Degree growth: some proportions

Here are two ways to put our 2011 postsecondary degrees into some context.

Yes, the comparisons in the first graph are rough. In the first graph, I'm comparing this year's graduates to diplomas six years back and eighth grade four years before that, rather than matching students' actual progress through the education system.  The comparisons in the second graph are even rougher, because private school numbers are harder to come by.  The 2011 postsecondary figures include students getting second degrees, adults getting degrees well into their 30s and beyond, and students from out-of-state--while leaving out Kentucky citizens collecting degrees in other jurisdictions.

Even with all those caveats, I respectfully submit that these comparisons suggest that in coming years, our population aged 25 to 34 is going to be better educated than generations before them.

Source notes: 2001 public 8th grade comes from the 2006 Kentucky Performance Report, and 2005 public diplomas from the 2009 Nonacademic Data briefing packet.  2011 degrees are from this week's Council on Postsecondary Education preliminary reporting.  For private schools, Digest of Educational Statistics 2008 provides a 2005 graduation estimate of 3,720, and Digest of Educational Statistics 2004 provides a Fall 2001 prekindergarten to grade 12 enrollment estimate of 72,819, which I divided by 13 to estimate grade 8 enrollment at 5,601.

Growth in degrees: some detail on bachelor's growth

Kentucky's recent growth in postsecondary degrees includes a 6 percent increase in bachelor's degrees over the last year.  Among public institutions, Eastern led in numerical growth with an increase of 411 degrees awarded, while Kentucky State showed the highest growth rate with a 32 percent increase over last year's numbers.

For independent schools, the Council on Postsecondary has not yet released detailed numbers, but they have offered totals for the member schools in the Association of Independent Kentucky Colleges and Universities (AIKCU) and for other independent schools.  Those independents grew even faster than the public institutions, with 10 percent growth for AIKCU and 14 percent for others, compared to 5 percent for public programs. To keep that in proportion, do notice that public universities contributed 76 percent of this year's bachelor degrees and 62 percent of the growth in those degrees.

Go, Cindy, Go!

Business Lexington's new list of 20 leading women of central Kentucky features a great profile or Cindy Heine, interim executive director of the Prichard Committee.

Degrees surge again!

Preliminary reports from the Council on Postsecondary Education show Kentucky hitting an "all-time high" by awarding 62,681 degrees in 2010-11.  Here's a breakdown by type of award:

TELL bad news: paperwork, PD issues, class size

Significant numbers of Kentucky educators have flagged weaknesses in their working conditions.  Asked if they agree with key assertions, educators gave the fewest positives in the four areas shown below, signaling that many see problems with paperwork, class size and the evaluation and individualization of professional development.

At all three levels, the paperwork question got the weakest agreement of all, but there were variations on the next five issues.

Elementary educators offered agreement of just:

• 59 percent on Class sizes are reasonable such that teachers have the time available to meet the needs of all students.
• 60 percent on Professional development is evaluated and results are communicated to teachers.
• 61 percent on The non-instructional time provided for teachers in my school is sufficient.
• 61 percent on Teachers have sufficient instructional time to meet the needs of all students.
• 63 percent on Professional development is differentiated to meet the needs of individual teachers.

Middle school educators showed agreement of only:

• 55 percent on Professional development is evaluated and results are communicated to teachers.
• 55 percent on Class sizes are reasonable such that teachers have the time available to meet the needs of all students.
• 58 percent on Professional development is differentiated to meet the needs of individual teachers.
• 60 percent on Teachers have an appropriate level of influence on decision making in this school.
• 61 percent on The non-instructional time provided for teachers in my school is sufficient.

High school educators provided agreement of just:

• 51 percent on Professional development is evaluated and results are communicated to teachers.
• 54 percent on Professional development is differentiated to meet the needs of individual teachers.
• 55 percent on Teachers have an appropriate level of influence on decision making in this school.
• 58 percent on Professional development deepens teachers' content knowledge.
• 58 percent on Parents/guardians support teachers, contributing to their success with students.

Ideally, the TELL results will create an opening for statewide discussion of these issues and school-by-school issues of whichever issues looked weakest to the teacher-members of that particular community.

Full TELL results, including reports for each district and school, are available here.

End-of-course testing: Vendor selected, syllabi on the way

From the Department of Education's Friday press release:

Kentucky has selected ACT, Inc. as its vendor for end-of-course examinations for the state’s public high school students.

The contract period is from May 9, 2011, to June 30, 2012, and is for a total of $5,486,700.

Senate Bill 1, enacted in the 2009 Kentucky General Assembly, requires a new public school assessment program beginning in the 2011-12 school year. The legislation allowed, with approval by the Kentucky Board of Education, an EOC assessment program at the high school level.

ACT, Inc. will provide assessments for English II, Algebra II, Biology and U.S. History through its QualityCore® program. The program is syllabus-driven and will include curriculum and instruction support materials. 

That last part looks like especially good news for parents who want a clear picture of what their children will be studying.  Once we can all see the syllabi for these four courses and teachers can share how they work in practice, maybe we'll have models that other teachers can use to create matching documents for other high school classes.

The full KDE press release is here, and further information on the tests we'll be using here.

TELL good news: tech, data, home communication, safety

On the 2010 TELL survey on working conditions, here are the four issues on which Kentucky educators agreed most strongly:

To be more precise, these four issues had the very top percent agreeing or strongly agreeing considering all educators together.  Taking each level separately, these four issues were also in the top eight getting agreement from the survey participants, though with some differences in which got the very strongest support.

These results are very good news. It's great to see teachers confirm that we've succeeded in the KERA goals of making technology a permanent part of our education system and evidence of student progress a regular tool for school improvement.  It's very good to see communication to families so strong (though I admit it makes me long to hear the family perspective on the same question).  And while I deeply wish the "safe work environment" question had received 100 percent agreement, those results are stronger than I expected and a corrective to anyone who claims that our schools are generally unsafe.

To round out this post, here are the issues with the next four highest positives overall, and with top eight ratings at each of the three levels.

Urban districts raise achievement (Connecticut results)

Student achievement is improving in 15 Connecticut school districts since state educators started helping them bolster their curriculum and teacher training, according to a new report.

The state Department of Education's report says students in those struggling districts made noticeable progress, particularly in reading, since the Connecticut Accountability for Learning Initiative started four years ago.

"Everybody is making growth. That's the story here. Every single student," Heather Levitt Doucette, a consultant with the department, told the state Board of Education when it reviewed the report Wednesday.

The improvement program, known as CALI, stems from a 2007 law intended to help close the achievement gap between Connecticut's wealthy and poor students, and between ethnic minorities and their white counterparts.

That news from the Boston Globe is great for Connecticut students, and of course I want know how the approaches compare to current Kentucky efforts.  I haven't found the detailed version of the report yet, but I'm going to go check with the reporter on the story.

Moving up on Pre-K (slowly)

The newly issued State of Preschool 2010 awards Kentucky 9 of 10 points on its Quality Standard Checklist, moving us up from last year's 8 points because we've added a pilot classroom monitoring program.  To pick up the last point, we'll need to raise standards of assistant teachers in state preschool classes.  Here are Kentucky's participation rates as calculated by the National Institute for Early Education Research, which does these reports annually: 

To check out the full Kentucky report and see how other states are doing, check out the NIEER website.

Working conditions: a local look

What can parents, teachers, or interested citizens find out from the TELL survey?  Since my children are all proud Admirals, I chose Danville High School's report as an example to use in illustrating possibilities.

Above, I've highlighted the six questions where  DHS differed from high schools statewide by 20 points or more.  The answer on students following the rules is particularly startling, with only 27 percent of local educators seeing students as following rules of conduct, compared to a much stronger 62 percent statewide.  That's surely the basis for some important discussion in our community!

Working conditions: a statewide look

Kentucky's first TELL survey asked educators across the state about their working conditions, and 42,025 of them responded, setting a national record for first-time surveys of this kind and providing new insights worth lots of attention.  For example, the Department's press release reports that

Overall, educators are positive about their teaching conditions:

• 93 percent agree they work in a school environment that is safe.
• 83 percent indicate they intend to continue teaching at their current schools.
• 80 percent agree the faculty and leadership have a shared vision.
• 94 percent agree the school leadership facilitates using data to improve student learning.
• 86 percent agree that the school council makes decisions that positively impact instruction (i.e. curriculum, instructional practices).
• 92 percent agree that teachers are encouraged to try new things to improve instruction.

           *     *     *

Early analyses indicate there are concerns across the state. For example, in the area of Time:

• Only 51 percent agree that efforts are made to minimize the amount of routine paperwork teachers are required to do.
• 63 percent agree that teachers have sufficient instructional time to meet the needs of all students.
• 68 percent agree that teachers are protected from duties that interfere with their essential role of educating students.

Results for the state, districts, and schools can be found here.  The survey is a big step forward in Kentucky's attention to teaching quality, and it's exciting to think of these insights being used in communities all over the Commonwealth to identify opportunities to strengthen our teachers and our schools.