Education

As the number of immigrants coming to central Kentucky grows, the demand for English lessons also increases.  But, there are not enough instructors here who can teach English-as-a-Second-Language classes.  Lexington’s Multicultural Affairs Coordinator Isabel Taylor says ‘the numbers’ tell a big part of the story.  Taylor says data gathered from the Fayette County School System shows about 15 hundred non-English speaking children were enrolled in 2005.  By last spring, she says that number had almost tripled.

Gov. Steve Beshear announced Monday he’ll make a concerted effort to support the Commonwealth Institute for Parent Leadership offered by the Prichard Committee for Academic Excellence. Prichard has hosted the program for several years, educating and mentoring hundreds of parents to become involved in their child’s education.

Martha Raddatz, ABC News Senior Foreign Affairs Correspondent and moderator of the 2012 Vice Presidential Debate at Centre, will be the featured speaker at Centre’s 190th Commencement Ceremony on May 19. Raddatz has held her current role at ABC since 2008. Previously, she acted as the network’s State Department and senior national security correspondent. She and others at ABC News were recognized for their coverage of Sept. 11, 2001, with a Peabody Award and an Emmy Award.

In its campaign against hazing, Eastern Kentucky University expects student clubs to police themselves.  The E-K-U Men’s Rugby Club was suspended Thursday night for freshmen initiations that included a paddle.  The club cannot practice, play games, or even meet until August of 20-14.  Eastern Vice President of Student Affairs Mike Reagle says the university does not have enough staff to closely monitor such organizations.

Four Kentucky universities will begin using a standardized financial aid letter aimed at helping students and parents better understand the costs of higher education. The U.S. Department of Education announced Thursday that the University of Kentucky, Eastern Kentucky University, Bellarmine University and Louisville's University of Phoenix campus have agreed to use the “Financial Aid Shopping Sheet.”

After investigating alleged hazing on the Eastern Kentucky University rugby team, EKU officials on Thursday announced that they are suspending the team until Aug. 18, 2014; that the team will be on probation until spring classes start in 2016; and that all team members must attend an instructional session on hazing by Oct. 1, 2014.

The search for a new president at Eastern Kentucky University begins in earnest this week.  Members of the E-K-U community can offer their thoughts on the skills needed in the next president.  Consultants hired to help with the search will be in Richmond the next two days to hear from administrators, faculty, students, and citizens.  An open community forum is tonight on the Richmond campus.  Presidential Search and Screening Committee Chair Craig Turner says public comments will be part of the mix

Kentucky school districts are adjusting to a new testing system that ranks almost 70 percent of the state's schools in the lowest category: "needs improvement." The results, released at 12:01 a.m. Friday, may come as a shock to school districts that had generally ranked higher in previous tests. But the system's design automatically ensured that 69 percent of schools and districts would end up in the "needs improvement" classification.

A Pre-Halloween snowfall in eastern Kentucky has kept thousands of school children home.  The snow comes as a spinoff to Hurricane Sandy.  In Pike County, where classes were canceled Tuesday,  Personnel Director Ralph Kilgore says an October snow day is highly unusual.  “I can remember when I was a young man in school, we had snow and we were practicing football in the snow, but that was back in the 60’s.  That’s been a long time.   Since I’ve been in the school system, I cannot remember calling school off in October, for snow,” said Kilgore.

A person’s family background and education early in life may be a better indicator of success than his education, a Nobel Prize-winning economist told the Kentucky Economic Association on Friday. “The family lives of young children are the major producers of cognitive and socioemotional skills. These, in turn, predict crime, health and obesity,” said James J. Heckman, speaking at Georgetown College’s Thomas & King Conference Center. “The true measure of disadvantage is the quality of parenting, not income per se,” Heckman said.

A Kentucky educational review subcommittee has killed a regulatory change that would have removed readers from helping certain students with disabilities and English language learners on reading comprehension tests. The new regulation would have brought the state in line with a majority of its peers, but the Education Assessment and Accountability Review Subcommittee found the changes deficient, despite the Kentucky Board of Education’s approval earlier this year.

Kentucky State Auditor Adam Edelen will continue to do special audits of school districts, after three turned up a variety of issues.  Reviewing education funding was one of Edelen's campaign promises last year. And so far, he’s made good by auditing Kenton, Mason and Breathitt County school districts. Those reports found poor documentation of funds and occasional misspending.  Edelen told lawmakers today he’ll continue doing the special audits to help school boards learn to keep tighter controls on their finances.

Eastern Kentucky University officials are looking into an allegation of hazing.  The claim was filed against the men’s Rugby Club.  E-K-U Associate Vice President of Student Affairs Mike Reagle says officials are still trying to determine what happened.  “We have an allegation.  That is correct.  We don’t know what has happened until we talk to students who happened to be there.  But, there is an allegation that someone has made and that’s what we’re investigating at this point.” Said Reagle.

Despite failing to pass charter school legislation in the Kentucky General Assembly this year, education officials will announce details of the compromise Districts of Innovation bill this Friday. The new regulations will allow local districts flexibility from some state laws controlling how students are educated if certain goals are met, mainly for low-achieving students.

University of Kentucky President Eli Capilouto has refused a faculty group's request to end a little-known perk for administrators that has cost about $1.5 million since 2006. Capilouto did pledge Monday to stop the extra retirement benefit for future administrators, but that concession did not placate rank-and-file workers worried about layoffs and other budget cuts.