number Archive

  • Excerpts from this article: We need to use numbers to evaluate our schools and our students. However, we need to understand what numbers can tell us, and more important, what the numbers can not tell us. Even though many academic measures exist, the errors we make when reading academic measures typically result from just a few incorrect notions. The many misleading conclusions we hear typically result from the same few errors. …We have looked at just a few examples of how we let numbers mislead us. Typically, the numbers are not wrong; we simply expect the numbers to tell us more than they reasonably can. This usually results from accounting methods that oversimplify information into a single number, while washing out the information we really want to know.

    Can We Be Confident In Standardized Test Results? – Part 5

    Posted on November 9, 2011 | No Comments
    Excerpts from this article: We need to use numbers to evaluate our schools and our students. However, we need to understand what numbers can tell us, and more important, what the numbers can not tell us. Even though many academic measures exist, the errors we make when reading academic measures typically result from just a few incorrect notions. The many misleading conclusions we hear typically result from the same few errors. …We have looked at just a few examples of how we let numbers mislead us. Typically, the numbers are not wrong; we simply expect the numbers to tell us more than they reasonably can. This usually results from accounting methods that oversimplify information into a single number, while washing out the information we really want to know.

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  • This represents the Feedback form which KSD will use to collect community input about the proposed North Star goals.  Actual feedback forms will be available at meetings KSD will conduct to explain the goals and solicit community comments.                                                                                     Strategic Plan Proposal                                                                                       Feedback Form

    KSD Strategic Plan Proposal Feedback Form

    Posted on April 1, 2011 | No Comments
    This represents the Feedback form which KSD will use to collect community input about the proposed North Star goals.  Actual feedback forms will be available at meetings KSD will conduct to explain the goals and solicit community comments.                                                                                     Strategic Plan Proposal                                                                                       Feedback Form

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  • The KSD administration and school board have worked since January developing these 11 proposed North Star goals to guide the school district for the 2011-12 school year and beyond. These 11 proposed North star goals are being presented to the community for review and comment.  KSD will provide community input forms for citizen evaluation of each goal during the month of April.  KSD citizens is publishing the goals, a calendar for community input and a generic version of the community input form as a service to Kennewick citizens and KSD staff. Kennewick School District Strategic Planning For an organization to remain healthy and growing, it must be constantly setting goals and striving to achieve those goals. This is certainly true with school districts and most certainly with the Kennewick School District. For more than a decade, the Kennewick School District has been setting goals,...

    KSD Strategic Plan – Proposed North Star Goals 2011-12

    Posted on April 1, 2011 | 5 Comments
    The KSD administration and school board have worked since January developing these 11 proposed North Star goals to guide the school district for the 2011-12 school year and beyond. These 11 proposed North star goals are being presented to the community for review and comment.  KSD will provide community input forms for citizen evaluation of each goal during the month of April.  KSD citizens is publishing the goals, a calendar for community input and a generic version of the community input form as a service to Kennewick citizens and KSD staff. Kennewick School District Strategic Planning For an organization to remain healthy and growing, it must be constantly setting goals and striving to achieve those goals. This is certainly true with school districts and most certainly with the Kennewick School District. For more than a decade, the Kennewick School District has been setting goals,...

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  • Discussion of the KSD Strategic Plan continued. Tests are driving KSD curriculum and college preparation is the primary goal for students.

    KSD School Board Report by Tom Staly

    Posted on February 11, 2011 | 4 Comments
    Discussion of the KSD Strategic Plan continued. Tests are driving KSD curriculum and college preparation is the primary goal for students.

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  • The main business of this meeting was discussion of the KSD Strategic Plan. There was robust, thoughtful dialogue about several North Star goals.

    KSD School Board Report by Tom Staly

    Posted on January 28, 2011 | 7 Comments
    The main business of this meeting was discussion of the KSD Strategic Plan. There was robust, thoughtful dialogue about several North Star goals.

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  • Opinion – Mike Rustigan – College Isn’t Necessary for Everyone. School districts across the nation have been cutting programs leading to non-academic careers to focus on test preparation for the narrow outcomes emphasized by No Child Left Behind. Additional pressure on vocational programs comes from the drive for academic programs leading to college entrance despite the fact that only about 21% of jobs in the U.S. require a bachelors degree. Kennewick citizens need to be cognizant of school board policies which have cut programs serving students interested in careers that do not require college. High school vocational and career education classes and the middle school exploratory classes supporting them have been reduced or eliminated. Here is a national voice explaining the problem we are facing. One repeated theme in President Obama’s education agenda is that he wants the United States...

    College Isn’t Necessary for Everyone

    Posted on May 12, 2010 | 4 Comments
    Opinion – Mike Rustigan – College Isn’t Necessary for Everyone. School districts across the nation have been cutting programs leading to non-academic careers to focus on test preparation for the narrow outcomes emphasized by No Child Left Behind. Additional pressure on vocational programs comes from the drive for academic programs leading to college entrance despite the fact that only about 21% of jobs in the U.S. require a bachelors degree. Kennewick citizens need to be cognizant of school board policies which have cut programs serving students interested in careers that do not require college. High school vocational and career education classes and the middle school exploratory classes supporting them have been reduced or eliminated. Here is a national voice explaining the problem we are facing. One repeated theme in President Obama’s education agenda is that he wants the United States...

    Continue Reading...