Where can you find that Bluegrass Institute education report?
Looking for information about education in Kentucky? Here are some fairly recent Bluegrass Institute reports that might help you out.
“While Kentucky’s education system was sleeping …”
You’ve probably heard the fiction that Kentucky’s education system has risen in performance to about the middle of the pack of the states. It really isn’t true. Kentucky’s public education system continues to under-perform the state’s students as the material in this report makes abundantly clear.
“What Milton Wright knew about reading instruction, but lots of teachers apparently don’t”
First of two recent reports about the terrible job Kentucky’s public school system is doing with reading instruction. Discusses how the “wrong stuff” about reading still predominates in classrooms across the country, Kentucky definitely included. With the state’s teacher preparation institutions not even covering everything that scientific research shows is needed in strong reading programs, it is easy to understand the grim reality that only about 35% of Kentucky’s fourth grade students read proficiently and across all the grades and about 200,000 of Kentucky’s 648,000 students are in real trouble for reading. But more can be done, and some effort in this direction is now underway in the Bluegrass State thanks to Senate Bill 9 from the 2022 Regular Legislative Session though pushback against doing what science shows works is still remarkably prevalent.
“Reading proficiency rates rising in some Appalachian schools”
This second report on reading provides real hope that much better reading performance is possible in Kentucky. In fact, it is already being demonstrated in some of the state’s high-poverty schools in Appalachia. One example: A high-poverty Clay County school boosted 3rd Grade reading proficiency from 23% to 89.7% after teachers were properly trained to teach reading. This report provides a good counter to the false excuse from educators that poverty prevents schools from teaching more effectively.
“PRESERVING HISTORY, Problems with Kentucky’s Social Studies Standards, Must be Redone”
It is difficult to describe how incredibly terrible Kentucky’s 2019 social studies standards actually are. One example: Abraham Lincoln’s name is never mentioned. Neither is any other president save Washington and Jefferson! No important inventors or scientists are listed and only a few inventions get very superficial mention, as well. Some of the wars ignored include the War of 1812, the Texas War of Independence, the Mexican-American War and every single armed conflict the US has engaged in since World War II! The National Association of Scholars just released a model set of social studies standards that show how Kentucky can do this much better, but our legislature is going to have to act because teachers, who created the current document, clearly don’t know or care to get this better.
“Florida Versus Kentucky: School choice improves public school performance, too”
While the purpose of this paper was just to disprove the claim that school choice hurts public school performance, it also serves as almost a split sample study of how choice-devoid Kentucky’s public schools match up to choice rich Florida’s.
“KENTUCKY’S SCHOOL BASED DECISION MAKING POLICY”
This report highlights some of the major problems with Kentucky’s former school council laws. These laws have only recently been modified by Senate Bill 1 from the 2022 Regular Legislative Session but the problems with SBDM need to be kept in mind if any effort to reinstitute school council authority is attempted. Fortunately, under SB 1 the local school superintendent, who serves the locally elected school board, now controls curriculum instead of completely unaccountable school councils.
“MISCALCULATING ACCOUNTABILITY, Kentucky’s School Financial Reports Just Don’t Add Up”
Do you think you can get accurate information about how much money your child’s school really spends on education from the state’s official school report cards? Guess again. The school-level financial reporting from the Kentucky Department of Education is a mess. Kentucky needs accurate reporting about school spending, but it looks like the legislature is going to have to get involved because the education community is failing to provide useful and credible information.