Kentucky Teacher

Division of Innovation and Partner Engagement Director David Cook and Division of Innovation and Branch Manager Jocelyn Mills present the Districts of Innovation for approval to the Kentucky Board of Education during its June meeting in Frankfort.
Photo by Amy Wallot, June 5, 2013

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

Kentucky teachers and members of the Kentucky Board of Education support the Common Core State Standards according to a statewide survey of the former and actions of the latter at its June meeting last week.

The board incorporated the Common Core State Standards, a multi-state collaboration of English/language arts and mathematics standards that included input from hundreds of Kentucky educators, into the Kentucky Core Academic Standards in 2010. The board added to the Kentucky Core Academic Standards at its meeting by adopting the Next-Generation Science Standards (NGSS), developed by a coalition of experts in Kentucky and 25 other states over the last two years, as the new science standards for the state. The new science standards still face legislative approval before being implemented.

Nearly every respondent (98 percent) to the 2013 TELL (Teaching, Empowering, Leading and Learning) Survey of school working conditions said curriculum taught in their school is aligned with Common Core Standards compared to 92 percent in 2011, based on preliminary results from the survey. Nearly 44,000, or 87 percent, of school-based educators responded to the survey, given online in March. Continue Reading

Calloway County Middle School early edge teacher Carl Creason talks with 8th-grade students Adriana Lugo, Hannah Boren, Jasmin Vandyke and Caryonna Powell about college and career plans. Photo by Amy Wallot, April 25, 2013

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

Just like at most elementary schools in Kentucky, there is an appropriate way to walk down the hallway at North Calloway Elementary School (Calloway County). And like most schools, there is an appropriate way to act in class and in the lunchroom.

But North Calloway Elementary may be more detailed than most, as there are appropriate ways to get on a swing or climb a slide. In fact, the school takes the first week of school to promote “positive practice” procedures, and students revisit them after every long break, according to Principal Melinda Hendley.

“We have found that we just assume a lot from our students, and that those expectations were not met before, so we just expected students to behave in certain ways, but we never told them what our expectations were,” she said.

Now that students know behavior expectations up front, teachers aren’t focused on disciplining students, Hendley said. Instead they can focus on getting them college and career ready.

Calloway County schools’ emphasis on discipline stuck out to Kate Akers and Jenny Todd on a recent visit. Akers and Todd, research analysts with the Kentucky Department of Education (KDE), are studying districts like Calloway County that exceeded their college- and career-readiness targets the last two years.

In February 2011, KDE secured the Commonwealth Commitment from all districts to move 50 percent of their high school students who are not college- and/or career-ready to college- and/or career-ready between 2010 and 2015. Continue Reading

Montgomery County High School senior Nolan Walters, junior Shane Fauzey and senior George Hamilton stand back as cattle pass at the Chenault Agriculture Center.
Photo by Amy Wallot, April 11 , 2013

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

Montgomery County school district students have no beef with eating locally-produced meat. And agriculture students at Boyle County High School feel the same way when it comes to sharing the fruits of their labor with their school cafeteria.

All puns aside, students in both Montgomery and Boyle counties are enjoying being part of agriculture programs at both high schools.

Montgomery County High School’s agriculture program has delivered 6,000 pounds of locally-raised beef this year to the district’s cafeterias, according to agriculture teacher Jeff Arnett. The school has been growing lettuce for the district for several years, he said, and the district’s food services director wanted to expand into beef.

Fellow agriculture teacher Alton Stull said students who worked with the cattle were very proud when the school served locally-produced hamburgers for the first time in October.

“You could really see a sense of pride in our students who had been in those classes and had the opportunity to do hands-on work with those animals, and see how all that work came full circle. They got to see the finished product there in the cafeteria,” he said. Continue Reading

Paris High School (Paris Independent) Principal Jamie Dailey, right, talks with Chief Academic Officer Clay Goode. Photo by Amy Wallot, April 11, 2013

The Kentucky Department of Education, along with several partners and more than 50 school districts, is in the third year of a four-year plan to develop the Professional Growth and Effectiveness System (PGES). Schools statewide will pilot the new system in the 2013-14 school year, with full implementation scheduled for 2014-15. This is the sixth in a series of stories that will examine different aspects of the proposed system.

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

Principals will succeed in the new Principal Professional Growth and Effectiveness System (PPGES) only if they help teachers help students succeed, according to Kevin Stull, PPGES strategy lead for at the Kentucky Department of Education.

Stull, who spent 13 years as principal at Garrard County High School before leading the statewide initiative, said the PPGES supports the Teacher Professional Growth and Effectiveness System (TPGES) in raising student achievement.

“(As principal), I need that teacher to be successful. I’m there to help them be effective, as opposed to being evaluative. If there is an area in which think they need to grow, my responsibility is to help them grow, not to be critical of that,” he said.

The PPGES is being field tested this year by 28 principals in 15 districts. Next year, each district will have at least one principal participate in a statewide pilot of the PPGES.

Stull said the principal and teacher PGES are similar in that they are both built on a framework of standards with specific indicators that tell teachers where they land on a spectrum from ineffective to exemplary. Both include input from others they supervise, self-reflection, professional growth plans and student-growth goals.

Because both are designed to help principals and teachers continuously improve, they share another important trait, he said. Continue Reading

Seneca High School Principal Michelle Dillard molds clay bones with students as part of the One Million Bones project. Photo submitted

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

Seneca High School art teacher Beverly Silletto had helped students create the clay bones for their public service project raising awareness of genocide. She’d helped gather them and helped put them in her two kilns.

But it wasn’t until she and her students were ready to remove the bisqueware bones that the project really hit home for them.

“When you opened up the kiln, the first things you saw were white bones – and they really do look like bones,” Silletto said. “It is so moving just to open that kiln and see that. The first time I saw that it made me gasp, and it made me think of concentration camps with all those bones.”

Students at multiple schools in the Jefferson County school district, including Louisville Male High, Olmsted Academy South and Seneca High, participated in One Million Bones. The national project raises awareness of genocide by encouraging students and artists to create clay bones that will be placed on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., in June.

Seneca students created 3,057 bones, the most in the district. Each bone will generate a $1 donation through the Students Rebuild organization to support humanitarian relief and rebuilding work in Central Africa. Continue Reading

First-grade teacher Amanda New reviews high frequency words with Miguel Rodriguez at Gallatin County Lower Elementary School. Gallatin County teachers begin working with students on goal setting and college and career readiness as soon as elementary school.
Photo by Amy Wallot, March 11, 2013

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

Students at Gallatin County Lower Elementary School may only be in kindergarten through 2nd grade, but they already know the importance of meeting goals.

“We’re constantly focused on the kids setting goals and then rewarding them for meeting those goals. It has done a lot for increasing achievement, but more than that, it has done a lot for increasing motivation,” reading coach Pam Scudder said last month during a beach party for students who met their Scholastic Reading Counts goals.

Students who reach their goals in mathematics get to parade around the school led by the local fire department, she said.

“You can stop any kid in the hallway and say, ‘Did you meet your goal?’ And they’ll say yes or no and then they’ll tell you exactly how many more points they need to get to their goal,” Scudder said. “Just to hear a 1st grader tell you they should have set their goal higher because they met it two weeks early is unbelievable.” Continue Reading

Pendleton County Extension Homemaker Rachel Conrad helps Northern Elementary School 5th-grade students make an easy fruit salad.
Photo submitted

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

Engaging fifth-grade students in nutrition and health education can be a tough job. Getting them to practice what they’ve learned can be even tougher. But teachers in Pendleton County have found a way to do both.

They have teamed with the Pendleton Co. Cooperative Extension Service office to provide the Recipe for Life, a federal grant-funded nutrition education program. As part of the program Family and Consumer Science agent Kenna Knight, works with all eight classes of 5th graders at two schools in the county to teach them about nutrition, safe food preparation, table manners and the importance of eating together as a family. She spends a day in each classroom and, in return, each class spends a day preparing a meal at the Cooperative Extension Service office, she said.

“It’s probably, by far, my favorite activity to do,” Knight said.

Recipe for Life serves several counties, including Pendleton, according to Debra Cotterill, the University of Kentucky’s (UK) Nutrition Education Program director. It is part of the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and targets low-income families and individuals to provide nutrition education (jointly called SNAP-Ed). Continue Reading

Karen Kidwell, left, director of Program Standards for the Kentucky Department of Education, and Office of Next-Generation Learners Associate Commissioner Felicia Cumings Smith address the Kentucky Board of Education regarding the new science standards. 
Photo by Amy Wallot, April 10, 2013

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

The Kentucky Board of Education reviewed  at its meeting last week  proposed  Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) one day after they were released.

Kentucky was one of 26 states that partnered in developing the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) as part of a collaborative state-led process. About 40 Kentuckians, including P-12 science teachers, state science and policy staff, higher education faculty, scientists and engineers were involved. Two drafts of the standards were released for public comment.

Karen Kidwell, director of the Kentucky Department of Education’s Division of Program Standards, said the Kentucky team gave detailed and descriptive feedback on the early drafts.

“Our feedback was very well received, and much of our feedback was incorporated in the standards,” she said.

The new standards, which have been in development for two years, meet the mandate for new standards in Senate Bill 1 (2009). They are internationally benchmarked, rigorous, research-based and aligned with expectations for college and careers; and they provide for deeper understanding of content and application. Continue Reading

Central Academy (Henderson County) teacher Jo Morris says taking part in the Professional Growth and Effectiveness System field test has helped her ensure her students’ needs are met throughout the year and made her a better teacher. Photo by Amy Wallot, March 12, 2013

The Kentucky Department of Education, along with several partners and more than 50 school districts, is in the third year of a four-year plan to develop the Professional Growth and Effectiveness System (PGES). Schools statewide will pilot the new system in the 2013-14 school year, with full implementation scheduled for 2014-15. This is the fifth in a series of stories that will examine different aspects of the proposed system.

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

Teachers will not have to do anything they are not likely already doing to measure student growth under the proposed Professional Growth and Effectiveness System (PGES), according to teachers field testing the system and staff of the Kentucky Department of Education. The biggest changes may be in documenting that growth, they said.

Carolyn Noe, 2nd grade teacher at Paint Lick Elementary (Garrard County), said student growth in the PGES is based on specific, measurable, appropriate, realistic and time-bound (SMART) goals.

“It’s not that we haven’t always measured student growth, but it’s a more specific, determined way to go about it. You’re actually forcing yourself to put that down on paper, take a very close look at it and determine exactly how much student growth,” the 31-year teaching veteran said. “I think we’ve always been aware of how students are progressing, but this puts a very definite number to it, which really causes you to focus in on a student.” Continue Reading

Lt. Col. Steve Darnall informs JROTC cadets at McLean County High School about an upcoming competiton against other JROTC programs in the state.
Photo by Amy Wallot, March 12, 2013

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

When 1st Sgt. Sonny Long became Army instructor at Harlan County High School five years ago, he had a freshman in the JROTC program who was in trouble from the first month of school. He skipped classes, argued with everybody, used tobacco constantly and was often in detention.

“I couldn’t hardly stand to be around him much myself,” Long said.

As a sophomore, the student made big improvements while in JROTC class but was still getting in trouble in other classes. The next year, Long gave him a higher rank and explained to the student that he would be held responsible for all of his actions, not just in JROTC. The result was that the student didn’t spend much time in detention, earned higher grades and exhibited newfound self-esteem. By his senior year, the student had learned how to interact with other people, lead them and earn their respect.

“I had over 15 teachers and two principals tell us that we had performed a miracle with him. He was thought of as the most likely student to drop out of high school when he was 16 years old,” Long said. “He graduated high school and is Continue Reading