Education

Over 1,000 unemployed youths are expected to attend KentuckianaWorks 8th annual Youth Opportunity Showcase Saturday to meet potential employers face to face. “If you get there before 10, you’ll see people lined up outside the door waiting to get in. It’s a little bit like the Macy’s wedding sale where you would see people rushing the door at ten o’clock," says Michael Gritton, ​executive director of KentuckyianaWorks, the federally mandated body overseeing job training and placement in the region.

A plan to cut Eastern Kentucky University’s budget by ten percent carries with it some expected employee layoffs.   The explanation about the budget alteration came in an email from Eastern President Doug Whitlock to faculty and staff.   Whitlock says about 75 percent of the Richmond school’s budget covers employee salaries and benefits.  In meeting the directive of the board to make a ten percent cut, the Eastern President says forced layoffs are possible.

A new ‘green’ Capital Education Center is now open.  The former heating and cooling facility had been dormant until its renovation into a visitors’ destination.  Governor Beshear says more than 60 thousand students, teachers, and other guests visit the Capital Campus each year.  He says ‘the building will serve as an outstanding resource to promote energy efficiency, sustainability, and more.’  The building is insulated wit recycled denim and features a viewing platform on the roof wit solar panels, a wind turbine, and a rooftop garden.

A Pikeville lawmaker wants to cement and expand a pilot scholarship program aimed at boosting college-going rates in Eastern Kentucky. Democratic Rep. Leslie Combs has filed a bill that would make permanent the nine-county program — created last year with an executive order by Gov. Steve Beshear — and spread it to all 34 coal-producing counties, including eight in Western Kentucky. The program would continue to use coal severance tax dollars to provide grants to college juniors and seniors to help them finish their four year degrees.

Midway College’s new president began his duties today.  John P Marsden is the tenth president of the central Kentucky school.  Marsden is scheduled to speak to the campus community next Tuesday during a convocation at eleven a.m.  His speech is expected to focus on current curricular trends, the rise of technology and social media on campus, and changing demographics in the marketplace.

The Kentucky Department of Education has released statewide data for two tests that show improvements over last year and state officials are pleased with the progress, but say there’s more work to be done. The EXPLORE and PLAN tests are taken in eighth and tenth grades respectively. The tests measure preparedness for high school and the ACT college entrance exam that all juniors take.

Scores from Kentucky's 2012 K-PREP student test were released a little less than three months ago, but schools already are planning ways to improve students' performance on this year's test. By Thursday, school districts and individual schools across Kentucky must submit annual improvement plans to the state Department of Education. This year the plans must detail steps schools and districts will take to meet ambitious new "delivery targets" on the 2013 K-PREP test. Each Kentucky district and school has its own individual targets, based on their results from 2012.

A statewide poll has found that Kentucky parents overwhelmingly favor increasing the state’s school dropout age, and doing so might help future high-school students' health, according to the Foundation for a Healthy Kentucky, which sponsored the poll.  After being told the legislature may raise the dropout age to 18 from 16, 85 percent of Kentucky parents said they favor the move, and 77 percent of parents said they strongly favored it.

Despite rising tuition costs, higher education is still worthwhile because college-degree holders have higher incomes and better opportunities for employment, according to a report released Friday by the Kentucky Council on Postsecondary Education.  Employers are increasingly requiring bachelor’s degrees as part of their hiring processes, the report said. In the next eight years, the report says, more than half of Kentucky jobs will require some sort of higher education. 

Despite rising tuition costs, higher education is still worthwhile because college-degree holders have higher incomes and better opportunities for employment, according to a report released Friday by the Kentucky Council on Postsecondary Education. Employers are increasingly requiring bachelor’s degrees as part of their hiring processes, the report said. In the next eight years, the report says, more than half of Kentucky jobs will require some sort of higher education.

Kentucky’s House Subcommittee on School Safety will listen to testimony from officials Friday afternoon for the second time since its creation. House Speaker Greg Stumbo created the special temporary subcommittee to address school safety following the shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut.

The 20th biennial international conference of the World Council for Gifted and Talented Children is coming to the Galt House this summer. Louisville will join host cities such as Barcelona, Spain; Sydney, Australia; Istanbul, Turkey; and Prague, Czech Republic according to The Lane Report. The program is being held Aug. 10-14 and will celebrate "Giftedness and Creativity."

A national report released today has good news about the nation’s high schools. Fewer students dropped out of high school in 2009-10 than the previous year, and more students overall graduated. That’s according to a preliminary report from the U.S. Department of Education’s National Center for Education Statistics. Meanwhile, state data shows the Newport Independent School District is making progress in curbing its dropout rate. The Enquirer reported in May that the dropout rate for the urban district had skyrocketed to 8.4 percent in 2008-09, the highest rate in Northern Kentucky and the state.

The Kentucky Department of Education is planning to release data next month on the state’s alternative schools for the first time as they look to improve transparency and accountability for the population the schools serve. Over 70,000 students are estimated to attend alternative programs in the state, many of which are in specialized schools that range in services and purposes.

What could certainly be dubbed a ‘once in a lifetime opportunity’ came for 20 middle school students at Eastern Kentucky University today.  They posed questions to a NASA astronaut aboard the international space station.  The connection was made through a downlink in the university’s Hummel Planetarium.  Kentucky Educational Television also participated in the event.