Kentucky Teacher

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.

Phillip Rogers, executive director of the Education Professional Standards Board. Photo by Amy Wallot, Dec. 21, 2011

Phillip S. Rogers, Ed.D., of Scottsville, Ky., became executive director of the Kentucky Education Professional Standards Board (EPSB) in 2005. He has been with the EPSB since 2000, serving as director of the Division of Professional Learning and Assessment prior to becoming executive director. 

A native of Nashville, Tennessee, Rogers received a bachelor’s degree in counseling from Liberty University in Virginia, a master’s in child development from Western Kentucky University and a doctorate in education evaluation from the University of Louisville.  Before joining EPSB, Rogers served as the founding director of the Allen County schools district’s Family Resource Center, recognized in 1995 as Kentucky’s Outstanding Family Resource Center by the Kentucky Association of Guidance Counselors. 

As executive director of the EPSB, Rogers oversees the daily operation of the agency, which was established as part of the 1990 Kentucky Education Reform Act. Rogers has performed research and evaluations for a variety of organizations and programs, including the Kentucky Institute for Educational Research, the National Center for Family Literacy, the Kentucky Safe Schools Project, and the Kentucky Department for Juvenile Justice. Educational policy formation as it relates to educator preparation and professional development for experienced educators are two of his current research interests. 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