Education Commissioner Terry Holliday Reggie was on the school playground acting out a game of cops and robbers when it happened. He pointed his index finger, thumb up, at a classmate and said “pow.” The next thing you know he was in the principal’s office looking at a three-day suspension. Reggie is black, male, and is a 4-year [...]
Education Commissioner Terry Holliday I recently had the opportunity to testify before the Senate Education Committee about the Common Core State Standards in English/language arts and mathematics and the Next-Generation Science Standards, adopted in our state and collectively known as the Kentucky Core Academic Standards. The hearing was on Senate Bill 224, which would abandon the standards and [...]
Education Commissioner Terry Holliday When the General Assembly passed Senate Bill 1 in 2009, a key component was the ACT assessment for college readiness. The General Assembly, through KRS 158.6459, made it clear that any student in grade 8 or grade 11 whose high school- or college-readiness scores reveal that additional work is needed in English, reading, or [...]
Education Commissioner Terry Holliday Since Senate Bill 1 (2009) was enacted, Kentucky has certainly been seen as a leader in the nation for our work in implementing college/career-ready standards, assessments, a new accountability system and professional development for educators. As these core processes begin to stabilize after three full years of implementation, it is important that Kentucky look [...]
Education Commissioner Terry Holliday It’s been about six months since Kentucky Department of Education (KDE) leadership and I met with all Kentucky school district superintendents in Frankfort for a face-to-face Superintendents’ Summit. This provided an opportunity for me to explain the why, what and how of the P-12 components of the Unbridled Learning: College and Career Readiness for [...]
Education Commissioner Terry Holliday One of the issues most important to Kentucky educators is time. Recently, Representative Rita Smart filed HB 202 to require teachers be provided a minimum of 150 minutes per week for non-teaching activities. Below is a letter I sent to her in support of this legislation. Dear Representative Smart: Thank you for bringing HB [...]
Education Commissioner Terry Holliday On January 8, 2014, Secretary of Education Arne Duncan released a “Dear Colleague” letter to state chiefs regarding new discipline guidelines. The overarching purpose of the new discipline guidelines is to address apparent disparities in discipline data. In Kentucky, we have very safe schools and teachers feel strongly that school discipline policies are working. [...]
Education Commissioner Terry Holliday Last week, the Senate Education Committee passed SB 87 out of committee. Sen. Stan Humphries has done an excellent job bringing this bill back to the General Assembly — the bill passed the Senate in 2013. This legislation would support dual credit courses in our high schools. Dual credit is defined in KRS 164.002 (4) [...]
Education Commissioner Terry Holliday Governor Steve Beshear recently convened a group of business leaders, legislators, educators, and policy makers from across the southern region to study career and technical education. This group was convened under the support of the Southern Regional Education Board (SREB) for which Gov. Beshear is the chair in 2014. The group will complete its [...]
Education Commissioner Terry Holliday In a few weeks, the Kentucky Department of Education (KDE) will release findings from a study of our career and technical education programs. KDE requested the Southern Regional Education Board (SREB) study pursuant to recent legislation that merged the former Office of Career and Technical Education within the Education and Workforce Development Cabinet with [...]