New Arts Standards: Creating, Performing, Responding and Connecting

This month, Kentucky took a giant step toward new arts standards, with the Kentucky Board of Education holding a second reading and a vote to adopt the National Core Arts Standards as part of our Kentucky Core Academic Standards.  The documents are attached to item VI in the KBE June 2 agenda.

There are still several more steps towards a final adoption, but this is a good time to start thinking about what these standards may mean for Kentucky students. Accordingly, here are some notes on major features I've noticed in a first round of study, followed by some questions that still puzzle me about how these arts standards will work.

Disciplines

Dance, media arts, music, theatre, and visual arts are included, with media arts as an important and innovative entry.    

Anchor Standards 

Eleven overarching standards apply to all the included disciplines: three each for creating, performing/presenting/producing, and responding, plus two for connecting. As an example, the second anchor standard calls for students to "Organize and develop artistic ideas and work" as part of the creating process.

Performance Standards for Each Level

For elementary and middle school, there are year-by-year standards specifying what students should know and be able to do for each anchor in each discipline. As an example, in the section on visual arts and that second anchor standard:

• Kindergartners are expected to "Use a variety of art-making tools" 
• Grade 4 students should be able to "Explore and invent art-making techniques and approaches" 
• Grade 8 students should "Demonstrate willingness to experiment, innovate, and take risks to pursue ideas, forms, and meanings that emerge in the process of art-making or designing"

For high schools, the performance standards describe proficient, accomplished and advanced work for each anchor and discipline, but without assigning elements to be developed each year. That gives high schools the flexibility to set up their schedules in multiple different ways. To complete the visual arts example:

• Proficient high school students are expected to "Engage in making a work of art or design without having a preconceived plan"
• Advanced high school students will be able to "Experiment, plan, and make multiple works of art and design that explore a personally meaningful theme, idea, or concept"

To go with the examples above, visual arts also has performance standards for the rest of the eleven anchors, and the other four disciplines also address the full set.

My Current Puzzles

Do remember that this post comes from my first round of study. It's completely possible that there are answers to all these puzzles and I just haven't found them yet. Reader comments or e-mails pointing out what I've missed will be deeply welcomed! 

Puzzle 1: Creative writing isn't in these arts standards and it also doesn't seem to be in our English language arts standards. Is artistic mode now optional while the others are required parts of what students learn?

Puzzle 2: If a student meets the anchor standards, do we say that they are ready for college and career? For participation in the arts? For artistic engagement in their communities?

Puzzle 3: Are we aiming for all students to reach the high school proficiency level in all five disciplines? The accomplished or advanced level?  These are really bold, exciting standards, and reaching all of them could mean big changes in the high school experience.

Puzzle 4: The performance standards do not identify specific artists and works for students to study. By comparison, Shakespeare and the Bill of Rights are included in our standards for English language arts as requirements and a handful others are listed as examples right in the grade-level expectations.  Will students get the connections they need to the greatest works of the past with that kind of silence?

Even while puzzling, I think I'm seeing an opportunity for much greater clarity about what we want all students to know and be able to do under these new arts standards.

Maker Space: Already Live in Northern Kentucky!

When a recent PrichBlog post explained the maker space concept, it missed a pretty important fact: Northern Kentucky already has one!  Last fall, students in Boone County convinced the Northern Kentucky Chamber of Commerce Leadership Northern Kentucky Class of 2015 that a maker space was worthy of their support as an approach to STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts, and math) learning.  In April, the space opened in Burlington, complete with website, Facebook conversation, and Twitter connections. (Thanks to Julia Pile, GCIPL Fellow, for sharing news of this exciting development!)

Arts Education for the 21st Century: A Bold Proposal

A January 2015 "vision paper" from Kentucky's arts education organizations argues for major new steps to "ensure that all students have access to a high quality arts education; one that truly supports developing students’ artistic talents and abilities as mandated by Senate Bill 1."

In addition to supporting adoption of the National Core Arts Standards, the paper provides detailed recommendations around three major goals:

• Protect time for discipline-specific, standards-based arts instruction
• Provide for high quality specialized arts teachers to deliver visual and performing arts instruction 
• Ensure that statutory, regulatory, and KDE terminology supports high-quality arts education 

The paper provides concrete evidence that arts teaching and learning have been eroded significantly in recent years, and offers this blunt statement about our current accountability approach:

"Improving arts education in Kentucky will call for more than Program Reviews, because the reviews currently lack rigor due to of a lack of statutory and regulatory support, have limited, questionable reliability because they are self-reported, utilize a rubric that is subject to wide interpretation in the hands of non-arts specialists, and lack an auditing process to encourage and ensure honest appraisal."

The Kentucky Coalition for Arts Education issued the paper and a briefer brochure on the same ideas.  The Coalition includes the Kentucky Art Education Association, the Kentucky Association of Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance, the Kentucky Music Educators Association, and the Kentucky Theatre Association.  I'm looking forward to seeing this discussion develop!

--Posted by Susan Perkins Weston

Program Reviews as the Newest Accountabilty Element

Program reviews are a new indicator of the quality of student learning opportunities in subjects that Kentucky no longer tests.  For accountability, there are three reviews, focused respectively on writing, arts & humanities, and practical living & career studies.  And, as you can see,when the school scores submitted by all districts are combined into statewide numbers, they average out very high.

It's worth unpacking those results from the statewide briefing packet on the new results a little more.  Individual program review rubrics use a 0 to 12 scale, with 8 being the score for a proficient program.  To get numbers like the ones shown above, the scores on all three reviews are added together and divided by 24 (equivalent to three proficient scores).  Scores above the 100 level are rounded down to the 100 maximum allowed by the state scoring system.

So, the graph above shows that statewide, districts on average are rating their schools proficient or higher on their program reviews.  Individual schools had higher and lower scores, but the averages came out at or above 100 on all three levels.

Below, you can see the results for each subject for the two available years, all using the 0 to 12 scale that applies for individual reviews.  There, too, it's clear that the averages are now at or slightly above the proficient level for all three programs at all three levels.

In 2008, the discussion about program reviews included clarity that the Kentucky Department of Education would need to play a major role in ensuring consistent scoring, along with consistent refusal to estimate the costs.  In 2009, Senate Bill 1 specified "Each local district shall do an annual program review and the Department of Education shall conduct a program review of every school's program within a two (2) year period," again without frank engagement about the price tag.    Since that point, the Department has had no resources to carry out that scale of review, and many discussions have fallen into saying that schools score themselves, even though state law makes the reviews a district obligation. 

Whoever has been leading the process and whoever has been monitoring, I think these results will move us quickly to a serious discussion about what it will really take to ensure that program reviews reflect consistent scoring against high expectations.  That discussion is at least six years overdue.

--Posted by Susan Perkins Weston

School results coming soon: now with program review data

Friday, October 3rd, is now the scheduled date for 2014 accountability results to be released to the public, and the 2014 school report cards will include program reviews as an additional source of evidence about how students are being served.

Kentucky uses program reviews to check on the quality of students' learning opportunities in subjects that we no longer test, including arts and humanities, practical living and career studies, and writing of the sustained kind that is not easily measured by brief standardized assessments.

The Kentucky EdGuide on "Quality of Learning Programs" explains that:

[A] program review is defined as “a systematic method of analyzing components of an instructional program, including instructional practices, aligned and enacted curriculum, student work samples, formative and summative assessments, professional development and support services, and administrative support and monitoring.” 

Each program review looks at multiple aspects of a school’s program, using a rubric organized around standards for the program and “demonstrators” of strong quality on that standard. For each demonstrator, a school’s program can be scored 0 (no implementation), 1 (needs improvement), 2 (proficient), or 3 (distinguished), based on more detailed characteristics found in the rubric.

You can learn more about program reviews by downloading the EdGuide or by taking a look at the program review rubrics schools use to score themselves.

Many schools' 2014 overall scores may look better now that program reviews are included. 

I say that because we already know how 2013 overall scores would have looked with program reviews factored in, and most scores definitely would have been higher.  In the chart below, you can see examples of the impact.   The lighter bars show the statewide overall scores for each level from the 2013 state report card (without program review data), and the darker ones show the Department of Education's calculation of the same overall scores with program review data included.  The revised versions look stronger because, in general, schools' program review scores are stronger than their state test scores and graduation rates.

However, it is important to know that 2014 accountability will be an apples-to-apples comparison.  Program reviews were included when schools' 2014 annual measurable objectives were set, and they were included in defining the 2014 scores that will qualify a school for a particular percentile rank and accountability classification. 

Source note: the 2013 overall scores that include program review data can be found in the Accountability section of KDE's Open House portal, in a file that also shows the 2013-14 annual measurable objectives for improving on the 2012-13 results.

--Posted by Susan Perkins Weston

Which AP tests do Kentucky students take and pass?

On Advanced Placement tests, scores of 3, 4, or 5 can qualify a student for college credit, placement in advanced courses, or both.  Monday, while posting on the Leaders and Laggards report,  I realized that the subjects where students earn those credits deserve closer attention.

So, below, two additional thoughts on AP test success in Kentucky.

First, a look at the major areas where 2013 public school students received successful scores, combining multiple tests in disciplinary clusters. The green shades identify science, math, and world languages, the subjects that Leaders and Laggards included in their economic competitiveness ratings.  The very small slice for world languages stands out as a weak result in the overall picture.

Second, a look at the top 12 tests where Kentucky students succeed, showing the number of students passing each test.  It isn't really a surprise to see the English tests at the top of this list, but it would definitely be good to see the science, math, and language numbers move up.

Source note: These numbers come from the page for "AP Program Participation and Performance Data 2013" at the College Board website.

--Posted by Susan Perkins Weston

Standards, Assessments, Accountability: Quick Status Check

With a new school year moving forward full steam, it seems like a good moment to review where Kentucky stands on implementing the full Senate Bill 1 reworking of standards, assessments, and accountability.

Standards for Reading, Writing, and Mathematics
Our new standards for these subjects aim at college and career readiness for all students in reading, writing, and mathematics. Along with 45 other states, we've adopted the Common Core State Standards effort.   Many of those states are introducing Common Core to their teachers this year, aiming for implementation a year or more away.  Kentucky's out ahead on that, with Common Core already rolling in our classrooms for 2011-12.

Standards for Science and Social Studies
The older Kentucky Core Content is still in use, with hopes that multi-state efforts will bear fruit relatively soon.  For science, a framework of needed knowledge and skills is now in place, with work beginning to convert that into grade-by-grade standards. Social studies work is not as far along.

Even with those delays, science and social studies classrooms are still part of the urgent push forward. The Common Core State Standards include specific expectations for literacy in history/social studies and literacy in science and technical subjects.  To meet those expectations, students will have to move to new levels in each discipline, reading more deeply, writing more effectively, and thinking more rigorously about each subject.

Assessments of those Standards

Students will take new tests this year, all focused on the standards we now have in place, meaning Common Core for reading, writing and mathematics, and Core Content for science and social studies.  Those tests will make heavy use of assessment items developed before Common Core, so that the new level of rigor will come from how they are combined and how they are scored. 

Two groups of states are working now on shared assessments of Common Core.  Kentucky has not yet committed to either the PARCC or the Smarter/Balanced Consortium, which plan to have their designs fully operational by 2015.

Standards for Arts & Humanities, Practical Living/Career Studies, and Writing 
For other subjects, new program review rubrics are being launched this fall.  Kentucky no longer tests students on the arts, on practical/career topics, and on the sustained writing that goes into a portfolio, but schools remain responsible for providing robust learning opportunities.   Program reviews are Kentucky's new systematic approach to reviewing how well schools are meeting those expectations. Details on the program reviews are available here.

Accountability for Assessments, Program Reviews, and Other Indicators
Under Kentucky regulations, schools will be accountable for a combination of factors. "Next Generation Learner" data from the assessments will be a major part of the total, including data on overall achievement, results for students groups often caught in achievement gaps, individual student growth in scores,  scores indicating readiness for college and career, and graduation rates. "Next Generation Instructional Programs and Support" and "Next Generation Teachers and Leaders" evidence will also be factors in the total, with program review results included in the Programs and Support component.

For NCLB purposes, Kentucky has asked for a federal waiver to allow us to use the state formula in place of the current Adequate Yearly Progress (or AYP) system.

Upcoming issues
For each part of the new assessments, we will need new "cut points," specifying the scores that count as work at the proficient level, along with scores for being above and below proficiency.

For state accountability, we will also need cut points for schools and districts, identifying the combined results that qualify for each accountability element.

And for federal accountability, all eyes are on Washington waiting to see how Kentucky's waiver request will be treated.

SB 1 Update: Where we stand on new standards

2009's Senate Bill 1 called for a major revision in Kentucky's approach to standards, assessment, accountability, and work to equip teachers (current and future) to move student performance to the new expected levels.  Starting today, I'll blog my way where we stand on those deliverables, starting with  new standards for what Kentucky students should know and be able to do.

WHAT SB 1 CALLED FOR
The legislation called for a full revision of Kentucky's content standards in all subjects, to produce standards:

• fewer, deeper, and clearer
• linked to international benchmarks and economic competition
• aligned with what students will need to succeed in higher education

It also said that the new standards should:

• be developed though collaboration between P-12 educators, higher education faculty, and other stakeholders
• be available by December 2009 for reading and mathematics
• be available by December 2010 for other subjects

WHAT'S NOW IN PLACE

For reading, writing, and mathematics, Kentucky has adopted the Common Core State Standards, the result of a major collaboration of many states.  The specified stakeholder groups provided multiple rounds of feedback on the drafts, and the final edition of the standards became available in June 2010. (Yes, that's later than the law specified, but in return we will get tremendous benefits from being able to collaborate on tests, textbooks, technology, professional development, and other elements of putting the standards to work.)

For science, a similar multi-state effort is underway, with the current timetable calling for a final edition in late 2011.

For social studies, states and relevant organizations are discussing another round of collaborative development, but a firm plan of action is not yet in place–and that means there isn't a timetable available for when shared standards could emerge.

For arts, humanities, practical living, and career studies, Kentucky has been developing its own standards, along with plans to use them in a new process called program reviews.  I'll describe that work in a separate post on the program review approach.

Kentucky's Next Giant Steps (a fresh edition)

We've had several editions of the PrichBlog one-page summary of Kentucky's big push to raise student standards and results, and it's time for an update that leaves out the earlier discussion of Race to the Top and adds in basics of our learning and testing strategies.  Here's the new version (with an option to download for easy printing here):

FOUR GIANT STEPS FOR KENTUCKY EDUCATION

DECEMBER 2010 OVERVIEW OF KEY DEVELOPMENTS

SENATE BILL 1
Senate Bill 1, passed in 2009, requires Kentucky to upgrade its standards for what students will learn. Our new law says the standards must be shorter, clearer, and better focused on students being ready for college, work, and global competition. To match the new standards, Kentucky will use new tests starting in the spring of 2012. Current teachers will receive specialized training on how to teach the new standards well, and teacher preparation programs will equip future teachers with the same skills.

COMMON CORE STANDARDS SHARED BY MANY STATES
For language arts and mathematics, Kentucky has adopted the new Common Core State Standards. The Common Core offer a grade-by-grade statement of what students will need to be on track for college-and-career-readiness when they finish high school. Because more than forty other states have adopted the Common Core, our expectations will be consistent with goals being used across most of the country, and as strong as learning standards used by the most competitive countries elsewhere in the world. Kentucky is also working with other states on shared science standards that should be available in late 2011, and on social studies standards that may take longer to complete.

ASSESSMENT FOR LEARNING STRATEGIES TO MEET THE STANDARDS
To meet those new college-and-career ready standards, teachers will need increasingly effective approaches to classroom work. One key strategy, called “assessment for learning,” uses classroom activities designed to identify next steps for each student to keep climbing toward the overall goal. When it is done well, assessment for learning makes classroom work more focused and effective, with students seeing each success as a reason to try even harder on the next set of work. Kentucky teachers from each school district are now studying those approaches in regional networks, and collaborating with local administrators to plan ways to share the methods with all their local schools. Teacher preparation programs are putting new emphasis on the same strategies. Research shows that the assessment for learning approach can have a big impact on overall achievement, with the most positive effect on the students who would otherwise be likely to fall behind.

NEW TESTING TO CONFIRM STUDENT SUCCESS ON THE STANDARDS
Kentucky will also use statewide testing to confirm that students are indeed on track to reach the new standards. The states that are using the Common Core Standards are also developing new methods to test and report student progress to parents, teachers, officials, and the general public. Those shared tests are being developed with large new federal grants and will begin in 2014 or 2015. For 2012, 2013, and maybe 2014, Kentucky will use a temporary test that matches the new standards but will not have all the strengths of the longer-term, multi-state testing methods.

Our new standards, classroom strategies, and statewide testing are all part of our Senate Bill 1 effort to deliver stronger results for all Kentucky students and build a stronger future for our entire state.

Giant Steps: SB 1, Common Core, and RTTT (August edition)

Once again, I've revised my overview of some huge changes underway in Kentucky education.  Click here to download the one-page PDF, or read on:

THREE GIANT STEPS FOR KENTUCKY EDUCATION

AUGUST 2010 OVERVIEW OF KEY DEVELOPMENTS

FROM THE PRICHARD COMMITTEE FOR ACADEMIC EXCELLENCE

SENATE BILL 1

Senate Bill 1, passed in 2009, requires Kentucky to upgrade its standards for what students will learn. Our new law says the standards must be shorter, clearer, and better focused on students being ready for college, work, and global competition. To match the new standards, Kentucky will use new tests starting in the spring of 2012. Current teachers will receive specialized training on how to teach the new standards well, and teacher preparation programs will equip future teachers with the same skills.

COMMON CORE STANDARDS SHARED BY MANY STATES

For language arts and mathematics, Kentucky has joined with many other states in adopting the Common Core State Standards. Nationally respected experts drafted the standards, using learning research and information on how each subject is taught in the countries with the world’s highest academic results. Then they gathered comments from state leaders, local educators, and the general public have been gathered, and revised the work several times before issuing the final edition in June.

Similar multi-state work is planned on additional subjects, including science and history.

Because of Senate Bill 1, we expect to be ahead of most states in preparing current and future teachers to implement the standards. In the future, Kentucky and other states will be able to collaborate on developing tests, textbooks, technology, and professional development that match the standards and help students develop the knowledge and skills they will need for college and career success.

THE FEDERAL RACE TO THE TOP COMPETITION

Nearly all states are now competing to win Race to the Top grants from the United States Department of Education. The winning states will share $4 billion in funding to implement their plans to make their school systems among the best in the world. The plans must address:

• Standards, including classroom implementation and good tests to check student progress.
• Data systems to help teachers identify student needs and effective learning strategies.
• Evaluation and support systems to strengthen teachers and school leaders.
• Major changes to schools that repeatedly fail to deliver acceptable student performance.

Since Kentucky is already committed to Senate Bill 1 and the Common Core, the Race to the Top competition is an opportunity to get the funding we need to implement those changes quickly and well. In the first round of the competition, Kentucky was one of the finalists, but did not receive an award. In the second round, we have applied for $175 million to be spent over five years, with half of the funding going to school districts for local work and half being used at the state level, and we are finalists again. The second round winners will be announced in the fall of 2010.

Shakespeare! In the Standards!

The new Common Core standards expect that grade 11 and 12 students will

Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in the text, including figurative and connotative meanings; analyze the impact of specific word choices on meaning and tone, including words with multiple meanings or language that is particularly fresh, engaging, or beautiful. (Include Shakespeare as well as other authors.)

and also

Analyze multiple interpretations of a story, drama, or poem (e.g., recorded or live production of a play or recorded novel or poetry), evaluating how each version interprets the source text. (Include at least one play by Shakespeare and one play by an American dramatist.)

The Reading Standards for Literature do mention other works as examples that could be replaced by other examples:

Analyze how a modern work of fiction draws on themes, patterns of events, or character types from myths, traditional stories, or religious works such as the Bible, including describing how the material is rendered new. (Grade 8)

Analyze the representation of a subject or a key scene in two different artistic mediums, including what is emphasized or absent in each treatment (e.g., Auden’s “Musée des Beaux Arts” and Breughel’s Landscape with the Fall of Icarus). (Grade 9)

Analyze how an author draws on and transforms source material in a specific work (e.g., how Shakespeare treats a theme or topic from Ovid or the Bible or how a later author draws on a play by Shakespeare). (Grade 9)

The Bard, though, is not an example.  He's identified as an author--the author--students must meet.  That uniqueness is, I think, quite right.  Shakespeare's contribution of language, images, characters, and plots is entirely unequaled in English, and and the scale of his work is unmatched in any other language.

(Hat tip to the New York Times: I missed this important new element in my first quick skim of the standards documents.)

The cult of the library (with a bit of cultural literacy on the side)

Mostly, this is good fun for a Saturday post.

Still, I'm compelled to admit that in the original movie, I sighed with happiness at the site of the library lions and gasped in horror when the ghosts attacked the card catalog? Watching this one, I'm realizing that I find scenes shot in libraries nearly as riveting as those that feature George Clooney. 



(If the film doesn't load for you, it's also available at tinyurl.com/readngroom)

Common core effort moving toward science, arts, history

Mathematics and English/language arts are the first subjects being addressed by the Common Core State Standards Initiative, but they won't be the last. 

Commissioner Holliday told a legislative committee today that a first draft of shared science standards may be available this summer from the National Research Council, though a final draft is many further steps away.

He expects social studies standards will be developed, but that will be harder because of the national diversity of political opinions that have to fit together.  To underline the variety, he pointed out that there are people in South Carolina who still argue that the South won the Civil War.

In separate news, the National Association of Music Educators reports that: 

On May 11 and 12, the State Education Agency Directors of Arts Education (SEADEA) held a meeting of the National Arts Education Task Force to discuss the creation of common core standards in the arts. The meeting took place at the offices of the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO) in Washington, DC.

[snip]

The group discussed what has changed in arts education since the national standards were released in 1994 and began developing an action plan to support the inclusion of the arts in the creation of the common core standards.

For Kentucky, the one problem with this work is that it's slower than we need.  Senate Bill 1 calls for all our standards to be in place by this December, but the work with other states just is not moving at that pace.  Senator Winters today described efforts he's made and urged others to keep pushing for other states to accelerate the shared effort.  Yes, it's worth it to stick with the common effort, but it's also right for Kentucky to push for the common effort to work at maximum speed.

A constitutional right to clogging? I can make that case!

Our constitution requires an efficient system of common schools. The Rose opinion filled in that requirement by saying such a system must "have as its goal to provide each and every child with at least the seven following capacities," and adding a list that includes "sufficient grounding in the arts to enable each student to appreciate his or her cultural and historical heritage." Here's the Celtic heritage of the Southern Highlands, and I'd happily argue that every Kentucky child is entitled to a generous helping of it.

Giant Steps April Edition (SB 1, Common Core, and RTTT)

I've updated our one-page summary of Senate Bill 1, Common Core Standards, and Race to the Top.

The key new information is that Kentucky will be competing for the RTTT money in the second round. and that the math and reading standards are now scheduled to be finalized late this spring.

Otherwise, it's similar to the text we shared in late March, so I won't make the whole text into a blog post.   If you'd like the newest edition,  click here to download the PDF.

Literature in the common core (Yay!)

Kentucky has had a long, wobbly relationship with literature. The 1994 Content Guidelines did not specify any novels, plays, or poems students should know. The first Core Content included authors students should know, but later revisions dropped the authors while keeping impressive lists of composers, painters, sculptors, and other artists. I've cheered each inclusive round and objected to each round of deletions.

Reading through the new draft standards for English/language arts, I'm delighted.

The level-by-level "illustrative texts for narrative, drama, and poetry" caught my eye first. Eastman's Are You My Mother leads the kindergarten list, and Dickinson's "Because I Could Not Stop For Death" finishes the list for grade 11 and career and college readiness.

Further down, a longer "exemplar" section includes poetry from "Paul Revere's Ride" and "Captain, O My Captain," to "I, Too" and "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening." In the short, sweet election of other poems, I especially enjoyed spotting "The Jumblies," a truly great tale of adventure and whimsy.

The drama includes Midsummer Night's Dream and Master Harold and the Boys, and the narratives include Pride and Prejudice, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, and Their Eyes were Watching God. For younger readers, there's a range from Little Bear to Little Women.

These lists do not, at least officially, mean students have to read those works in the years where they're listed. The draft says:

The following text samples primarily serve to exemplify the level of complexity and quality that the Standards require all students in a given grade band to engage with while additionally suggesting the breadth of text types that students should encounter. The choices should serve as useful guideposts in helping educators select texts of similar complexity, quality, and breadth for their own classrooms.

And yet, those guideposts are going to be hard to bypass. There's flexibility there to prefer a different Austen novel or a different Seuss book, and the lists are short enough to leave room for quite a few additional works, but there's nothing to match the depth Shakespeare or the cultural resonance of Frost and Hughes. Most of all, the central expectation that students will have a fluent sense of how and why to engage great literature is going to matter as these standards move into classroom use.

"Tidal wave of reform" at Prichard meeting (press release)

The press release for the Prichard Committee's November 2nd meeting is headlined 'Tidal wave of reform' focus of recent Prichard Committee meeting, and reports on the event as follows.

FRANKFORT, Ky. - An in-depth look at what Kentucky's new education commissioner has called "a tidal wave of reform" was the focus of the recent fall meeting of the Prichard Committee for Academic Excellence.

The words of Education Commissioner Dr. Terry Holliday describe several key developments that are expected to have a significant impact on the way Kentucky prepares its children to succeed as adults. The developments coincide with the recent arrival in Kentucky of two new education leaders: Holliday at the Kentucky Department of Education and Dr. Robert King, president of the Kentucky Council on Postsecondary Education.

King and Holliday emphasized to the committee (during its November 2, 2009, meeting in Frankfort) that they are working collaboratively to accelerate the improvement of Kentucky's schools in response to state and federal initiatives.

Robert F. Sexton, the committee's executive director, pointed out that such collaboration is both noteworthy and unprecedented. "This is the first time we've had both the commissioner of education and the president of the postsecondary education council address the committee at the same time," he said.

The committee's specific areas of interest included a groundbreaking piece of legislation enacted by the 2009 General Assembly, Senate Bill 1, and a federal funding initiative known as Race to the Top. Here is a closer look, based on presentations to the committee from Holliday, King, Rhonda Sims, director of the division of assessment support for the state Department of Education and David Cook, the department's project manager for Race to the Top:

• Some $4.25 billion is available nationally under the Race to the Top program but how much any individual state, such as Kentucky, could receive will depend on how many grants the federal government awards.
• Kentucky will need new strategies to improve badly failing schools to improve its prospects for receiving the federal funds.
• In addition to turning around low-performing schools, the federal criteria emphasize how states assure quality teaching, use data systems to measure student progress and develop and use rigorous standards and tests. Senate Bill 1 has improved Kentucky's position due to its mandate for new standards, testing and other requirements.
• The final federal guidelines are expected soon, and they could include a requirement that states allow the creation of charter-like schools. This would require legislation in Kentucky, which does not have a law on the books allowing charter schools, but state education officials are not considering a comprehensive charter-school program.
• Although state testing will continue while a new assessment system is developed under Senate Bill 1 for implementation in 2012, schools' scores on the state test will not be part of a state accountability system during the interim.
• Schools will continue to be held accountable for students' scores on the national No Child Left Behind test.
• A national effort to develop new standards for math and language arts - known as "common core" standards - could also lead to the creation of common assessments. Kentucky is part of this national effort.
• The Council on Postsecondary Education will soon develop a new strategic plan that is expected to include such elements as enhanced postsecondary support for elementary and secondary education; renewed focus on associate degrees in the community and technical college system; a greater emphasis on regional universities' areas of excellence; and more attention on research and graduate study at the state's research universities.

The committee also welcomed several new members:

• Alva Clark of Lexington, an attorney, parent and fellow of the Commonwealth Institute for Parent Leadership
• Louisville attorneys Matt Breetz and Franklin Jelsma
• Al Cornish, vice president of education and development for Norton Healthcare in Louisville
• Paula Fryland, executive vice president for corporate banking of PNC Bank, Louisville
• Roger Marcum of Lebanon, executive vice president of St. Catharine College and former superintendent of Marion County Public Schools.

###

Science + music = effective teaching

Turning classroom experience into lasting knowledge is essential to good instruction, and music is a great tool for making sure memories last. Accordingly, I'm delighted by a tale from Texas about Debra Cave's work to create a new generation of science-in-song.

"I was amazed at how quickly students seem to forget what we captured in class," said Cave, a former nurse who took up teaching four years ago. "If we don't do something to push it into long-term memory, it will be lost."

Her solution: Get a little wild, and the memories stick.

"It's hard to get excited about chlorophyll," she said "But by singing and dancing, emotion gets attached and it's stored long term."

The Dallas News has the full story, with a hat tip to Accomplished Teacher. Sample songs are at www.thejamminclassroom.com

Program reviews taking shape

Yesterday's state board meeting offered some insight into how the new program reviews will work for arts and humanities, practical living/career studies, and portfolio writing. KDE staff reported that for each subject, the reviews will check:

• Curriculum and instruction
• Formative and summative evaluation
• Professional development and teacher support
• Administrative leadership support and monitoring

Practitioner panels will develop up to ten indicators of strength under each standard.

As specified under SB 1, the state will review each school's program every other year, while districts check the programs annually. Pilot reviews will occur over next two years, followed by full implementation in the 2011-12 school year.

Art, science, glory!

You’ve got to see these posters! Full-sized, they’re stunning, and I hope the main impact comes through on the small screen.

These posters (and more than a dozen more) come from the “EYE-N-STINE and the ARTS” project developed by Yolantha Harrison-Pace, a Danville artist, dancer, actor, playwright, missionary, and parent leader, as well as my treasured friend.

Photographer Joshua Fuqua works with the Danville system, and Danville students and teachers rode the scateboards and tied them to the core content. The project was supported by Parents and Teachers as Arts Partners, a joint effort of the Prichard Committee and the Kentucky Center for the Arts Center funded by the Lucille Caudill Little Foundation.

I imagine Joe Weston, Diamond Pace and hundreds of their classmates remembering adenosine triphosphate and vertebrate backbones years from now, understanding them better because this gorgeous effort got their attention. The skateboarders themselves, having discussed the concrete connections between what they love and the science that makes it possible, will likely take the learning even deeper.

Yolantha is working on plans to expand the project further. A video component is almost ready. Beyond that, she's thinking about additional science. For myself, I'm daydreaming about how all twenty-seven constitutional amendments might look to a crew of middle school girls.