By Ken Selvaggi
WAVE 3 Vice President and General Manager
Now we know where our students really stand in the world
community and we can elevate and expedite our benchmarks for improvement.
In Jefferson County, Kentucky, the largest school system in
our region, half of the high school students are proficient in reading, less
than the nearly two-thirds under less rigorous standards. Less than half of our students in elementary,
middle and high school are proficient in math.
DuPont Manual is still the best of the best even with the
more challenging academic standards that are now benchmarked internationally. Jefferson County placed 15 schools,
including Manual High, among the top performers, but also had 40 schools ranked
in the bottom 10%.
All energies must be focused on improving the common core
standards measurements. Kentucky was
first in adopting those standards and should lead the way on making improvement
in them.
Support from parents, teachers and employers is paramount to
preparing our young people for college, career training and jobs that require
high-level skills and problem solving abilities.
The addition of assistant principals at elementary schools
and resource teachers in other schools should
help now but it will take an entire mind set reset in many schools to
get it done.
The payoff for all of us will be profound.
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