Education

Kentucky’s public and independent colleges and universities conferred a record 63,000 degrees and credentials during the 2011‐12 academic year, representing an overall increase of 4 percent over last year. The report shows the largest one‐year increase was at the associate level with substantial increases in all sectors. The Kentucky Community and Technical College System led with an estimated 9,503 associate degrees, an increase of 20 percent or 1,600 degree earners from just one year ago.

UK Music Students and their instructors have been ushered into the digital age with some new equipment introduced this week. The University of Kentucky School of Music is the proud owner of some 18 new, state of the art Yamaha Disklavier pianos.  The instruments contain on-board computers that record, playback, and store musical arrangements.  They were dedicated and demonstrated at the Schmidt Vocal Arts Center on Monday.  Vocal Major Rebecca Farley sang a selection from Phantom of the Opera accompanied by, in essence, a phantom piano player.

The Kentucky Board of Education is resubmitting changes to the way students with learning disabilities take reading comprehension tests. Last year, the board approved a regulatory change that would prevent certain students from having teachers read them portions of reading comprehension tests. Now, the state is allowing some students in special circumstances to bypass that regulation.

The University of Louisville Board of Trustees approved the 2012-2013 budget Thursday, including a 6 percent tuition increase for students. The state cut higher education by 6.4 percent in its final budget, which is about $9.7 million for U of L. The $482.6 million general fund budget approved by the board covers the university’s primary operations, including salaries and it includes tuition increases for students and funding cuts to departments totaling $6 million.

Kentucky’s 8th grade science scores in the latest national assessment exceed that of the nation’s average, but the state made less progress overall. “The average scale score for our 8th graders in science is six points above the national average,” said Lisa Gross, spokeswomen for the Kentucky Department of Education.