Kentucky Teacher

The Kentucky Board of Education will meet today and tomorrow, Feb. 1, in the State Board Room on the first floor of the Capital Plaza Tower.

The board will hold a study session today beginning at 2 p.m. ET. On Wednesday, the full board will meet at 9 a.m. ET for Executive Ethics Commission training, then begin its business session at 10 a.m. ET. The board’s Curriculum, Instruction and Assessment Committee and Management Committee will meet in the afternoon, and the full board will reconvene after the committee meetings.

Agenda items include a review of the Teacher and Principal Effectiveness System, a presentation on a paperless board system and reports on the status of state regulations. The board also will present the Joseph W. Kelly Award.

The study session and regular meeting will be webcast. Information on how to access the webcast for both days will be available on the Kentucky Department of Education’s homepage tomorrow afternoon.

A full agenda is available here.

By Susan Riddell
susan.riddell@education.ky.gov

Judy Wood, migrant advocate for the McLean County school district, helps Maria Hernandez look up her son's grades in Infinite Campus. Also pictured, Consuelo Pineda checks her son's progress. Photo by Amy Wallot, Dec. 8, 2011

Two years ago, Judy Wood, a migrant education advocate for the McLean County school district, met a young Mexican mother of two.

The mother had struggled to make it to the United States for many years.

Sometimes, she worked in tobacco, or she sorted eggs for nine hours a day.

“Her hands would grow numb from hours of sorting eggs,” Wood said, noting that the woman often worked in a cold, damp environment. “She continued to support her children. She worked nights and on Saturdays cleaning houses to make extra money.”

The mother is still working hard to support her children, but so is Kentucky’s Migrant Education Program (MEP), a federally-funded program designed to provide supplementary education and resources.

“Our program has helped her find a new place to live,” Wood said. “The children now have their own bedroom.

“The migrant program collaborates with other school programs and community agencies to supplement the basic needs such as food, clothing and school supplies,” Wood added. “Most importantly, we helped (the mother) find hope and encouragement to find a new life.” Continue Reading

Editor’s note:  Senate Bill 1 (SB 1), enacted in the 2009 Kentucky General Assembly, requires a new public school assessment program beginning in the 2011-2012 school year. Kentucky Teacher is doing a series of stories explaining the Unbridled Learning: College/Career Readiness for All assessment and accountability system this month. This article focuses on accountability. The system is subject to United States Education Department approval and may be changed prior to adoption.

By Matthew Tungate
matthew.tungate@education.ky.gov

Melanie Santiago answers a question for James Rutledge and Antoneo Watkins during her freshman civics class at Western High School (Jefferson County). Santiago is a graduate of Western High School. Photo by Amy Wallot, Nov. 30, 2011

Anyone can understand Kentucky’s Unbridled Learning assessment and accountability system if they understand the basic concept, according to one of its designers.

“We’re going to give schools one score, tell them they’re better than a certain percentage of schools and tell them we want to improve that percentage each year,” Office of Assessment and Accountability Associate Commissioner Ken Draut said. “At the highest level, it’s a very simple system.”

In late summer 2011, the Kentucky Board of Education (KBE) approved an even simpler accountability system it was ready to use. Under that version of the plan, schools would have received a score and been placed in one of three categories: needs improvement, proficient or distinguished. But they would not have had an annual improvement goal for accountability. However, waiver guidelines from federal No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act regulations require the state to enact annual measurable objectives (AMOs) for schools and districts.

That caused Kentucky Department of Education (KDE) staff to redraft parts of the accountability system, Draut said.

“What we wanted to do, of course, from the beginning was move our single state accountability system into this area to take the place of the NCLB accountability system, so we would have one accountability system model, not two,” he told the board in December. “That’s caused problems over the years.” Continue Reading

Phillip Rogers, executive director of the Education Professional Standards Board. Photo by Amy Wallot, Dec. 21, 2011

Phillip S. Rogers, Ed.D., of Scottsville, Ky., became executive director of the Kentucky Education Professional Standards Board (EPSB) in 2005. He has been with the EPSB since 2000, serving as director of the Division of Professional Learning and Assessment prior to becoming executive director. 

A native of Nashville, Tennessee, Rogers received a bachelor’s degree in counseling from Liberty University in Virginia, a master’s in child development from Western Kentucky University and a doctorate in education evaluation from the University of Louisville.  Before joining EPSB, Rogers served as the founding director of the Allen County schools district’s Family Resource Center, recognized in 1995 as Kentucky’s Outstanding Family Resource Center by the Kentucky Association of Guidance Counselors. 

As executive director of the EPSB, Rogers oversees the daily operation of the agency, which was established as part of the 1990 Kentucky Education Reform Act. Rogers has performed research and evaluations for a variety of organizations and programs, including the Kentucky Institute for Educational Research, the National Center for Family Literacy, the Kentucky Safe Schools Project, and the Kentucky Department for Juvenile Justice. Educational policy formation as it relates to educator preparation and professional development for experienced educators are two of his current research interests. Continue Reading

The 21st annual Kentucky Shakespeare Competition will take place on March 4 at Bellarmine University’s Wyatt Center for the Arts. Preliminary competition will begin at 12:30 p.m., and final judging will begin 15 minutes after the preliminary competition.

The competition is open to any Kentucky high school student, grades 9-12. The winner of the competition will be given an all-expenses paid trip to New York City to compete in the national competition. The winner of the national competition will be awarded an all-expenses paid trip to study at Oxford University.

The state competition is sponsored by the English Speaking Union, Kentucky Chapter. The English-Speaking Union of the United States (ESU US) is a non-profit, non-political, educational organization whose mission is to celebrate English as a shared language to foster global understanding and good will by providing educational and cultural opportunities for students, teachers and members.

For more information, go here or contact Andy Perry.

Digital Learning Day is Wednesday, Feb. 1, and it culminates a year-round national awareness campaign to improve teaching and learning for all children.

Digital learning is any instructional practice that is effectively using technology to strengthen the student learning experience. Digital learning encompasses a wide spectrum of tools and practice, including using online and formative assessment; increasing focus and quality of teaching resources and time; online content and courses; applications of technology in the classroom and school building; adaptive software for students with special needs; learning platforms; participating in professional communities of practice; providing access to high level and challenging content and instruction; and many other advancements technology provides to teaching and learning.

On Digital Learning Day, teachers, librarians, school leaders, after-school programs, community groups, parents and others can show their support by signing up and pledging to focus on digital learning, try new technology or resources or showcase successes. A number of Kentucky schools and organizations already have signed up.

Toolkits for teachers and other school personnel are available here.

Visit the Digital Learning Day website for more details.

Researchers at the University of Kentucky are conducting a study on the types of education services that a child with autism receives in school.

This approximately 30-minute phone survey will ask parents about services their child receives in the public school, how often they may receive it and the satisfaction with that service. Additionally, parents can voluntarily share their child’s Individualized Education Plan (IEP).

Parents may be eligible to participate in this study if they:

• have a child between the ages of 3-21
• have a child that has been identified with Autism Spectrum Disorders
• have a child that attends public school in Kentucky

After completing the survey, participants will have the opportunity to be entered in a raffle to win one of five literary resources on autism spectrum disorders.

For more information or to participate, contact Melissa Murphy at (606) 545-2372.

‘The 76th Annual Kentucky Council of Teachers of English/Language Arts Conference will be Feb. 17-18 in Lexington.

This year’s theme is Literacy Matters: The Common Core and Beyond. Topics include persuasion vs. argument; subtext strategy; college readiness; transitional intervention; digital storytelling and more.

Featured speakers include Education Commissioner Terry Holliday; 2011-12 Kentucky Poet Laureate Maureen Morehead, author of many poetry collections; Rick Robinson, Kentucky writer and author of the award-winning novel Manifest Destiny; and Sara Kajder, author of Bringing the Outside In: Visual Ways of Engaging Reluctant Readers and The Tech Savvy English Classroom.

For more information, visit http://www.kcte.org/ or contact Angela Gunter.

The Kentucky Commission on Community Volunteerism and Service (KCCVS) is seeking nominations for the 2011 Governor’s Awards for Volunteerism and Service.

There are 13 award categories, including the First Lady’s Award, which recognizes a Kentuckian who has gone out of his or her way to assist youth in their efforts to graduate from high school. This may have been done through mentoring, time spent tutoring or advising a student in need of assistance or by working directly with a school to help children gain their diplomas.

Individuals and groups may be nominated in only one category. Self-nominations are accepted.

The deadline is Feb. 15. For more information go to KCCVS website. The nomination form and other information are available on the KCCVS website.

The Kentucky Council on Postsecondary Education (CPE) was recently awarded a three-year grant totaling $720,000 from Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors to improve college readiness. Kentucky was one of 10 states selected to receive the grant.

The grant program, called Core to College: Preparing Students for College Readiness and Success, aims to foster long-term collaborations between state higher education and P-12 entities that will improve student achievement and college readiness.

The focus is on using the Common Core State Standards and assessments to establish a statewide definition of college readiness and set of college readiness indicators to signal a student’s preparedness for credit-bearing college courses.

“Kentucky’s grant activities will build on the tremendous momentum already underway with P-12 and postsecondary education,” said Council President Bob King. “Thanks to Senate Bill 1 in 2009 and the one-time funding we received for implementation, Kentucky is leading the nation with our collaborative work to improve college readiness and, ultimately, increase rates of enrollment and graduation necessary to build a more highly skilled workforce. This grant will bolster our efforts as we continue this important work.” Continue Reading