The Biden Administration has given the green light to state testing this year, meaning students across Kentucky will be expected to complete KPREP in the spring. The announcement came after months of speculation on whether or not the Biden Administration would extend waivers for state testing like last year because of the pandemic. Doing so would have marked two consecutive…
Month: February 2021
I Love Teaching, But I’m Not a Martyr
I have been navigating majority (or all) white spaces for a very long time. Whether it was the tracked gifted and talented classes or my time at university, I’ve always sort of been an outsider. In a state with 96% of its teaching staff being white, choosing teaching was to be no different. Current wisdom and policy advocates ‘if we…
A new company in Applachia is showing us how to defeat the “skills gap” through education
A new industry in Eastern Kentucky is sending us all an urgent reminder that workforce readiness must be an educational priority. AppHarvest, a sustainable greenhouse company based in Morehead, made its stock market debut last week. In a state with fewer than 20 publicly traded companies, the innovative agritech corporation looks poised to make an immediate impact on some of…
Cardona Matters, But the Most Important Decisions Will Happen at the Local Level
President Joe Biden has certainly kept busy during his first days in the Oval Office. He has issued a call for national unity, doubled down on his promise to reopen most schools in his first 100 days, and signed a flurry of executive orders on everything from climate change to immigration. However, with fanfare of the new Biden administration likely to continue…
Rural and small schools are the unsung heroes of innovation, and it’s time we learn from them
While the challenges of rural schools have been discussed at length, they also have unique opportunities for innovation. Not only do rural schools act as centers for learning, but they serve their small towns as community hubs as well. Accordingly, rural schools are often better positioned to create opportunities for family engagement than their suburban and urban counterparts. This environment,…