Kentucky Education Commissioner Terry Holliday said Wednesday that his agency will keep an eye on any attempts by districts to game the new school dropout law by suggesting students who are performing poorly in class opt for home schooling.
Holiday’s remarks came during a Kentucky Board of Education discussion to approve final changes to the state’s school assessment and accountability system. They came during a briefing by According to Associate Commissioner Ken Draut. Draut pointed to one language change in the regulation is that the department “shall monitor alternative student placement if there is evidence that a school is inappropriately placing students in alternative schools to avoid accountability.”
Holliday recently joined Gov. Steve Beshear and First Lady Jane Beshear to announce that the last of the state’s local school boards had acted to raise the mandatory high school attendance age from 16 to 18 within the next two years. Most boards will make the change starting this fall under legislation passed by the 2013 General Assembly.
The commissioner said Beshear had brought a related issue to his attention.
“The governor has told me that superintendents have told him that some superintendents trying to avoid the dropout rates are promoting and encouraging home school withdrawals without any home school being there,” Holliday said.
“We don’t need to change the reg, but I do want the minutes to reflect that we should require an annual report, by high school, (of) the number of withdrawals for home school purposes,” he said. “We will closely monitor students age 16, 17 and 18 as we implement the dropout age to 18.
“I want to make certain that report is a requirement annually down the road so our staff can look and if we see large spikes in certain districts we can further investigate on behalf of the board. I just wanted to make sure that was in the minutes,” Holliday said.
After Holliday’s remarks, members of the state board of education discussed their concerns about Kentucky’s lax oversight on the quality of home schooling.
“When I was a principal in South Carolina, I thought we had few rules on the quality of home schools. When I went to North Carolina as a superintendent, it got worse, but when I got to Kentucky, I hit rock bottom,” the commissioner said.
The revised regulations on Kentucky’s school assessment and accountability system were approved unanimously by the state board of education.
From Kentucky School Boards Association eNews service