(FRANKFORT, KY) – During the Superintendents Webcast on Oct. 13, leaders with the Kentucky Department of Education (KDE) provided information about new reporting requirements under House Bill 257 (2026).
Allie Green, a program consultant with KDE’s Office of Educator Licensure and Effectiveness, provided details on the new reporting requirements and information for potential National Board Certified Teachers (NBCTs).
The NBCT certification is designed to develop and retain accomplished teachers, ultimately improving student learning outcomes. To achieve this certification, educators go through a rigorous, performance-based assessment process that evaluates teaching expertise.
Under House Bill 257, which revamped Kentucky’s assessment and accountability system, districts are now required to include specified targeted quality measures in the School Report Card until June 30, 2030. This includes the change in the number of teachers who earned National Board Certification and who achieved Rank II status or higher.
Green provided superintendents with information about how to ensure NBCT numbers are accurately reported, including a push to ensure all active NBCTs include their Education Professional Standards Board (EPSB) identification number in their National Board profile.
Green also shared resources for districts and education on National Board Certification, including the National Board Certification webpage on the GoTeachKY website and the NBCT District Toolkit. The 2026-2027 registration window for National Board Certification is open until Feb. 28, 2027.
Stay Interviews
Justin Edwards, a program consultant with the KDE’s Office of Education Licensure and Effectiveness, provided information on resources to help districts with stay interviews, where leaders interview current employees to determine which factors are valued and which factors may need to be addressed to help reduce teacher turnover.
“The big thing here is to understand that the goal is not simply to collect feedback and listen, but also to act,” Edwards said. “Just like any talent manager, whether you’re a coach or an admin, learning what controls your employees’ decision-making process is a very beneficial tool in motivating them.”
Edwards said GoTeachKY Ambassadors – an annually changing group of educators that KDE brings together to support the GoTeachKY initiative and promote the teaching profession – conducted about 200 stay interviews with teachers across the state during the 2025-2026 school year. Most responses were positive and cited a love of helping students and making a difference in their community as a reason they stay in the profession, while some of the things that need to be improved are compensation, more planning time and a more balanced workload.
Resources to help with stay interviews are available on the GoTeachKY Stay Interviews webpage.
New KDE Research Blog
Leslie McKinney, strategic data analyst for KDE’s Division of Strategic Planning and Research, introduced superintendents to the new KDE Research Blog, an online resource dedicated to sharing research, data and strategic insights on issues shaping education.
The first topic in the blog series launched in August, exploring one of Kentucky’s most pressing educational challenges: chronic absenteeism. Through research, data and real-world examples, the series examines how attendance has changed since the pandemic, the factors driving chronic absenteeism and the statewide efforts, partnerships and policy changes helping schools reconnect students and improve attendance outcomes.
“Our team is charged with researching and preparing comprehensive reports and research papers on various topics that are of broad interest in the education world, but also that informs some of our strategic planning work,” McKinney said. “Our purpose in developing this blog specifically is to make those findings easier to absorb, digest and apply.”
New articles are published approximately every two weeks. Each post offers research-based perspectives, practical resources and data visualizations designed to support educators, school and district leaders, and policymakers.
The next series, which began Oct. 15, is about teacher wellbeing. McKinney shared details about the new Kentucky Teacher Workload Survey and how that will inform the blog series on teacher wellbeing.
You can keep up to date on the blog series by visiting the KDE Research Blog webpage.
During the webcast, superintendents:
- Received an update on the release of 2025-2026 assessment and accountability data, which was released publicly on Oct. 15;
- Heard information about new science of reading professional learning opportunities as required by House Bill 253 (2026), including the recently approved partnership with AIM Institute for Learning & Research; and
- Heard a presentation on Special Education Regional Technical Assistance Centers indicator data.
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