Kentucky Teacher

Kentucky State University’s School of Education has been awarded a grant from the Collaborative Center for Literacy Development (CCLD) to offer high-quality professional development opportunities that focus on the literacy development of students in grades 6-12. More specifically, the grant activities will provide information, resources and instructional strategies related to the teaching and assessment of literacy (Common Core Standards for English/language arts) when working with diverse students.

Grant participants will be expected to:

• complete four to five online course modules
• attend two online webinars
• attend a two-week summer academy (hybrid model consisting online and face-to-face training) in July 2012
• complete an individual literacy project with a diverse student in his/her classroom
• participate in a “fair share” with other CCLD grant participants across the state Read the full story

In a special video edition of Commissioner’s Comments, Education Commissioner Terry Holliday thanks Kentucky teachers for all their hard work this school year, including their efforts to close achievement gaps and incorporate the new Common Core State Standards into thier lessons. He also offers a few words about the upcoming K-PREP tests, and urges Kentuckians to express their thanks to teachers during National Teacher Appreciation Day on May 8.

(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).

Kimberly Shearer

I’ve been spending a lot of time in the 300s section of my school library. As part of my practicum experience for my Rank I in library science, my supervising librarians gave me an assignment to update some of the career titles in our library.

As I went through the many outdated career books from the 1990s this past week, I realized how many careers have come into existence since I was in high school. I also realized what a strange predicament today’s educators are in. We are preparing our students for 21^st-century careers, but many of these careers don’t even exist yet. How do we make sure we are providing our students with the skill sets they will need, when their future career opportunities are unknown? And how do we navigate our instruction at a time when test scores are being used as the primary gauge for effective learning and instruction? It is an overwhelming situation. Teachers want our students to be college- and career-ready, but we are forced to assess students in ways that do not align with 21^st-century skill sets.

Kentucky’s adoption and implementation of the Common Core Standards is certainly the first step in preparing our students for the 21^st century. The Common Core Standards emphasize critical thinking, collaboration, information literacy and a host of other important, transferable skill sets that will empower Kentucky students to be successful in both college and today’s global workforce. The Common Core Standards also empower teachers to be innovative in their instruction, as we are now tackling Read the full story

Registration is now open for the Tennessee Arts Commission’s Create2012: Creativity in Education Institute, July 15-18, in Murfreesboro, Tenn.

Create2012 will focus on aligning classroom instruction with 21st-century learning skills, which encompass creativity, imagination, problem-solving and critical thinking to support literacy in all subjects.

Sessions will be offered for K-12 classroom teachers, arts specialists, teaching artists, special education and resource teachers, principals and superintendents.

By learning how to integrate the arts into all content areas, teachers will be trained to design, deliver and assess core content in a way that engages students as active participants in their own learning.

Principals and school administrators will understand the importance of creativity to learning and utilize the arts as a way of establishing and/or enhancing professional learning communities among faculty.

There will be more than 100 sessions offered on topics such as the Common Core and the Arts, Using Art in the Special Education Classroom, Brain-Compatible Learning Through Storytelling and much more.

To register, go to https://www.regonline.com/builder/site/?eventid=1049902.

More information is available on the Create website at http://www.tn.gov/arts/create2012_guide.htmll.

Plenary session videos from the Council on Postsecondary Education’s national forum on the Common Core State Standards are now available via the Council’s channel on YouTube.

The videos highlight implementation successes, challenges and next steps by state and national speakers, and are accessible from the links below.

• Fireside Chat with Kentucky’s Education Leaders
• What Would Statewide Collaboration Look Like in a Perfect World?
• What Does It Mean to be College and Career Ready?
• Structures for Statewide Communication and Collaboration
• Gov. Steve Beshear’s Remarks
• Reflections from CRP State Representatives: Constituent Reactions to the Common Assessment Consortia (PARCC and Smarter Balanced) Proposals for Assessments of College Readiness Read the full story

The Kentucky Council on Postsecondary Education will hold a live webcast of its upcoming conference, “Architecture for Implementing the Common Core Standards: Strategies, Partnerships & Progress,” on February 27-29.

The live webcast will expand the reach of the conference by accommodating additional educators and policymakers from Kentucky and around the country.

The actual conference is being held at the Marriott Louisville Downtown Hotel. More than 380 participants from 22 states are expected to attend. 

Live webcast sessions will be available at mms://video1.education.ky.gov/encoder3a.

Among the sessions scheduled to be webcast on Monday are: A joint presentation by the Prichard Committee for Academic Excellence and the Kentucky Chamber of Commerce on public awareness of the Common Core State Standards, from noon to 1 p.m.; and a Fireside Chat with Education Commissioner Terry Holliday, CPE President Bob King, Education Professional Standards Board Executive Director Phillip Rogers, Senate Education Chairman Ken Winters, R-Murray, and House Education Chairman Carl Rollins, D-Midway, from 6:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. Read the full story

‘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 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.” Read the full story

Kentucky will serve as the demonstration state of a new initiative led by Learning Forward to create a statewide, comprehensive professional learning system to support educators as they implement Common Core State Standards (CCSS) and new student assessments.

Georgia, Illinois, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Utah and Washington will contribute to the development of the system’s tools and strategies as critical friend states and learn from Kentucky’s challenges and accomplishments.

With support from lead funder the Sandler Foundation, Learning Forward will provide coaching and technical assistance to Kentucky and host meetings of the seven states over the next two years of the initiative, Transforming Professional Learning to Prepare College- and Career-Ready Students: Implementing the Common Core. The resources developed through the initiative will be made available to all states as they implement CCSS.

Kentucky was selected from among several states through a competitive process this fall. The demonstration state and critical friend states had to show a commitment to equity, professional development and substantive change. Read the full story