With the conversation elevating over the announcement today that Interim Commissioner of Education Dr. Wayne Lewis is recommending that the state board of education take over the Jefferson County Public School System (JCPS), a little review about another state takeover of a chronically failing school district seems in order.

Kentucky took over the Floyd County system many years ago and ran it until 2005.It seems to have helped.

In the last year of Unbridled Learning, the district got ratings of Distinguished/Progressing and was in the rewards category of District of Distinction. While I am not a fan of Unbridled Learning, the district clearly wasn’t at the very bottom of the pack anymore.

For more, check out this Herald-Leader report: “Once the scourge of Kentucky education reform, Floyd County schools now the star.”

Here’s one interesting quote from the article:

“Floyd County is now showing more affluent, more urban districts how increased achievement is done — and it's doing it with modest resources in an area with a great deal of poverty.”

Maybe the lofty JCPS school system has something to learn from this previous takeover district.