Measuring success as a process
Hope Street Group Kentucky Teacher Fellow Cassie Redding bases her entire approach to teaching on the premise that the success of her students must be her top priority.
Hope Street survey on PGES, teacher leadership open
Hope Street Group's annual survey is under way, collecting teacher input regarding the Professional Growth and Effectiveness System and teacher leadership. Hope Street Group has been asked by the Kentucky Department of Education to collect teacher perspectives on how PGES evidence is affecting decision making, how the expertise of teachers is shaping professional learning and how teacher leaders are impacting [...]
Hope Street Group accepting fellowship applications
Hope Street Group, a national nonpartisan, nonprofit organization that connects teachers directly to policymakers, is currently accepting applications for the Kentucky Teacher Fellowship. The fellowship provides teachers with opportunities to meet leading policymakers and present them with solutions that elevate the teaching profession. Teacher fellows stay in their classrooms full time, work with Hope Street Group 10 to 15 hours [...]
Teachers’ voices make a difference
Terry Holliday A guiding principle for our work in Kentucky is that we do the hard work of reform WITH teachers and not TO teachers. What does this principle look like in practice? In 2011, Kentucky implemented the TELL Kentucky Survey to allow teacher voice on key working conditions such as facilities, resources, leadership, professional development, time, etc. [...]
New conversations about teacher leadership in Kentucky
Jana Bryant By Jana Bryant jana.bryant@daviess.kyschools.us Barnett Berry, one of the authors of Teaching 2030: What We Must Do for Our Students and Our Public Schools, believes “it is time to blur the lines of distinction between those who teach and those who lead.” This distinction ought to become even more blurred with Kentucky’s Professional Growth and Effectiveness [...]
Time to put assessment at forefront of our thinking
By Natalie McCutchen, Mike Stacy and Brad Clark Across the state, self-reflective teachers and supportive administrators are building communities of practice where all stakeholders are re-evaluating all aspects of instructional effectiveness. This is a time of rapid, meaningful change in our schools. As Kentucky educators embark on this intensive professional learning continuum, we must find new ways to guide student [...]
Peer observation helps raise our status as educators
Ryan Mann By Ryan Mann ryan.mann@scott.kyschools.us With this year’s rollout of Kentucky’s new Teacher Professional Growth and Effectiveness System (TPGES), some of the biggest concerns I’ve heard from other teachers are over the “Peer Observation” section. Teachers have long been wary of administrators critiquing their classroom performance based on a brief observation, and adding a peer into the [...]
Problem-based learning and PGES
Lindsey Childers By Lindsey Childers lindsey.childers@trigg.kyschools.us Imagine a classroom that centers on discovery – a classroom that allows students to act as teachers and use the skills they have acquired to solve actual problems. This sort of classroom is possible and is, in fact, happening all over Kentucky. In my district, this classroom method is becoming a more [...]
Peer observation offers a path to growth
Joseph Harris By Joseph Harris joseph.harris@lawrence.kyschools.us In the past few years, I’ve come to realize that peer observation is a powerful professional growth avenue for teachers, and it is one of the most beneficial aspects of the Professional Growth and Effectiveness System (PGES). While my official peer observation for PGES is scheduled for sometime next semester, I’ve actually [...]
Act now to help create globally competent students
Randy Barrette By Randy Barrette randy.barrette@menifee.kyschools.us Across the country each year, one week is set aside for International Education Week. This joint initiative of the U.S. State Department and the U.S. Department of Education (USED) is part of a larger effort to promote school programs that prepare K-12 students for the global environment, one that both departments hope [...]