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Ending The Status Quo: Kentucky Parents Increasingly Choose Nonpublic Education Options, Gary Houchens

Educational Administration, Leadership, and Research Faculty Publications

This research report documents enrollment trends for Kentucky students in nonpublic education (homeschooling and private schools) during the years 2017-2022. Using data from the Kentucky Department of Education, the analysis finds that nonpublic education participation has grown by more than 20,000 students during this time period to almost 100,000 students. This trend indicates a clear demand for more education options and policy makers should respond accordingly.

Gentry, Martha Beck "Mattie" (Spangler), 1862-1940 (Mss 733), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid for Manuscripts Collection 733. Journal, 1878-1880, of Mattie (Spangler) Gentry, Covington, Kentucky, chronicling her attendance at Lexington’s Hamilton Female College and at boarding school in Orléans, France; also her journal, 1889-1898, recording her life as a music teacher and her courtship and marriage. Includes photographs and a letter to Mattie in France from the president of Hamilton College (Click on "Additional Files" for typescript).

Whipple, Thelma Louise, B. 1912 (Sc 3516), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Small Collection 3516. School memory book of Thelma Louise Whipple, Hickman, Kentucky, containing autographs and names of teachers, classmates and friends.

Floyd Collection (Mss 689), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Collection 689. Field books, 1851-1929, containing Warren County, Kentucky surveying notes recorded by John B. Floyd as well as some Warren County land records related to the Floyd family. Educational material from Jesse A. Floyd, Jr. relating to his teaching career in Warren County. A travel journal kept by Hubert and Alleyne Robinson during their trip to the western United States, Canada, and Mexico.

Stone, Dan Ray, 1921-2007 - Collector (Sc 3511), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Small Collection 3511. Miscellaneous papers collected by Dan Ray Stone, Bowling Green, Kentucky: constitution of the reactivated Senators’ Club, Inc., of Bowling Green, Kentucky, and cover letter (1948); notes on the Greer family of Barren County, Kentucky; a letter of thanks to Stone for yearbooks, written by WKU alumnus Clarence Glover (2002); and Bible records of the Taylor family of Warren County, Kentucky.

American Association Of University Women - Danville, Kentucky (Mss 681), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid for Manuscripts Collection 687. Records of the Danville branch of the American Association of University Women, including minutes, president’s reports, newsletters, historical information, programming materials and other miscellaneous items. Also includes more limited material about the state and regional divisions of the AAUW.

Dinwiddie, James Baker N., 1853-1873 (Sc 3492), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Small Collection 3492. Items related to attendance of James Baker N. Dinwiddie, Henry County, Tennessee, at the Kentucky Military Institute from 1869-1872. Includes a report card, tuition invoice and letters of receipt, copy of a photograph of Dinwiddie, two letters from his sister Pattie with news from home, and a 1985 letter regarding Dinwiddie’s record at KMI.

Duncan, Sarah Amanda "Dallie," 1848-1940 (Sc 3486), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Small Collection 3486. Letters, 3 November 1866 and 23 May 1867, of Dallie Duncan to her mother in Pontotoc, Mississippi. Returning for another year of school at Science Hill Academy, Shelbyville, Kentucky, she writes of her roommates and clothing purchases, asks about various family members, and warns that her tuition should be paid before she leaves school, noting the headmistress’s criticism that “Mississippians never paid their debts when they could help it.” She also expresses concern for her recently widowed mother’s emotional and physical health. Dallie’s mother (addressed as “Mrs. C. G. Mitchell”) married her …

Superintendent Recruitment: Effects Of Superintendent Job Status, School Councils (Principal Selection Models), District Wealth, And Signing Bonus On Applicant Rating Of The Job, Mark Jeffery Martin

Dissertations

This nearly perfect replicated study (Millay, 2003) was a superintendent recruitment simulation with the purpose of investigating factors that influence recruiting qualified individuals to serve as district superintendents of public schools. The study was a factorial experiment involving a four-way 2 x 2 x 2 x (3 x S) fixed-factor betweenwithin analysis of variance (ANOVA) which yielded 24 cells. The participants in the study were Kentucky Superintendents (N = 72) and individuals in Kentucky certified to be a school superintendent (N = 72) but employed in another position.

The between-groups variables were superintendent job status (superintendent, certified), district wealth (high, …

Buffalo Club Of Northern Kentucky (Sc 3473), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid and scans (Click on "Additional Files" below) for Manuscripts Small Collection 3473. Directories of male teachers in northern Kentucky for 1937 and 1941-1942, made for the use of teachers with compliments of the Northern Kentucky Buffalo Club. Data on teachers includes name, position, school, and home address.

Timmons, James Aloysia, 1836-1902 (Sc 3434), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Small Collection 3434. Letter, 18 March 1869, of James A. Timmons, Bowling Green, Kentucky, to A. T. Stewart. The struggling schoolmaster implores Stewart, a wealthy New York merchant and fellow native of Ireland, to help him save his home from judicial sale and support his vocation “instructing the poor Irish children of this place.” He anticipated repaying Stewart in three years out of the tuition from his American students and what little the Irish students can pay. He enclosed the notice of Commissioner’s sale of his house pursuant to a judgment obtained by creditor Robert …

Schools - Simpson County, Kentucky (Sc 3423), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Small Collection 3423. Report of a joint meeting to discuss proposals to merge the Independent School District of Franklin, Kentucky and the Simpson County (Kentucky) School District. Matters considered include a joint budget, tax rate, facilities, and costs per pupil. Includes data on high school enrollment for 1939-1940. The report concludes with a decision to reject the merger.

Richards, Frances, 1893-1991 - Letters To (Sc 3406), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Small Collections 3406. Letters of recommendation for Simpson County, Kentucky teacher Frances Richards (later a WKU faculty member), and associated letters regarding teaching positions. Includes teachers certificates and certificate examination grades for Frances’s sister Mary Ellen Richards. One correspondent, A. H. Hill, writes with familiarity to his “cousins” Frances and Mary Ellen.

Wilson, Effie Gertrude, 1903-1986 (Sc 3337), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Small Collection 3337. “Burkesville’s Colleges,” a paper by Effie G. Wilson, Marrowbone, Kentucky, outlining the history of Alexander College and Burkesville College, two nineteenth-century schools in Burkesville (Cumberland County), Kentucky.

Ray, Joseph Malchus, 1907-1991 (Sc 3329), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid and full text scan of memoirs and photographs and digital files of interviews (Click on "Additional Files" below to access) for Manuscripts Small Collection 3329. Memoirs, sundry papers, and oral histories of Joseph Malchus Ray, a native of Warren County, Kentucky, who went on to teach at universities in Texas, Alabama and Maryland. He ended his career as president of the University of Texas at El Paso in 1968, but stayed on afterwards as the H.Y. Benedict Professor of Political Science at UTEP. The memoirs discuss in detail his professional and personal life and the values that shaped …

Earwood, Gregory Charles (Sc 3245), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Small Collection 3245. Correspondence and related material regarding Greg C. Earwood, president of the Baptist Seminary of Kentucky, Lexington, and his visits to First Baptist Church, Bowling Green, Kentucky. Includes brief data about the Seminary and the announcement of Earwood’sretirement in 2016.

Yates, Otis Webster, 1888-1981 (Sc 3234), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid and scan (Click on "Additional Files" below) for Manuscripts Small Collection 3234. Letter, 30 November 1922, to “Levy” from O. W. Yates, Dean of Bethel College, Russellville, Kentucky. He describes his work teaching the Bible and Greek to ministerial students, his pastorate, and his house and family, and asks about seeing Levy when he visits North Carolina at Christmas.

Capwell, Franklin Wall, 1823-1889 (Sc 3232), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid, scan and typescript (Click on "Additional Files" below) for Manuscripts Small Collection 3232. Letter, 10 January 1845, of teacher Franklin W. Capwell to his parents in Wyoming County, New York. Writing from Mortonsville, Kentucky, he describes the circumstances of his decision to teach at a seminary there, listing his subjects and fees. He finds Southern women unsuitable for their lack of education, but declares that their wealth makes them good marriage prospects for other Northern men. He also comments on the reliance on slaves for ordinary labor, the defense of slavery by ministers, and the fear of slave …

Sears, Tommie Paula (Fa 1198), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

FA Finding Aids

Finding aid and full-text scan of paper (click on "Additional Files" below) for Folklife Archives Project 1198. Student paper titled “One Room Schools of Yesterday” in which Tommie Paula Sears interviews Hattie Blake, a former student, and eventual instructor, at a one-room schoolhouse in Lewisburg, Kentucky. In her interview with Sears, Blake mentions various one-room schoolhouses throughout the region and offers insight into how a typical academic day was structured. Blake also details her own experiences as a teacher in a one-room schoolhouse. The paper includes projector slides of the informant and the Tunstill schoolhouse, as well as a 1958 …

Carley Family Papers (Sc 3223), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Small Collection 3223. Letters and papers of George Carley of Georgetown, Kentucky and family (mainly daughters, a granddaughter, and nieces). Relatives in Ontario, Canada and in Pennsylvania report family news and mourn the soldiers of World War I; a daughter writes from Arkansas of taxes and the economy, her stepson writes of medical studies during the influenza pandemic, and her brother-in-law writes of oil and investments. George’s papers include solicitations from makers of fencing and farm supplies.

Also includes children’s letters and poems.

Adams, Marion Lee, 1930-2013 (Mss 638), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Collection 638. Research, articles and clippings relating to Patty and Mildred Hill of Louisville, Kentucky, and their composition of the song “Happy Birthday to You.” Includes letters of the Hills’ surviving descendant written to Marion Lee Adams of Hopkinsville, Kentucky.

Teacher Attitudes Towards Gifted Education In Rural School Districts, Jennifer Smith Sheffield

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

The purpose of this study was to determine the attitudes of teachers in rural locales towards giftedness and gifted education. Gagné and Nadeau’s (1991) Opinions About the Gifted and Their Education was used as the survey instrument. A total of 78 teachers from four public school districts in Kentucky classified as rural participated in the study. The respondents indicated slightly positive attitudes toward the need for specialized instruction for gifted students and the social value of giftedness but slightly negative mindsets towards acceleration. These results as a whole mirrored the findings of several previous studies utilizing the same survey instrument. …

Bowling Green, Kentucky - City Schools - Relating To (Sc 3188), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Small Collection 3188. Abstract of a federally funded program proposal submitted by Bowling Green (Kentucky) City Schools for the year 1971 titled “Increasing teacher effectiveness in dealing with student behavior.” The program aimed to train teachers at Bowling Green Junior and Senior High Schools in techniques for better understanding the problems of African-American and disadvantaged students and to aid students in developing more positive behavior.

Brooks, Heather-Kristen (Fa 374), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

FA Finding Aids

Finding aid and full-text scan of paper (Click on “Additional Files” below) for Folklife Archives Project 374. Student oral history project titled “The Effects of Logan County School Consolidations on the Students of Lewisburg and the Community” in which Heather-Kristen Brooks conducts research on the centralization of five county schools in 1983. Brooks’ two informants touch on issues of race, extracurricular activities, athletics, and behavioral norms. Collection contains one paper, two indexes and transcripts, and two cassette tapes.

Farley, Seth Thomas, Jr., 1917-1999 (Mss 617), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Collection 617. Correspondence, documents, news clippings and ephemera from Seth Thomas Farley, Jr., a life-long educator. This collection includes a good deal of information about Farley’s teaching career prior to his work as a professor at WKU, his involvement in organizations that fought alcoholism and gambling (particularly the lottery in Kentucky), his church work, and his service on a committee to choose a federal magistrate for the western district of Kentucky. The collection includes an entire box of assessment related material related to Fort Knox Dependent Schools in the mid-1960s.

Rountree, Mary Elizabeth "Lizzie," 1853-1912 (Sc 3136), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid and typescript (Click on "Additional Files" below) for Manuscripts Small Collection 3136. Letter, 10 January 1869 of “Mag” (or “May”) to Lizzie Rountree, Lebanon, Kentucky. Writing from Louisville, Kentucky, she tells Lizzie that she will not be returning to Caldwell Institute in Danville, Kentucky, where they had been schoolmates. She notes the departure of three additional students and reports on the whereabouts of others.

Ennis, William Franklin, Sr., 1856-1939 (Mss 614), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Collection 614. Journals with short entries about daily happenings and listings of farm expenses for William F. Ennis, a farmer, quarry owner, and businessman from Warren County, Kentucky. Also includes some poetry, weather information, and data about an unnamed individual conducting a school.

Huenefeld, Earl Warren, B. 1921 And Alvis Marie (Dunaway) Huenefeld, 1922-1994 (Mss 606), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Collection 606. Courtship letters of E. Warren Huenefeld, Fort Thomas, Kentucky, and his fiancé and eventual wife, Alvis Marie Dunaway, while she was teaching school in Madison County and Pulaski County, Kentucky. Includes some elementary music teaching Material and a pencil sketch of Alvis Huenefeld.

Winchel, Beulah Rhea, 1912-2015 (Mss 609), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Collection 609. Correspondence, photographs, travel materials, genealogy, and other personal papers of Beulah R. Winchel, a Breckinridge County, Kentucky, native and a teacher and librarian who served in Japan, Germany and France with the U.S. Army Special Services and the Department of Defense Dependents Schools.

The Goal-Driven, Resilient, And Influential Teens Program In Kentucky High Schools: The Impact On Social And Emotional Learning And Influencing Factors, Brant Von Goble

Dissertations

In order to assess the effects of the Goal-driven, Resilient, and Influential Teens (GRIT) program on social and emotional learning and academic performance in high schools throughout Kentucky, data from several sources were compiled and analyzed. These sources included results from the Student Engagement and Performance (STEP) survey, an instrument developed by the Rock Solid Evaluation Team at Western Kentucky University and administered yearly to high school students and teachers, and school-level academic and socioeconomic data from the Kentucky Department of Education. Additional data on fidelity of GRIT program implementation were obtained from FranklinCovey, the GRIT program’s developer and publisher. …