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Selected Works

Richard E. Day

Articles 1 - 30 of 35

Full-Text Articles in Education

Whose Standards Are These? A Chronological Glossary Of Standards In P-12 Education, Richard E. Day Dec 2014

Whose Standards Are These? A Chronological Glossary Of Standards In P-12 Education, Richard E. Day

Richard E. Day

No abstract provided.


A Persistent Quandary: The Rural School Improvement Project, 1953-1957, Richard E. Day, Lindsey N. Devries, Amanda L. Hoover Dec 2013

A Persistent Quandary: The Rural School Improvement Project, 1953-1957, Richard E. Day, Lindsey N. Devries, Amanda L. Hoover

Richard E. Day

Berea College's Rural School Improvement Project worked directly with more than 5,000 children and 63 teaching fellows in 39 different schools over 13 counties, and one independent school district, involving 10 county school supervisors. Project estimates claimed an indirect impact on approximately 45,000 children within the RSIP school districts. The RSIP represented the thinking of national leaders of rural education in the 1950s who promoted improved administration of the schools combined with an active community engagement program based on “full respect for human personality” and “shared judgments.” Following so many decades of poverty and isolation, it is no easy task …


Outsized Profit Expectations Harm Education News, Richard E. Day Aug 2013

Outsized Profit Expectations Harm Education News, Richard E. Day

Richard E. Day

It appears that former Herald-Leader and Los Angeles Times editor John Carroll was on to something when he predicted, in 2006, that outsized profit expectations in the newspaper industry would have a destructive effect on journalism. Seven years and several rounds of newsroom layoffs later — all in the service of maximized profits — its effects can be seen in education reporting on the [pages of the Herald-Leader].


First In Reform: The Adoption Of Common Core State Standards In Kentucky, Richard E. Day Dec 2012

First In Reform: The Adoption Of Common Core State Standards In Kentucky, Richard E. Day

Richard E. Day

On February 11, 2010, in an unprecedented joint meeting, the chairs of the Kentucky Board of Education, the Council on Postsecondary Education, and the Education Professional Standards Board signed a resolution directing their respective agencies to implement the Common Core State Standards in English/language arts and mathematics. This act formalized Kentucky’s commitment to integrate the nascent standards into the state’s public education system – the first state to do so. This article will trace the antecedents to Kentucky’s adoption of the standards as one expression of the late 20th century/early 21st century “corporate school reform movement” as manifested in the …


Education Reform In Kentucky: Just What The Court Ordered, Richard E. Day, Jo Ann G. Ewalt Dec 2012

Education Reform In Kentucky: Just What The Court Ordered, Richard E. Day, Jo Ann G. Ewalt

Richard E. Day

No abstract provided.


Presidential Search Should Be More Open To Community, Richard E. Day Oct 2012

Presidential Search Should Be More Open To Community, Richard E. Day

Richard E. Day

No matter what the search firm does--or does not do--it is the Regents who remain responsible for the selection of Eastern’s 12th president. The search and screening committee would greatly benefit from a few faculty researchers who might be called upon to discretely vet the top candidates and advise the committee before the Regents make any public announcement about finalists. It might go a long way toward breaking down any misperceptions that the process is insular, thus building confidence among the faculty, which is crucial to the next president’s success.


Berea College-Coeducationally And Racially Integrated: An Unlikely Contingency In The 1850s, Richard E. Day Dec 2011

Berea College-Coeducationally And Racially Integrated: An Unlikely Contingency In The 1850s, Richard E. Day

Richard E. Day

In this paper we consider the anti-slavery ministry of Rev. John G. Fee and the unlikely establishment of Berea College in Kentucky in the 1850s; the first college in the southern United States to be coeducationally and racially integrated. The Berea case illustrates how early twentieth century legal institutions were suffused with racism and justifications for racial discrimination even to the extent that they neutered the laws intended to provide redress to black citizens, while the court approved of racial prejudice as a natural protection from what it considered to be an unnatural amalgamation.


A Southern Progressive: M. A. Cassidy And The Lexington Schools, 1886-1928, Richard E. Day, Lindsey N. Devries Dec 2011

A Southern Progressive: M. A. Cassidy And The Lexington Schools, 1886-1928, Richard E. Day, Lindsey N. Devries

Richard E. Day

The 42-year career of M. A. Cassidy exemplifies the transition of public school leadership in Kentucky from non-educators who held religious-political ideologies to professional progressive educators who sought to make Kentucky schools more efficient through expertise and scientific management. This concept was fully adopted in Section 183 of the Kentucky Constitution (1891) which required the General Assembly to “provide for an efficient system of common schools throughout the state.” Confident that professional educators were best suited to devise solutions to social problems, and justified by the twin notions of equality of educational opportunity and meritocracy, Cassidy was part of a …


A Southern Progressive: M. A. Cassidy And The Lexington Schools, 1886-1928, Richard E. Day Dec 2010

A Southern Progressive: M. A. Cassidy And The Lexington Schools, 1886-1928, Richard E. Day

Richard E. Day

The 42-year career of M. A. Cassidy exemplifies the transition of public school leadership in Kentucky from non-educators who held religious-political ideologies to professional progressive educators who sought to make Kentucky schools more efficient through expertise and scientific management. This concept was fully adopted in Section 183 of the Kentucky Constitution (1891) which required the General Assembly to “provide for an efficient system of common schools throughout the state.” Confident that professional educators were best suited to devise solutions to social problems, and justified by the twin notions of equality of educational opportunity and meritocracy, Cassidy was part of a …


Bert Combs And The Council For Better Education: Catalysts For School Reform, Richard E. Day Dec 2010

Bert Combs And The Council For Better Education: Catalysts For School Reform, Richard E. Day

Richard E. Day

A history of the beginnings of the Council for Better Education and their successful litigation, Rose v Council for Better Education. The Register of the Kentucky Historical Society, published continuously since 1903, is among the oldest historical journals in America but continues to provide fresh perspectives on the history of Kentucky and its people. The Register includes the work of leading scholars on the commonwealth but is widely accessible to general readers interested in Kentucky history. Published quarterly, it is a benefit of Kentucky Historical Society membership. Leading scholars whose articles have appeared in the Register include James A. Ramage, …


Edublogging: Voice And Authority, Richard E. Day Sep 2010

Edublogging: Voice And Authority, Richard E. Day

Richard E. Day

Always thought-provoking and sometimes controversial, Dr Richard Day writes about the news, policy and politics which shape our schools at Kentucky School News and Commentary. (http://theprincipal.blogspot.com) And, he wonders why you're not blogging.


Professor Supports Benefits Decision: On Domestic Partner Benefits At Eku, Richard E. Day Sep 2010

Professor Supports Benefits Decision: On Domestic Partner Benefits At Eku, Richard E. Day

Richard E. Day

I’ve been racking my brain, and I just can’t figure out how my marriage is harmed by domestic partner benefits. Fortunately, that question is getting a thorough examination in the California case, Perry v Schwarzenegger, where the judge asked anti-gay marriage advocates to provide evidence that traditional marriage is harmed by gay marriage. When the judge pressed the lead attorney to identify how straight people would be affected, he responded, "Your honor, my answer is: I don't know.” He was certain, however, that children are better off in a stable home, whether that is a traditional union or a civil …


Each Child, Every Child., Richard E. Day Jul 2010

Each Child, Every Child., Richard E. Day

Richard E. Day

Dr Day was was invited to present at a peer-reviewed international symposium on education reform. This presentation puts the struggle for adequately funded public schools into an historical context, focusing on the Kentucky Supreme Court’s decision in Rose v. Council for Better Education.


Kentucky Coming Late To Battle For Soul Of Charter Schools Movement, Richard E. Day Apr 2010

Kentucky Coming Late To Battle For Soul Of Charter Schools Movement, Richard E. Day

Richard E. Day

Around the time charter schools first began to appear in Minnesota, Kentucky was neck-deep in the Kentucky Education Reform Act, the most sweeping set of school reforms undertaken by any state at any one time. As a result, there was little interest on the part of the legislature, or the press for that matter, in allowing Kentucky schools to veer from the KERA's path. Everybody's hands were full. The new law was already being attacked from the right and supporters worried there might not be enough votes to sustain KERA in 1996. Meanwhile, the Patton administration took the position that …


District Flunked Test On Evaluating School Principals - Petrilli Trial Revealed Weakness, Richard E. Day Aug 2009

District Flunked Test On Evaluating School Principals - Petrilli Trial Revealed Weakness, Richard E. Day

Richard E. Day

A surprising revelation from Peggy Petrilli's unsuccessful racial discrimination suit against Fayette County Superintendent Stu Silberman was that principals rarely - if ever - get marked down on their evaluations. A Herald-Leader editorial was correct to say, "the district must do a better job of evaluating employees. ... employees who aren't accurately graded can't really be expected to improve." Given his considerable talents, it must have been difficult for the editorial board to pen comments critical of Silberman, although they softened it as much as they could.


Conduct Open Search For Ed Chief - Take A Lesson From Botched Job In 2007, Richard E. Day Jun 2009

Conduct Open Search For Ed Chief - Take A Lesson From Botched Job In 2007, Richard E. Day

Richard E. Day

Public vetting can help the KBE avoid past problems and make a better decision. When public boards perform their duties on behalf of the public, citizens can provide valuable input and governors don't need to get involved. But this only works if the board is sincerely listening and remains open-minded.


Cancellations Tough To Call, Even Fo R The Best School Chiefs - Silberman Retains Credibility By Not Trying To Snow Anyone, Richard E. Day Feb 2007

Cancellations Tough To Call, Even Fo R The Best School Chiefs - Silberman Retains Credibility By Not Trying To Snow Anyone, Richard E. Day

Richard E. Day

The best school superintendents spend their waking hours communicating and driving district personnel to increase student achievement. They want high attendance, not low attendance. They want more school days, not fewer. They want to have school. The hardest decisions a school superintendent has to make are those that go beyond his control, such as deciding whether to call off school when bad weather threatens.


Lowering State's Educatioon Standards A Bad Idea, Richard E. Day Jan 2007

Lowering State's Educatioon Standards A Bad Idea, Richard E. Day

Richard E. Day

Low expectations are much worse than high expectations. Low expectations are a recipe for low performance. For a principal, low expectations remove the need for results. For a teacher, it is an invitation to ease up and allow a certain percentage of hard-to-teach students to fail; and students always do better when teachers really try. Motivation is important in any human endeavor, and that includes teaching. What gets inspected gets respected. Reasonable accountability systems, applied humanely, give the public useful information about the performance of schools without harming children in the process. In its present form, NCLB is not that …


Keep An Eye On Northern, Richard E. Day Sep 2005

Keep An Eye On Northern, Richard E. Day

Richard E. Day

Will Fayette County schools Superintendent Stu Silberman achieve his goal to make the academy one of the highest-achieving schools in the state without changing its demographics? In January, Silberman told parents that much of their children's low-test-score problem could be attributed to the principals and their ability to motivate their staffs. He said principals -- one at a high-scoring school and one at a low-scoring school -- could be switched, and that the scores would flip-flop in two years. He subsequently selected Principal Peggy Petrilli to lead the new academy.


Fayette Schools Need Effective, Inspiring Leader, Richard E. Day May 2004

Fayette Schools Need Effective, Inspiring Leader, Richard E. Day

Richard E. Day

There is a leadership crisis in our school district that needs to be fixed quickly. As the school board considers superintendent candidates, it is appropriate to discuss whether the next superintendent should be from inside the district or outside, and what qualities are crucial. Given recent history, I can think of nothing more important than finding a qualified person who knows the district, shares the board's vision and has a demonstrated commitment to Fayette County and its children. We need a steady hand on the wheel.


On School Funding, State Is Inadequate, Richard E. Day Mar 2003

On School Funding, State Is Inadequate, Richard E. Day

Richard E. Day

While it may be amusing to watch those in power above us blame each other and make excuses, in the end, it is disheartening. Those of us at the school level know that no matter who ultimately gets blamed, we're the ones who must be here for the children. We are reminded daily, there can be no excuses for failure. The legislature, the school board -- everyone -- must do his or her job, so that we can do ours.


Appendix E: Council Expenses, Richard E. Day Dec 2002

Appendix E: Council Expenses, Richard E. Day

Richard E. Day

No abstract provided.


Appendix A: Primary Sources, Richard E. Day Dec 2002

Appendix A: Primary Sources, Richard E. Day

Richard E. Day

Primary Sources


0.1_Introductory Material 1, Richard E. Day Dec 2002

0.1_Introductory Material 1, Richard E. Day

Richard E. Day

Title pages


Each Child, Every Child: Chapter 2_ A Slow Start For Kentucky Children, Richard E. Day Dec 2002

Each Child, Every Child: Chapter 2_ A Slow Start For Kentucky Children, Richard E. Day

Richard E. Day

No abstract provided.


Appendix F: Council Finances, Richard E. Day Dec 2002

Appendix F: Council Finances, Richard E. Day

Richard E. Day

No abstract provided.


Appendix H: Council Membership Chronological, Richard E. Day Dec 2002

Appendix H: Council Membership Chronological, Richard E. Day

Richard E. Day

No abstract provided.


Appendix G: Council Membership By District, Richard E. Day Dec 2002

Appendix G: Council Membership By District, Richard E. Day

Richard E. Day

Council Membership by District


Appendix I: Cases Related To School Finance And Equity, Richard E. Day Dec 2002

Appendix I: Cases Related To School Finance And Equity, Richard E. Day

Richard E. Day

No abstract provided.


Appendix D: Council Documents, Richard E. Day Dec 2002

Appendix D: Council Documents, Richard E. Day

Richard E. Day

List of Council Documents reviewed