Terry Holliday “Kentucky’s first settlers brought with them a dedication to democracy and a sense of limitless hope about the future. They were determined to participate in world progress in science, education, and manufacturing. The early years of statehood were an era of great optimism and progress and the eyes of the nation often focused on Kentucky. … [...]
Terry Holliday Around the nation, Common Core State Standards in English/language arts and mathematics often have come under attack. In fact, here in Kentucky, a bill has been pre-filed in the legislature to scrap them and the Next-Generation Science Standards and come up with entirely new standards which would not only reverse your hard work for the past [...]
Terry Holliday In several recent blogs, (Moving in the Right Direction and Making the Numbers Real), I congratulated Kentucky students and educators on the significant progress we are making in college/career-readiness rates and graduation rates. We are also beginning to see significant improvement in proficiency rates, and our unduplicated gap group has improved in all areas. However, I [...]
Education Commissioner Terry Holliday As the dust settles from the election, there is much talk and speculation about the impact the election may have on public education in this country. At least that was a primary topic for discussion at the Council of Chief State School Officers Annual Policy Forum that I attended last week. Secretary of Education Arne [...]
Education Commissioner Terry Holliday Kentucky has been featured in numerous state and national media sources recently for the improved performance in college- and career-readiness rates and graduation rates. As commissioner, I have been very proud of the efforts of teachers, administrators, students and education partners in implementing Senate Bill 1 (2009) which required more rigorous standards, assessments, accountability [...]
Education Commissioner Terry Holliday Once again last week, the Ashland Teacher of the Year (TOY) program brought together some of Kentucky’s best educators for recognition in Frankfort. Our annual tribute to outstanding teachers in Kentucky is the highlight of the year for me. Our Kentucky teachers are by far the most professional and dedicated teachers in the nation, and [...]
Education Commissioner Terry Holliday As we looked more closely at numbers from the Unbridled Learning Accountability System last week, there was much to celebrate. School report cards showed more students reached college- and career-readiness, more students graduated, reading and math scores improved at elementary and middle school, and high school Advanced Placement and ACT results are at all-time [...]
Education Commissioner Terry Holliday The Kentucky Department of Education just released the third year of results under the Unbridled Learning College/Career-Readiness for All accountability model, and while we still have much work to do, the data show we are moving in the right direction and there is much reason to celebrate. The eyes of the nation have been [...]
Education Commissioner Terry Holliday Dear Kentucky Teacher, As you settle into the school year, I am taking the opportunity to update you on implementation of the Professional Growth and Effectiveness System (PGES). This school year, as you know, we are implementing PGES for teachers and principals statewide. Unfortunately, there have been some unexpected glitches with the PGES technology [...]
Education Commissioner Terry Holliday Earlier this month, the Kentucky Department of Education (KDE) held the second annual Superintendent Summit; almost all 173 school districts were represented either by the superintendent or their designee. The summit is designed so that superintendents can provide feedback on KDE initiatives and they can hear from one another about best practices happening in each [...]