Kentucky Teacher

First-grade teacher Amanda New reviews high frequency words with Miguel Rodriguez at Gallatin County Lower Elementary School. Gallatin County teachers begin working with students on goal setting and college and career readiness as soon as elementary school.
Photo by Amy Wallot, March 11, 2013

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

Students at Gallatin County Lower Elementary School may only be in kindergarten through 2nd grade, but they already know the importance of meeting goals.

“We’re constantly focused on the kids setting goals and then rewarding them for meeting those goals. It has done a lot for increasing achievement, but more than that, it has done a lot for increasing motivation,” reading coach Pam Scudder said last month during a beach party for students who met their Scholastic Reading Counts goals.

Students who reach their goals in mathematics get to parade around the school led by the local fire department, she said.

“You can stop any kid in the hallway and say, ‘Did you meet your goal?’ And they’ll say yes or no and then they’ll tell you exactly how many more points they need to get to their goal,” Scudder said. “Just to hear a 1st grader tell you they should have set their goal higher because they met it two weeks early is unbelievable.” Read the full story

Lt. Col. Steve Darnall informs JROTC cadets at McLean County High School about an upcoming competiton against other JROTC programs in the state.
Photo by Amy Wallot, March 12, 2013

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

When 1st Sgt. Sonny Long became Army instructor at Harlan County High School five years ago, he had a freshman in the JROTC program who was in trouble from the first month of school. He skipped classes, argued with everybody, used tobacco constantly and was often in detention.

“I couldn’t hardly stand to be around him much myself,” Long said.

As a sophomore, the student made big improvements while in JROTC class but was still getting in trouble in other classes. The next year, Long gave him a higher rank and explained to the student that he would be held responsible for all of his actions, not just in JROTC. The result was that the student didn’t spend much time in detention, earned higher grades and exhibited newfound self-esteem. By his senior year, the student had learned how to interact with other people, lead them and earn their respect.

“I had over 15 teachers and two principals tell us that we had performed a miracle with him. He was thought of as the most likely student to drop out of high school when he was 16 years old,” Long said. “He graduated high school and is Read the full story

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

Fifth-grade teacher Ninya Sallee talks about the Revolutionary War with her class at Pilot View Elementary School (Clark County). The students started by first listing the things they already knew about the war and then the things they would like to learn about it. They followed that by examining the painting Washington Crossing the Delaware by Emanuel Gottlieb Leutze. Photo by Amy Wallot, Nov. 15, 2012

Just as all ships rise with the tide, better educating all students will fill the achievement gap, according to teachers and principals at schools that made the most progress in reducing achievement gaps on the latest state achievement test.

Principal Steve Jenkins and teachers at Pilot View Elementary (Clark County) pay little attention to whether students are in a group that has traditionally performed lower on state assessments than their peers.

“They don’t look at a kid and go, ‘These are the barriers,’” he said. “We just look at every kid and try to make sure they’re all getting the same education as best as we can give it.”

Principal David Ward said he and his staff at Auburn Elementary School (Logan County) feel the same way.

“The teachers are pretty much ‘blind’ to the free or reduced-price lunch status. We look at all of our students as they learn,” he said. “It’s a priority here at Auburn that every single student, regardless of whether they’re in the gap or not, be pushed to be their best and learn.” Read the full story

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

Ken Draut talks about the recent assessment test scores during the Kentucky Board of Education meeting.
Photo by Amy Wallot, Dec. 3, 2012

Results from the first use of Kentucky’s new assessment and accountability model – Unbridled Learning: College/Career Readiness for All – show the system worked the way it was supposed to with few exceptions, according to the system’s main architect.

Ken Draut, associate commissioner of the Kentucky Department of Education’s Office of Assessment and Accountability, said the goal of the new system was to create a continuous improvement model that would give schools and districts incentives to work with all students in more subjects than just mathematics and reading.

“This is a broad view of our schools,” he said.

So after calculating the combined scores for five categories – achievement, gap, growth, college/career readiness and graduation rate – Draut said he was pleased with the distribution on the scale from 0-100. The state has never combined five large areas into one assessment system, he said, and he and his staff weren’t sure if scores would be spread out or clumped together. Read the full story

Commissioner Terry Holliday

The release of Unbridled Learning accountability results last month was met with a flurry of newspaper stories, board presentations, parent workshops and a lot of discussion.

As expected, early reports seemed to focus on the overall drop in proficiency and the new state-provided percentile rankings for schools and districts. A few accounts rightfully noted the dramatic increase in the percentage of high school graduates who are college and career ready.

So, now that the dust has settled, the real work begins.

The online School Report Card provides a wealth of information that provides educators the opportunity to examine what is working – and conversely, not working – in our schools and districts. It shows how our students are performing, where achievement gaps exist and whether our students are on track for college/career-readiness, among other things. This is valuable data and we cannot allow it to sit idle on a server or in a file on a computer desktop. Read the full story

The Unbridled Learning accountability model is organized around the Kentucky Board of Education’s four strategic priorities: Next-Generation Learners, Next-Generation Instructional Programs and Support, Next-Generation Professionals and Next-Generation Schools/ Districts.

The recent first release of data from the Unbridled Learning model included only the Next-Generation Learners component (Achievement [Proficiency], Gap, Growth, Readiness for College/Career and Graduation Rate).

In the fall of 2013, the second round of data from the model will be released, and that data will include both Next-Generation Learners and Next-Generation Instructional Programs and Support (Program Reviews). Schools have already received their 2012-13 Next-Generation Learner Overall Scores as targets for Proficient.

The Program Review scores will have two roles in the summer of 2013:

(1) Schools will see a publicly-reported Program Review classification (Needs Improvement, Proficient, Distinguished) for each subject (AH/PLCS/Writing). Read the full story

By Susan Riddell
susan.riddell@education.ky.gov

Lt. Gov. Jerry Abramson talks with seniors about their postsecondary plans during the Close the Deal kickoff at Bullitt Central High School (Bullitt County).
Photo by Amy Wallot, Oct. 9, 2012

Lawrence County High School seniors strolled through their gymnasium last Monday, looking for their names on place cards.

Once all seated, they dined on a catered meal while watching a slideshow of Lawrence County High alumni. Each alumni photo included the person’s name, college, degree information and his or her current profession and place of residence.

That slideshow – which was part of the kickoff event for a new college-going program being piloted in the district called Close the Deal — will someday include the 136 seniors watching it. “We want to put into motion the notion that all of you are college- and career-ready,” Lawrence County school district Superintendent Mike Armstrong told students.

Close the Deal, which was spearheaded several years ago by Lt. Gov. Jerry Abramson and other educational stakeholders in the Louisville area, gathers high school seniors to meet college recruiters and representatives from financial institutions that help students pay for college.

The program is being expanded this year to include Bullitt, Campbell and Lawrence county public schools. Similar kickoff events were held in Campbell and Bullitt counties earlier this month. Read the full story

The Kentucky Department of Education will release test score and school/district accountability data on Friday, Nov. 2.

This marks the first release of data from the Unbridled Learning accountability model, which Kentucky implemented beginning in the 2011-12 school year. The data to be released on Nov. 2 reflects test scores and other information from that school year.

The Unbridled Learning model holds public schools and districts accountable for five primary areas:

• Achievement – student performance on subject-area tests
• Gap – gaps in academic performance among students who are ethnic minorities, have disabilities, are English language learners or come from low-income households and students who do not fit into those categories
• Growth – student academic growth in reading and mathematics Read the full story

By Susan Riddell
susan.riddell@education.ky.gov

Brian Dugan talks fuel injectors with Bullitt County CRC junior Corey Ivy in the automotive lab at the Bullitt County Area Technology Center. Ivy would like to open an automotive shop one day. Photo by Amy Wallot, Sept. 5, 2012

Rick Dawson, a counselor at the Bullitt County school district’s Career Readiness Center (CRC), has worked over the years with many students who struggled in a traditional classroom setting.

Some struggled to focus in a lecture-type setting that didn’t offer more hands-on learning, he said. Others struggled with formative and summative assessments.

“That environment just isn’t an easy place for some to thrive,” said Dawson.

That’s where Bullitt County’s Career Readiness Center can make the difference. The center, in its second year, provides students with a different approach to learning and gives the district a means to better prepare students for careers.

“These kids want to learn, and we’re a good fit where that pressure isn’t there,” Dawson said. “We want them to come back every day and to enjoy being here.”

In February 2011, the Kentucky Department of Education (KDE) secured the Commonwealth Commitment from all districts to move 50 percent of their district’s high school graduates who are not college- and/or career-ready to college- and/or career-ready between 2010 and 2015. KDE’s Unbridled Learning initiative outlines the plans, strategies and milestones set forth to make this vision a reality. Read the full story

Education recovery specialists Rick Larson and Pebbles Lancaster and guidance counselor Angie McGee meet with other leadership members during their first meeting of the school year at Livingston Central High School (Livingston County).

Education recovery specialists (ERS) are expected to figuratively roll up their sleeves and get to work helping schools improve. But ERS Pebbles Lancaster will tell you they do that literally, too.

Arriving at a persistently low achieving (PLA) school, Lancaster and her state team noticed the school was in need of a physical makeover.

“As a team, we rolled up our sleeves, painted rooms, scrubbed lockers and cleaned gunk off stairs,” Lancaster said. “Our goal was to make our building inviting and to bring back that pride that had existed before.”

Just as important, the effort showed teachers and administrators that she was there to help.

“We were at their service,” she said, “willing to do anything to assist their school, even if it meant getting our hands dirty and paint everywhere.”

The effort helped Lancaster and her team – and their services – earn acceptance in the district, she said. Read the full story