(FRANKFORT, KY) – The Kentucky Department of Education’s (KDE’s) Principal Advisory Council learned about new implementation resources for updated Kentucky Academic Standards (KAS) for Visual and Performing Arts during its meeting on March 5.
Jessica Greene, academic program consultant in KDE’s Division of Program Standards, said since the KAS for Visual and Performing Arts was revised, KDE has updated and created new resources teachers can use to implement standards in their classrooms.
“Our focus for all of these resources is to support educators in implementing high-quality, standards-aligned, vibrant and engaging learning experiences,” Greene said.
Greene also said the principals should encourage teachers to use Kentucky Standards website for all standards resources and sign up for KDE’s Standards newsletter.
The KAS for Visual and Performing Arts has been updated with better usability for teachers, featuring hyperlinks for navigation. The KAS for Visual and Performing Arts: At a Glance is also found on the Kentucky Standards website, which is a brief overview of the changes to the KAS.
Other resources include the Course Codes Standards document, which lists all courses currently recognized in Kentucky for visual and performing arts credit and has been updated to identify all the standards with which the courses align. Greene also highlighted the Digital KAS through Satchel Commons, which has been used in the past to support Infinite Campus.
The new visual and performing arts Interactive Resource includes a teacher notes document, implementation PowerPoint and companion videos. They provide guidance, detailed procedures, and all links, handouts, printables and graphics needed to successfully implement each segment of this learning experience.
The Standards Family Guides have been updated to include visual and performing arts. The visual and performing arts sections are designed to help families familiarize themselves with grade-level standards across the arts disciplines of dance, media arts, music, theatre and visual arts. These guides clarify what students are learning in the classroom and offer practical ideas for reinforcing concepts at home. Available for grades K-8 and high school, the KAS Family Guides are also offered in Spanish.
The KAS Family Guides contain standards overviews for reading and writing, mathematics, science and social studies. Reading and writing has also been updated to include language in line with Science of Reading and their newly revised standards.
KDE recently launched the KY Learning Hub as a new, centralized platform designed to support educators with high-quality professional learning opportunities. Kentucky educators can use their district email and password to access the site.
Greene said some of the same professional learning opportunities from the Kentucky Standards website are also available on the KY Learning Hub, except the courses on KY Learning Hub are self-paced. She said it’s a great opportunity for teachers to learn at their own pace.
Impact Kentucky Working Conditions Survey tool
The results of the 2025-2026 Impact Kentucky Working Conditions Survey were recently announced by KDE. The survey is administered every two years and asks all certified school staff a variety of questions about their working conditions. The newest results show increased positive feedback in several areas.
During the meeting, Stacy Noah from KDE’s Office of Educator Licensure and Effectiveness shared a new draft of an Impact Kentucky analysis tool the principals can use to analyze results of the survey. After council members had the opportunity to use the tool, Noah asked for their feedback on how to improve it.
Sarah Williams, principal of Mattie B. Luhr Elementary School (Jefferson County), said she liked the action plan questions and the checkboxes for growth plans. In terms of improvements, she said the data sheets were not in the same order as the screen on the website. She also said it would be helpful to have a page break between the data and reflection questions to make it easier to navigate back and forth.
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