K-PREP scores were released to the public today, and teachers, administrators, and parents across the state are combing through the data to see how their local schools and districts performed. One thing we’ve learned so far is that achievement gaps are still persistent and that overall scores are still flat. So how well is Kentucky taking that? So far, reactions have been…
Month: September 2018
Trying to Build A Great Classroom Culture For All Students? Here Are 5 Things Anyone Can Do.
I just got back from an amazing professional learning session delivered by Kentucky State University’s Dr. Roger Cleveland. In the session, he had us do an equity activity that absolutely made my jaw drop. Here’s how it worked. We were each given five index cards and were instructed to write different labels that identify ourselves, like race, faith, sexual orientation,…
Kentucky Supreme Court Will Hear Pension Case Today
This story is in progress. Photo by Scott Beale, CC-Licensed. Bevin vs. Beshear? Pension reform vs. teachers? UK vs. UofL? (Just kidding. We know who wins that last one.) Today, the showdown that Kentucky teachers have been waiting for is going down in Frankfort. Kentucky’s Supreme Court will hear the overturned pension reform bill that made headlines earlier this spring, posing…
A More Perfect Teacher
Benjamin D. Alvord is a history teacher at Clarke N. Johnsen in Tooele County School District. He has committed to a life in education after working for a decade in the corporate world and now has been teaching for 8 years. Find him @misteralvord. An original version of this piece appeared on Curio Learning. I teach 8th Grade U.S. history, a…
Rural Schools Need Equity Too
I just got home from a convening with the rest of the Kentucky State Teacher Fellows, where we had some long, tough conversations on equity in our schools. We’re preparing for later this fall, when schools across the Bluegrass are going to witness a major data collection blast from education groups and teacher leaders. The reason is simple: Kentucky is…
Kentucky Teacher on TIME Magazine Cover: ‘I’m A Teacher in America’
“I truly love teaching,” says Kentucky teacher Hope Brown. “But we are not paid for the work that we do.” Teachers across the nation are experiencing this issue. Lately, we’ve seen teachers in states like Kentucky and Oklahoma trying to do something about it. Now, Time is letting a Kentucky teacher speak out on it. 52-year-old Hope Brown was on a…
Betsy DeVos Is Failing Public Education
Betsy DeVos is nothing if not controversial. Traditionalists oppose her staunch support of school choice; reformers are skeptical of her inability to defend it. For once, thought leaders from each side of these sparring factions agree on something — Betsy DeVos is fundamentally unqualified to lead the U.S. Department of Education. During her confirmation hearing, DeVos botched a softball question…
Education Reform Isn’t A 4-Letter Word
If you didn’t know any better, you might think there’s a civil war brewing right now in school systems across the country. It’s called education reform. Education reformers typically support things like school choice and accountability for public schools. Reformers are passionate about closing achievement gaps and building better public schools, but don’t necessarily believe that the conventional methods of…
Kentucky Proves Big Spending Isn’t Always Needed to Help Students Succeed
Lane Wright is the Director of Policy Analysis for Education Post, former press secretary to Governor Rick Scott of Florida, and a father of three living in Tallahassee. An earlier version of this piece appeared in The Courier-Journal. The other day, I imagined myself rich enough to be looking out of the floor-to-ceiling windows of a plush mansion on the…
Teaching Is Tough, But So Are You.
There was a day last year when I had to miss school because of a conference I was attending. I came in early the next morning to check on how things had gone while I was out, and I found one of the best notes from a substitute teacher that I had ever received. “I wanted to let you know…