Kentucky Teacher

Terry Holliday

Throughout the commonwealth, educators are working diligently and with a sense of urgency to ensure ALL Kentucky’s students are college/career-ready when they graduate high school. They know it is an economic imperative not only for their students but also for our state.

Together, we have made great strides this past year, as we worked to transform our schools into vibrant, engaging and innovative places that equip Kentucky’s children with the deeper knowledge, stronger critical thinking skills and the entrepreneurial spirit they need to succeed in a 21st-century world. But our work is far from complete – and there are always opportunities for educators, parents, community members and the business community to join us in our efforts.

March brings one of those opportunities with Operation Preparation, a community-based advising activity designed to help 8th- and 10th-grade students plan for life after high school. While this was a weeklong event in 2012, this year the entire month of March has been designated for Operation Preparation. Read the full story

Terry Holliday

No matter how busy my schedule gets as Kentucky’s education commissioner, I am always interested in receiving feedback. That’s one of the many reasons I meet regularly with staff, connect through social media and visit schools around the state. The comments, questions and ideas I receive from all of these and many other activities are invaluable, and I believe help Kentucky continue making gains in its pledge to ensure every child is college and career ready.

That is why I am such a big supporter of the TELL Kentucky survey which was first administered in 2011. TELL stands for Teaching, Empowering, Leading and Learning – the actions we are seeking to optimize in our schools.

Next month, March 4 through March 29, every certified staff member in Kentucky’s public schools will again have an opportunity to use this anonymous, Web-based survey to voice their perceptions of the teaching and learning conditions in Kentucky schools.

The survey, which is voluntary and confidential, will query certified staff about working conditions in areas such as leadership, facilities, resources, professional development, empowerment and time.

The results will be used by school-based decision making councils, schools, districts, the Kentucky Department of Education (KDE), the Kentucky Board of Education (KBE) and numerous other organizations to improve the working conditions in our schools and districts. Read the full story

In a special video edition of Commissioner’s Comments, Education Commissioner Terry Holliday welcomes Kentucky educators back to school after winter break, and thanks them for all their efforts involving the Kentucky Core Academic Standards and college and career readiness. He also highlights several resources that teachers can use in 2013 to help boost student achievement and close learning gaps, from the state’s online School Report Cards to formative assessments available through the Continuous Instructional Improvment Technology System (CIITS).

(Note: Video plays in IE9 and Firefox. It also will play in Chrome using the following plug-in:  http://www.interoperabilitybridges.com/wmp-extension-for-chrome).

Commissioner Terry Holliday

The Kentucky Department of Education will release the results of the first Kentucky Performance Rating for Educational Progress (K-PREP) next month.

I know there is great anticipation – and maybe anxiousness – about what the results will reveal.

Kentucky educators are drawn to teaching by the belief they can make a positive difference in students’ lives – and you are.

So, it is difficult to be on the receiving end of what may be seen as bad news. Yet, we know for many of our schools that will the case with this first round of K-PREP results.

Science and social studies scores should be in line with past scores since the tests were based on the 2007 Kentucky Core Content for Assessment 4.1.But that’s not the case in English/language arts and mathematics.

Kentucky’s adoption of the more rigorous Common Core State Standards and K-PREP assessments tied to those standards, will lead to proficiency rates among students that are lower than what we’ve seen previously in the Kentucky Core Content Tests (KCCT). Read the full story

In a special video edition of Commissioner’s Comments, Education Commissioner Terry Holliday welcomes Kentucky teachers back to school, and thanks them for their continued efforts to ensure students are college and career ready. He also offers encouragement to teachers as they await the release of K-PREP results in October.

(Note: Video plays in IE9 and Firefox. It also will play in Chrome using the following plug-in:  http://www.interoperabilitybridges.com/wmp-extension-for-chrome).

Commissioner Terry Holliday

This time of year has always been a period of excitement for me. As a former high school band director, this was time spent in preparation for the upcoming football and marching band season. As a principal, it was time for focusing staff on instruction and expectations for the school year. As a superintendent, it was time to make certain that all systems were functioning smoothly and that funding was in place to meet the needs of our students and teachers.

This year, I am experiencing excitement about the implementation of the Kentucky Unbridled Learning – College/Career Readiness for ALL plan. This plan is an outgrowth of 2009’s Senate Bill 1 and the Governor’s Transforming Education in Kentucky Task Force. 

Unbridled Learning – College/Career Readiness for ALL has a metric of increasing the percentage of college/career-ready graduates of Kentucky high schools from the current 34 percent to 67 percent by 2015. We have been communicating this goal and strategies to reach this goal for months. During the 2011-12 school year, we will begin to see the strategies implemented and begin to see if they yield the results for our students. Read the full story