Kentucky Teacher

Kentucky Monthly magazine is collecting information on Kentucky’s “Most Likely to Succeed.”

Kentucky Monthly is seeking information on high school seniors who’ve been selected by their schools for this honor. Students will be featured in the publication.

To participate, schools should send the following information for each “Most Likely to Succeed” student:

• top honors received (limit three)
• top leadership positions held (limit three)
• top community service project (limit one)
• college plans (school selected, major anticipated)
• high-resolution portrait photograph of each honoree

Kentucky Monthly needs this information no later than April 29. E-mail submissions to steve@kentuckymonthly.com or mail to P.O. Box 559, Frankfort KY 40601.

For more details, contact Stephen M. Vest at (888) 329-0053.

Map shows unanimous support for Commonwealth Commitment to College and Career Readiness

All P-12 public school district superintendents and local boards of education have signed a pledge to improve college and career readiness in their high schools by 2015.

In early February, Kentucky Education Commissioner Terry Holliday asked superintendents and board of education chairs to pledge to increase the rates of college and career readiness in their high schools by 50 percent by 2015.

By early April, all of the state’s 169 P-12 school districts had signed the “Commonwealth Commitment to College and Career Readiness”. (In Kentucky, five public school districts do not contain high schools.) At its April 13 meeting, the Kentucky Board of Education issued a resolution commending local school officials for signing the pledge.

“Kentucky’s school districts recognize that preparing students for life after high school is not a new concept,” said Holliday. “What’s different now is the focus of educators, business and government on universal success for all children, rather than just providing access to opportunities.

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The Northern Kentucky University Institute for Talent Development and Gifted Studies is accepting applications for the 2011 Summer ExploreMore! Program. Students in grades K-8 are can register for the one-week sessions taking place June 13-17 and June 20-24. Students take their choice of two classes each week. Class choices include topics such as Amazing Biographies, 3-2-1- Blast-Off, Mini Medic, Gobs of Goo, Ecology Explorations, Chocolate Economics, Roller Coaster Physics and many more. For more information, visit http://gifted.nku.edu/youth.php or call (859) 572-5600.

Educators, parents and administrators are invited to join the Northern Kentucky University Institute for Talent Development and Gifted Studies and the College of Education and Human Services in viewing “Race to Nowhere,” a documentary about the struggles students and teachers face in the race to prepare the best and brightest for college and the workforce. The viewing will be May 3 at 7 p.m. in the Eva G. Farris Auditorium, Business, Education and Psychology Center at NKU.
The film will be followed by a panel discussion. The event is free. Donation of a children’s book for Southgate and Collins Elementary Schools is requested. To register for the event, click here.

Will Nash, executive director of Teach For America-Appalachia, announces Teach For America's plan to expand to Appalachia during a press conference April, 7, 2011 in Frankfort, Ky. The organization plans to bring at least 30 additional teachers in each of the next two years to the region. Photo by Amy Wallot

Teach For America announced recently that it will expand to Appalachia, with plans to bring at least 30 top college graduates to teach in some of eastern Kentucky’s highest-need schools for the 2011-12 school year.

The organization also outlined plans to bring at least 30 additional teachers in each of the next two years to the Appalachia region. Continue Reading

Students at John W. Miles Elementary School (Erlanger-Elsmere Independent) select from fruits and vegetables during lunch April 26, 2010. Eligible elementary schools may receive funding through grants for the Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Program. File photo by Amy Wallot

Elementary school students can enjoy fresh fruit and vegetables through the Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Program (FFVP), a federal program designed to increase children’s consumption of fresh fruits and vegetables, to expose those students to new fruits and vegetables, to improve healthy eating habits and to help elementary schools create healthier school food environments.

At a minimum of $50 per student over the course of the year, approximately 53,083 students can be served through the program. Continue Reading