at Eastern for the next three years, is Harry Moberly lurking? Stay tuned.

Also, in their recent debate, Fletcher disses CATS; Beshear stops short of disagreeing.

"I think our test takes too long. It's not predictive. It doesn't help us identify students that need help. It doesn't help us intervene. And it doesn't really match with the No Child Left Behind and integrate that the way it could to make that easier. It takes a lot of time. It's a lot of work from teachers that could be spent in actually teaching students. So I would like as we did with increasing the curriculum requirements for graduation to align that with what is needed in the workplace. I want tests that are simple, basic, are on the website so parents can have the access and that are predictive."

He's apparently against CATS for reasons that make sense...and reasons that don't. But I'm not really sure I know what he was saying.

"Too long?" Arguably. Especially since NCLB messed it up. And, then KDE added their own DOK mess to that.


"Not predictive?" It's a summative assessment. It's not supposed to be predictive. That's the job of a formative assessment. But it sure would be great if teachers had effective formative instruments that were diagnostic, prescriptive and turned around the data in a hurry.


"Doesn't help us intervene?" Again, a formative assessment should help us intervene before the summative. That's the prescriptive part. But you're not going to get that in a statewwide accountability system.


"Doesn't match NCLB?" Good. Throw out NCLB if you must, but I think I'd try to fix it.


"It takes a lot of time." Said that already.


"It's a lot of work from teachers that could be spent in actually teaching students." OK. You don't fatten a calf by weighing it. But the public wants accountability. Are you going to provide that or not? If so, it's going to take something away from teaching. We need a reasonable and stable system.


"So I would like...to align that with what is needed in the workplace." Now what's he talking about? Which workplace? A vocational test of some kind?

"I want tests that are simple, basic, are on the website so parents can have the access and that are predictive." It's hard to imagine a worse security problem for an assessment system than putting the test on a website so that parents can have access to it. Let's just put the SAT out there while we're at it.


Fletcher's proposal, IF I understand what he's saying, would make a bad situation worse.