Kansans often think that their public schools do well on national tests. And they do–but only if we’re grading on a curve. For more, see a recent press release from the Kansas Policy Institute.
While this site has been around for a while, its season for being frequently updated has passed. While there may be some updates from time to time, I’m offering no guarantees. If you’re interested in education in Kansas and would like to contribute material to this site, please leave a comment and I might get [...]
If you’re a child in a poor family, where would you rather live–Kansas or Florida? Historically, Kansas has had a good reputation for its education system, and Florida hasn’t. But the Sunshine State has caught up to and has surpassed Kansas in some measures. Here’s what the online newspaper ProPublica had to say: “Our analysis [...]
School choice is on the move, according to the American Federation of Children. The pro-school choice group cites developments in 11 states during the first six months of this year. The states are: Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Iowa, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Utah, and Wisconsin. (Where’s Kansas?) The actions included: – Removing caps on [...]
Writing for the Foundation for Education Choice, Jeff Reed explains the benefits of school choice in a letter to the Johnson County Sun. “Nine of the 10 “gold standard” studies examining voucher programs concluded that some or all participants benefited academically. One found no difference. As for public schools, 18 of 19 empirical studies showed [...]
One education reform that most people haven’t heard of is the Common Core Standards Initiative. It’s the latest attempt to improve the educational performance of the nation’s students by establishing legal/administrative expectations of what students learn. In brief, it’s a set of school standards that are coordinated through the National Governors Association, and adopted on [...]
If you’re interested in education in Kansas, here are some websites you should check out: Kansas Open Gov takes information from the Kansas State Department of Education (KSDE) and transforms it into an easy to understand, sortable format. You can look at district revenues and spending per pupil, as well as district checkbooks, cash balances, [...]
One fallout of the Montoy decision has focused attention on the fact that the selection of members to the Kansas Supreme Court is a secret process without any public input. Dr. Stephen J. Ware of the University of Kansas talks about the judicial selection process in this short video.
If Kansas doubles the amount of money it spends on schools, will that be enough? This afternoon I’ve been looking through the Digest of Education Statistics, a massive report compiled by the U.S. Department of Education. It’s a compilation of information from across the country, so it’s useful for making comparisons across the states. You [...]
Kansas is developing a new tradition: School districts suing the people, through the Legislature. The website Kansas Reporter (affiliated, as I am, with the Kansas Policy Institute) has taken note of recent developments. About 60 school districts, or better than 20 percent of all districts in the state–have filed suit. Again. They want another $323 [...]
The Douglas County school board in south suburban Denver is contemplating something very unusual–letting children take a portion of the funds the district collects to any school of their choice, even private schools. The Denver Post offers some information, as does Ed is Watching. Under a proposed “Option Certificate Program,” parents could take 75 percent [...]
Earlier this week, the Daily Caller published an op-ed I wrote about the movie Waiting for Superman. You can read the op-ed here. It’s much too short to give the movie its due. Go see it if you can. Check out the movie’s website for options, though beware that the site seems to be out [...]
There are 5,057 janitors with a doctorate or professional degree, according to Richard Vedder, who writes in the Chronicle of Higher Education. Personally, I’m suspicious that the number inflated, though I agree with Vedder’ larger point, which is that we have a mismatch between public needs and our public approach to higher education. “All told, [...]
Eric A. Hanushek, whose research into the effects of teachers on student learning was featured in the movie Waiting for Superman, disputes the argument that efforts to make it possible to remove the worst teacher from our nation’s schools is somehow anti-teacher. He recently did so in an op-ed published in the Wall Street Journal. [...]
Earlier this year, the Washington Post ran an editorial about charter school legislation in the Commonwealth in Virginia. The situation sounds fairly similar to what’s going on in Kansas. The Post has it right: If you wish to see more options available to students, expand the number of authorizers. Here’s an excerpt: WITHIN HOURS of [...]
The Center for Education Testing and Evaluation at KU will get $22 million to come up with another means of testing students. According to the Kansas City Star, “The lead researcher behind the program said he hopes the work will someday transform how public schools test the progress of all students.” It will start out, [...]
Many people in the education industry scoff at the idea of using standardized tests. They say: Schools overuse standardized, multiple-choice tests. Teaching to the test provides children a student education, limited to what’s on the test. Teachers prepare students for standardized tests in ways that short-circuit the development of their critical-thinking abilities. We should use [...]
Popular attitudes towards public education suffer from an ignorance of some basic principles of education, such as the law of supply and demand. Recently a friend of mine said something along these lines: “Isn’t it disgusting that the cast of ‘Jersey Shore’ gets paid $45,000 per episode when teachers in this country don’t get paid [...]
The documentary “2 million minutes” compares the lives of six high-achieving high school students: two in the U.S. (Indiana), two in China, and two in India. The title refers to the time that a student spends during the four years of high school. One obvious contrast between the students is that the American students spend [...]
There’s a powerful new documentary about American education. Unfortunately, it’s about the dismal education that many children receive. Here’s the trailer: The director, Davis Guggenheim, talks about why he created the movie: The Nation pans the film. The Boston Globe offers a more positive review. Here’s the official website (turn down the volume on your [...]
USA Today discovers home schooling. A recent article offers several reasons why parents pursue home schooling for their children: They wish to take the children to visit various countries or part of the U.S., using the world as a classroom. They wish to spend more time with their children, to have more opportunity to be parents. [...]
The Kansas Policy Institute is making its voice known on school-funding matters. For example, the Wichita Eagle published a letter to the editor about school funding: Friday, October 1, 2010 Money alone isn’t answer for schools Kansas taxpayers increased their support of K-12 education from $4.3 billion to $5.7 billion between the 2004-05 and 2008-09 [...]
What might happen if a city started its school system over from scratch? That’s not entirely a hypothetical question. New Orleans has offered something of a natural experiment after hurricane Katrina wiped out its schools, and much of everything else. Now, 60 percent of students attend a charter school. In fact, the whole landscape is [...]
We’ve got a problem with schools. Now what are we going to do about it? First, just how stagnant is American education? Robert Samuelson lays down some numbers: In 1971, the average score on the NAEP for high school students taking the reading test was, on a scale of 0-500, 285. In 2008, it was [...]
Kansas Education
