Kentucky Teacher

Gov. Steve Beshear has made appointments to two Kentucky boards.

Nawanna B. Privett, an education consultant from Lexington, was appointed to the Kentucky Board of Education. She represents the Fifth Supreme Court District. The appointment replaces C. B. Akins Sr., who resigned.

Privett’s term expires April 14, 2014.

Beshear also appointed Michael H. Ross, a teacher at Mason County High School,  to the Education Professional Standards Board to serve for the remainder of the unexpired term ending Sept. 18, 2014. Ross will present secondary school teachers. The appointment replaces Laranna L. May, who resigned.

The Kentucky Board of Education has been awarded a $6,000 grant by the National Association of State Boards of Education (NASBE) to help the board continue to strengthen and implement policies to foster healthy eating among students and promote school health programs.

The grant will be used during the next two years as the board works with state agencies to create a plan to sustain this work beyond the grant period.

Kentucky was one of four states to receive a grant from NASBE.

“Working with state boards nationwide as they develop policies to help students be healthy and ready to learn is at the core of NASBE’s mission,” said NASBE Executive Director Jim Kohlmoos. “With this grant, we are pleased to support the continuation of the work already taking place in Kentucky.”

In addition to working with NASBE personnel and health and education experts in Kentucky to sustain the health committee created with a prior grant, the state board will continue its work to enhance the state’s process of evaluating schools’ compliance with school health initiatives.

The grants were made possible through funding from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

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

KSTC president Joanne Lang and NMSI Regional Director Dale Fleury announce the newest schools to be added to the AdvanceKentucky program during the Kentucky Board of Education meeting. Photo by Amy Wallot, April 4, 2012

Schools where teachers believe they have community support and involvement and student conduct is well-managed do better in reading and mathematics achievement, according to the final report from the TELL Kentucky survey.

More than 42,000 educators across the commonwealth filled out the anonymous online questionnaire regarding working conditions as part of the Teaching, Educating, Leading and Learning (TELL) Kentucky survey, which was administered to all public school teachers and principals in March 2011. Questions on the survey pertained to time; facilities and resources; community support and involvement; managing student conduct; teacher leadership; school leadership; professional development; instructional practices and support; and new teacher support.

Ann Maddox of the New Teacher Center provided the Kentucky Board of Education with copies and a presentation of the report at the board’s April 4 meeting. Maddox said the final report includes results connecting student academic data to survey results, as well as breaking out opinions of principals and new teachers. Read the full story

At its meeting on Wednesday, the Kentucky Board of Education heard updates and made decisions on a variety of items.

The board heard a report on expansion of the number of schools participating in the AdvanceKentucky Advanced Placement Teacher Training and Incentive Program (APTIP). Sixteen new high schools joined AdvanceKentucky, bringing the total number to 80.

The board approved state regulation 704 KAR 3:345, Evaluation Guidelines for Other Certified Staff. The board also agreed to refile two regulations: 703 KAR 5:070 (Procedures for Inclusion of Special Populations in State-Required Assessment and Accountability) and 703 KAR 5:225 (formerly 5:222; School and District Accountability Recognition, Support and Consequences).

The board approved a request from the Jefferson County Board of Education for a waiver of requirements relative to the district leadership assessment outlined in 703 KAR 5:180. This waiver will allow the use of findings of a recent Phi Delta Kappa curriculum audit to generate a leadership assessment report.

The board approved district facility plans for the Boone, Leslie and Warren County school districts and Eminence and Erlanger-Elsmere Independent school districts. The board also approved 2011-12 local district tax rates levied.  Read the full story

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

Vice Chair Roger Marcum speaks with the board about the use of readers on state tests during the February Kentucky Board of Education meeting. Photo by Amy Wallot, Feb. 1, 2012

While acknowledging parent and teacher concerns, the Kentucky Board of Education decided last week to move forward with a new regulation that would limit the help special-needs students could receive on mathematics and reading fluency portions of the Kentucky Performance Rating for Educational Progress (K-PREP) tests.

The board discussed delaying the new regulation, which prohibits students from receiving help from a reader on state reading comprehension tests and a calculator on some state mathematics tests, until August – the start of the 2012-13 school year.

The discussion arose following a plea from Betty Muntz, executive secretary for Kentucky Council for Exceptional Children and other comments about the regulations.

Muntz, at one point choking back tears, told the board, “Students aren’t prepared this year. Teachers are not prepared this year.” Read the full story

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.

Susan Meadows sits with Christopher Empson and a small group of students practicing writing and scissor work during her preschool class at Caldwell County Primary School. Photo by Amy Wallot, Nov. 15, 2011

By Tracy Goff-Herman
tracy.herman@education.ky.gov

With the continuing national recession, Kentucky’s revenue situation hasn’t improved. 

As such, the General Assembly’s focus will likely be on maintaining current funding levels, plugging holes and, when possible, restoring funding to pre-recession levels.

In anticipation of the upcoming session, the Kentucky Board of Education (KBE) has finalized its list of budgetary and legislative priorities. The Kentucky Department of Education’s (KDE’s) focus will be on supporting and obtaining adequate funding for these strategic priorities.

There are four foundational items in KDE’s budget request. They are the programmatic policies that will enable the commonwealth’s education system to prepare students to be college- and career-ready. They include:

Funding for school improvement: This $13.3 million request would provide funding to assist non-Title I, low-performing schools. Schools and districts would use the funds to pay for efforts aimed at promoting student academic growth, reducing dropout rates and improving graduation rates.  Read the full story

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

Associate Commissioners Ken Draut, Dewey Hensley and Felicia Cumings-Smith speak to the Kentucky Board of Education regarding the new assessment and accountability system. Photo by Amy Wallot, Dec. 7, 2011

If approved by the U.S. Department of Education, Kentucky schools and districts will have an annual improvement goal under a revised version of the state’s Unbridled Learning assessment and accountability system.

Under previous versions 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 requires the state enact annual measurable objectives (AMOs) for schools and districts.

Staff from the Kentucky Department of Education briefed the Kentucky Board of Education on the requirements of the waiver during the board’s Dec. 7 meeting.

In addition to AMOs, other changes caused by the waiver include new designations for schools and districts based on how they perform under the requirements of Unbridled Learning; inclusion of student growth as a component of the state’s teacher and principal evaluation system; and removing specific accommodations for students with special needs previously allowed during testing of reading and mathematics.

The new accountability model includes student data from testing, gap, growth, college/career readiness and graduation rate (Next-Generation Learners); principal and teacher effectiveness (Next-Generation Professionals); and Program Reviews (Next-Generation Instructional Programs and Support). Scores from each of the three areas ultimately will be totaled for an overall score. Read the full story

Pam Sexton speaks to the Kentucky Board of Education after accepting the annual Dr. Samuel Robinson Award for her late husband Robert Sexton, executive director of the Prichard Committee for Academic Excellence. Photo by Amy Wallot, Dec. 7, 2011

At its meeting in Frankfort Wednesday, the Kentucky Board of Education presented the annual Dr. Samuel Robinson Award to the late Robert Sexton, executive director of the Prichard Committee for Academic Excellence. The award was accepted by Sexton’s wife, Pam.

Since 2004, the Dr. Samuel Robinson Award has been conferred on an individual or groups in Kentucky for outstanding leadership, commitment and service in promoting equity and opportunity to learn at high levels for all Kentucky students.

In their nomination letter, Cindy Heine and Albert Smith, Jr. of the Prichard Committee noted that Sexton was a champion for Kentucky’s children.

“Bob never ran for political office. He didn’t invent a new machine, captain a financial empire or run a giant corporation. We honor him as a social entrepreneur. He tackled the most important challenge of our time, which is how to help Kentucky kids become competitive in a knowledge economy.”

Kentucky Board of Education Chair David Karem presented the award.

“Bob Sexton’s entire career was focused on improving education in Kentucky at all levels,” said Karem. “He brought education leaders together to hammer out policy and strategy issues on which the groups could agree and then promoted them with policymakers. Over the years, he generated bipartisan support for legislative initiatives that helped to move Kentucky’s education system forward.”

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

Kentucky Board of Education member Judy Gibbons speaks during the October KBE meeting. Photo by Amy Wallot, Oct. 5, 2011

Acknowledging concerns among state lawmakers and school superintendents, the Kentucky Board of Education agreed last week to delay implementing a proposed world language Program Review until the 2014-15 school year.

The two year-delay means the world language Program Review won’t be included for school or district accountability until the 2015-16 school year.

At its August meeting , the board finalized the structure of Kentucky’s accountability system – Unbridled Learning: College and Career Ready for All – that includes five Program Reviews. Rather than testing students to see what they have learned, Program Reviews require schools to gather evidence about how they integrate subjects across curricula and provide students with high-quality learning opportunities. The schools then use the information to improve programs. Read the full story