The U. S. Department of Education (USED) has named four Kentucky public schools as 2014 National Blue Ribbon Schools, based on their overall academic excellence. They are: Central Elementary, Marshall County Johnson Elementary, Fort Thomas Independent Tompkinsville Elementary, Monroe County Stopher Elementary, Jefferson County The Kentucky schools are among the 337 public and private, elementary, middle and high schools across [...]
Education Commissioner Terry Holliday Earlier this month, the Kentucky Department of Education (KDE) held the second annual Superintendent Summit; almost all 173 school districts were represented either by the superintendent or their designee. The summit is designed so that superintendents can provide feedback on KDE initiatives and they can hear from one another about best practices happening in each [...]
Education Commissioner Terry Holliday First, the good news: Last week the U.S. Department of Education (USED) notified us that it had approved Kentucky’s application for a one-year extension of our Elementary and Secondary Education Act/No Child Left Behind (NCLB) waiver flexibility. The extension will run through the 2014-15 school year. The bad news is that we are still [...]
The U.S. Department of Education has new guidance for schools and districts on how to keep parents and students better informed about what student data is collected and how it is used. The new guidance recommends that schools and districts provide parents with information, such as: What information are you collecting about students? Why are you collecting this information? How is [...]
Education Commissioner Terry Holliday Equal educational opportunity for all -- it was the basis of the lawsuit that triggered the Kentucky Education Reform Act of 1990 and remains a basic tenet of the Kentucky Board of Education and Kentucky Department of Education today. A student's race, ethnic background, family income, unique challenge or zip code should not determine [...]
Education Commissioner Terry Holliday As states moved to implement new, more rigorous college/career-readiness standards in English/language arts and mathematics, they faced a challenge: how would they assess student progress on the new standards? Writing high quality assessment items that truly measure student mastery of the standards would be no small task. It would be both time consuming and [...]
On Tuesday, Oct. 7 Secretary Duncan and the U.S. Department of Education will welcome a selected group of the nation's 14,000+ superintendents to Washington, D.C., to attend a summit on digital learning. This first ever Connected Superintendents' Summit will provide opportunities for leaders from district, charter, and private schools to share lessons learned with each other and with the Department to [...]
In order to address the need for leaders who are prepared to lead effectively in the Cohort 3 Priority Schools and improve outcomes for students, the Kentucky Department of Education (KDE) intends to apply for the Turnaround School Leaders Program, a new competitive grant program sponsored by the U.S. Department of Education. The Turnaround School Leaders Program supports efforts to [...]
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 [...]
The U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) recently released the first comprehensive look at civil rights data from every public school in the country in nearly 15 years. The Civil Rights Data Collection (CRDC) from the 2011-12 school year was announced by U.S. Department of Education Secretary Arne Duncan and U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder at J.O. [...]