Kentucky Teacher

Phil Rison, assistant superintendent and director of student services for the Montgomery County school district, was recently selected as the president-elect of the National Interscholastic Athletic Administrators Association (NIAAA), a national organization for people involved in interscholastic athletic administration at any level.

Rison will serve in this position through 2012 and take the helm of NIAAA as the 34th president in 2013.

Involved for 18 years with the organization, Rison has served for 13 years as a national instructor for three leadership training courses dealing with legal issues such as sexual harassment, hazing, fair labor standards and constitutional law.

“I’ve had tremendous support from our administrators and our school board here in Montgomery County,” Rison said. “They have been outstanding. Anywhere I go now, I will be representing Montgomery County schools either as president-elect, president or past president of NIAAA. It’s a three-year term and a great opportunity to promote our excellent students, teachers and school district.”

Due to the number of states involved and the rotation within these groups, Kentucky gets to propose a member to the board of directors every 24 years, according to Rison. Continue Reading

The Kentucky Association for Gifted Education (KAGE) is hosting the 32nd Annual Conference “Making Connections: Gifted Education in Kentucky.”

The conference will be Feb. 6-7, 2012 in Lexington.

Conference materials are available. Those interested can get more information (including online registration) at http://www.kagegifted.org/. Click on the 2012 Annual Conference http://kagegifted.org/conference/ link for the conference schedule and session descriptions.

Jonathan Plucker and Marcia Gentry are the keynote speakers.

Contact the KAGE office at kage@wku.edu or (270) 745-4301 for more information.

More than 63 percent of Kentucky’s public high school 2010 graduates have enrolled in college – the highest percentage on record, the Kentucky P-20 Data Collaborative announced recently.

The P-20 Data Collaborative used a comprehensive set of data to calculate the rates, which revealed that of the more than 43,000 public high school graduates in 2010, 63.1 percent enrolled in some form of higher education.

The Kentucky High School Feedback Report includes individual reports for 228 public high schools in the state and is based on 2010-11 college enrollment data, not surveys of students. Reports are not provided for alternative programs, but students from those schools are included in the district-level figures.

“The overall rates appear to show improvements statewide in college-going, which is excellent news,” said Kentucky Education and Workforce Development Cabinet Secretary Joseph U. Meyer. “Reports like these illustrate the importance of our education agencies working together as a collaborative to provide actionable information back to schools allowing teachers and administrators to make improvements that will better prepare our future generations to be successful in college.” Continue Reading

The Kentucky Department of Education announced to the U.S. Department of Education (USDOE) last month it will participate in the Green Ribbon Schools (GRS) Program. 

This award recognizes the highest performing green and healthy schools in the nation. It is the first comprehensive federal policy by the USDOE recognizing exemplary achievement in environmental impact, health, and education. High standards of nutrition, fitness, and outdoor time for both students and staff are among the qualifying criteria for the award. A key partner in this endeavor with the USDOE is the Campaign for Environmental Literacy.

All of Kentucky’s public school districts are invited to participate with a maximum of one school submission per district. It is a two-step process. The first step will be to complete and submit an application to KDE to demonstrate your school’s progress toward the goals of each of the three GRS Pillars. Schools are not expected to be at 100 percent (total proficiency) for all of these elements, but need to demonstrate how they are working toward each of the following goals: 

• Net zero environmental impact (zero greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions; improved water quality, efficiency and conservation; reduced waste production; and use of alternative transportation to, during, and from school) Continue Reading

The Kentucky Department of Education (KDE) invites teachers, administrators, district staff, parents and other education stakeholders to submit questions for Commissioner Terry Holliday’s second Twitter Town Hall Thursday, Jan. 19 from 4-5 p.m. ET.

The Twitter Town Hall topics will be the 2012 General Assembly and KDE’s legislative agenda. Questions can be tweeted both before Jan. 19 and during the live event from 4-5 p.m. ET. Use the hash tag #AskDocH to send questions.

Those who don’t have a Twitter account and would like to sign up for one can visit http://www.twitter.com/. It’s a free service and also offers apps for smartphones for those who would rather follow along off a personal computer or MAC.

The Twitter Town Hall also will be webcast live here. To listen and/or watch, those interested must have Windows Media Player. Once Windows Media Player is installed, simply click on the appropriate link to hear audio-only or view the video with audio.

Commissioner Holliday looks forward to answering questions on Jan. 19.

K-12 physical and health education teachers can register for a professional development program being offered Feb. 10 at Lake Cumberland State Park.

The program is entitled “Unbridled Learning: Implementing the Physical Education Curriculum Analysis Tool (PECAT) and Health Education Assessment Project (HEAP) to Improve Comprehensive Physical Education and Health Education Programs.”  

Featured presenters include Dr. Aaron Beighle, an associate professor in the University of Kentucky’s Department of Kinesiology and Health Promotion, and Jamie Sparks, Coordinated School Health project director with the Kentucky Department of Education.

Registration closes on Jan. 19, 2012, but space is limited to 75 participants. If capacity is reached, priority will be given to one participant per school.

To register, click here.

For more information, contact Todd Davis.

The U.S. Department of Education announced last week that Kentucky will receive a Race to the Top grant of $17 million to advance targeted K-12 reforms aimed at improving student achievement.

Kentucky and six other states — Arizona, Colorado, Illinois, Louisiana, New Jersey and Pennsylvania — will each receive a share of the $200 million in Race to the Top Round 3 (RTT3) fund.

“While the grant amount is significantly less than the original $175 million request, we are very excited about being able to gain funds to implement Senate Bill 1 initiatives and expand AdvanceKentucky sites,” said Kentucky Education Commissioner Terry Holliday. “Within the budget of $17 million, we will use state and district allocations to implement professional development and resources for Senate Bill 1.”

Senate Bill 1, passed in the 2009 session of the General Assembly, calls for a new assessment and accountability system for the state’s public schools, along with more rigorous academic standards, intensive teacher and administrator training, and strengthened collaboration among higher education, teacher/administrator certification and P-12 education sectors. Continue Reading

Dale Winkler, executive director of career and technical education, visits with students at the Franklin County Career and Technical Center. Photo by Tim Thornberry

Dale Winkler serves as the new executive director of Education and Workforce Development Cabinet’s Office of Career and Technical Education (OCTE) as well as the director of the Kentucky Department of Education’s College and Career Readiness Branch.

Winkler also serves as the lead staff to the Career and Technical Education Steering Committee that will be studying how to best carry out the recommendations from the Governor’s Transforming Education in Kentucky Task Force report. Winkler began his new position in June.

Before taking his dual-role job, Winkler earned his bachelor’s degree in accounting (1994), Certification in Business Education (1996) and master’s degree in education (1999) from Cumberland College. In 2002, he completed a Rank I in Educational Leadership and Administration from Eastern Kentucky University. In May 2010, Winkler graduated from the University of Kentucky with a doctorate in Educational Leadership Studies. Continue Reading

Kentucky college professors recently learned about new approaches to teaching public school students mathematics, literacy and writing skills at a conference organized by the Prichard Committee for Academic Excellence.

Faculty members from 25 state universities, private institutions and community colleges heard from Kentucky teachers from Kenton and Fayette counties who are working with the Mathematics Design Collaborative and Literacy Design Collaborative, piloting efforts to improve teaching and learning.

The Prichard Committee has worked to coordinate the districts piloting these new mathematics and literacy efforts in Kentucky, which were funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

“These new strategies have shown great promise for giving students a deeper understanding of math concepts and connecting writing to challenging thinking in science, social studies and language arts classes,” said Stu Silberman, executive director of the Prichard Committee for Academic Excellence.

The seminar, funded by the Council on Postsecondary Education and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, is part of a state-backed program to update postsecondary leaders and educators on the impact of overhauled academic standards that K-12 students are expected to learn as part of Senate Bill 1. Continue Reading

The Kentucky Association of School Administrators (KASA) is holding its second annual student video contest and is calling for student-produced videos that explore this year’s theme: An Educator Who Changed My Life.

The contest asks students to use their best storytelling skills to describe an educator who changed their view of life, particularly in terms of their approach to learning or education.

Students should submit videos to their school principal, who will select one video per age group per school to enter in the contest. Only one video is accepted per age category, regardless of whether it is an individual or group submission. If a school has students in more than one age category, the school can submit more than one video.

First-place winners and one overall honorable mention will receive cutting-edge tools to help them continue to develop their 21st-century skills.

Principals should submit videos to KASA before March 1 via the online drop box provided on the KASA website. Click here for more information.