Education

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.

This year, 477 school board seats are up for election statewide, according to the Kentucky School Board Association.

Board members are elected on a nonpartisan ballot in even-numbered years and they serve four year terms, which are staggered so no more than three members of a local board expire at the same time, according to state law. A total of 865 school board seats exist.

The political action committee created to support school board candidates separate from the Jefferson County Teachers Association is showing signs of spending through mailers, just two weeks before the election. 

The Bluegrass Fund was created this year to campaign for candidates separate from those backed by the teachers union’s PAC called Better Schools Kentucky. It’s the only significant financial competitor the union has seen in the past decade.

The Kentucky Department of Education will release data under the state's new accountability model--Unbridled Learning--on Nov. 2.

The data will show test scores and other information since implementing new college-and-career standards last school year. Jefferson County Public Schools, KDE and city officials have all warned that the results could be shocking to the community because the bar for student achievement is being raised.

Under the Unbridled Learning model the following five areas will be the primary measurements: