Push-back on Common Core not unique to Kansas

The Common Core standards have already gone into effect as far as many teachers are concerned. They were adopted by the Kansas State Board of Education in October 2010. What starts in the 2014-15 school year are the assessments that are aligned to those standards.

The U.S. Department of Education study which "maps" the state standards to the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) comes with several caveats advising users not to draw too many conclusions from it.

Specifically, on page 7 of the 2009 report, it says:

"This report is not an evaluation of state assessments. State assessments and NAEP are developed for different purposes and have different goals and they may vary in format and administration. Findings of different standards, different trends, and different gaps are presented without suggestion that they be considered as deficiencies either in state assessments or in NAEP. The analyses in this report do not address questions about the content, format, exclusion criteria, or conduct of state assessments, as compared to NAEP. State assessments and their associated proficiency standards are designed to provide pedagogical information about individual students to their parents and teachers, whereas NAEP is designed to provide performance information at an aggregate level. Also, the analyses do not address any change in states’ assessments or proficiency standards that may have occurred after 2009."

May 21, 2013 at 3:56 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )

Heritage grants divide county commission

They did approve the grant for the Castle Tea Room, but stipulated the sign is not for marketing. It's more like a historic marker with lots of text visible only to pedestrians. There was discussion about that.

May 2, 2013 at 8:15 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )

State education board set to vote on new history and government curriculum standards

The State Board of Education is a separately elected body, sometimes referred to as the "fourth branch of state government." Members are elected from districts. Each district includes exactly four state senate districts. There are 40 state senators, and thus 10 State Board of Education members.

April 15, 2013 at 2:47 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )

School board OK's $4.1 million in projects; reorganizes administration

They actually talked about squeegies. Turns out, that doesn't work in this case. Sounds like water percolates up from beneath the courts. They say they've been doing it, and as soon as they get done, there's more water on the courts. Staff says the only solution is to completely rebuild them.

April 9, 2013 at 9:48 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )

Collective bargaining issues expose open rift among education lobby groups

"Removing the Barriers to Better Public Education: Analyzing the Facts about Student Achievement and School Spending"

By Dave Trabert and Todd Davidson

February 2012

"Part of the resistance to change is driven by a widely- held belief that Kansas’ public schools have very high achievement levels and are among the best in the nation. Unfortunately, the data shows actual achievement is much lower and that high national rankings are driven by demographics and the relatively poor performance of all states."

http://kansaspolicy.org/researchcente...

March 17, 2013 at 6:29 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )

Collective bargaining issues expose open rift among education lobby groups

Mr. Trabert is correct in that I should not have put the words "poor performance" in quotation marks. Those were not his words. They were my way of collectively paraphrasing comments and statements he has made over a period of years, including comments in his testimony on March 11 and in my direct interview with him that day.

In his testimony on Thursday, March 11, Mr. Trabert presented slides stating that Kansas has "reduced performance standards" in order to avoid financial penalties under No Child Left Behind, and the result has been to create an impression that Kansas students (and schools) are performing better than they actually are.

In my interview with Mr. Trabert moments before that testimony, he stated: "Kansans believe that schools have very high performance. In fact, that's what they're told by school districts and media. And that's what we're going to be talking about here today. The truth is that achievement levels are actually lower than what a lot of people believe."

I then asked him to describe the link between those performance levels and collective bargaining rights for teachers. He responded with the quote that is included in the story.

March 17, 2013 at 4:59 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )

School board hires principals, discusses bond plans

Statewide, about 75% of all licensed educators in Kansas are female. I talked with Rick Doll about this last night in another context. He says the breakdown in Lawrence is about the same. See state licensed personnel report: http://www.ksde.org/LinkClick.aspx?fi....

March 12, 2013 at 8:28 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )

Area students capture state chess titles

Liberty Memorial Central Middle School was not listed on the KSCA website as one of the participants: http://ksca.us/kscadb/codes.php.

March 11, 2013 at 10:30 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )

Plaintiffs file cross-appeal in school finance lawsuit

The Montoy case included a coalition of school districts across the state called Schools For Fair Funding. It was not limited to Shawnee County. In fact, the name "Montoy" comes from one plaintiff child whose parents both worked in the Salina school district.

Schools For Fair Funding also initiated the current case, Gannon vs. Kansas, but a smaller number of districts are funding it. A list of SFFF members is available at http://www.robblaw.com/PDFs/zzzzz9999....

The Gannon case itself focused on four districts: Kansas City USD 500; Wichita USD 259; Hutchinson USD 308; and Dodge City USD 443.

February 23, 2013 at 12:54 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )

County to vote on financing agreement for industrial park

The list of parcels and their owners is included in the agenda packet. Out of more than two dozen parcels of various sizes,there is a single 1-acre parcel used for an ATT tower; one other small parcel, 3.2 acres, owned by Westar Energy. Most of the rest is owned by the city, but a few are owned by the county.

February 19, 2013 at 9:07 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )