SB1 Summary with three clarifications

The PrichBlog summary of Senate Bill 1 has drawn many readers and a few incisive notes.  It's been especially helpful to hear about three elements of the original summary that may not have been precise enough, so we're offering a revised edition, with the changes explained below.  The original post has been updated with the changes clearly labeled, and a two-page PDF version with the changes is available for download.

STANDARDS/REVISION 1
The revised summary says:

• A recommendations committee of three state senators, three state representatives, and three others appointed by the governor will make “final recommendations for implementation to the Kentucky Board of Education” on standards changes. 

 • KBE will adopt changes to Kentucky’s academic standards.

The earlier wording struck at least one reader as implying that KBE would be legally required to adopt what the committee recommends. The bill wording does not include a requirement like that.

SOCIAL STUDIES AND READINESS ASSESSMENTS/REVISION 2
The revised summary has two sentences on assessments to be eliminated if SB 1 becomes law:

Social studies assessments will be dropped. Readiness tests for grades 8 and 10 will also be dropped.

The earlier wording left an uncertainty about the plans for social studies testing in grade 5. The bill calls for ending the grade 5 assessment, the grade 8 assessment, and the high school end-of-course test for U.S. History.

INTERVENTION SCHOOLS/REVISION 3
Senate Bill 1 calls for hiring to be done differently at "intervention schools," and the revised summary describes those changes this way:

At those schools, the superintendent will select the principal with school council input, and the vacancy provisions of KRS 160.380(1)(d) will not apply.*

In a footnote, the revision provides the exact wording of the statute that will not apply:

* KRS 160.380(1)(d) says: “ 'Vacancy' means any certified position opening created by the resignation, dismissal, nonrenewal of contract, transfer, or death of a certified staff member of a local school district, or a new position created in a local school district for which certification is required. However, if an employer-employee bargained contract contains procedures for filling certified position openings created by the resignation, dismissal, nonrenewal of contract, transfer, or death of a certified staff member, or creation of a new position for which certification is required, a vacancy shall not exist, unless certified positions remain open after compliance with those procedures.” 

The earlier wording attempted to explain how that change would affect schools, but there turn out to be multiple possible interpretations.  The revised version allows readers to see the language for themselves.

Special PrichBlog thanks to the readers who alerted us to these issue!

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

Students Learning to be Entrepreneurs

Laurie Curry Daugherty, the Executive Director of the Governor's School for Entrepreneurs in Kentucky discusses the Governor's School for Entrepreneurs.

http://bit.ly/1iPUA1s

Top 20 in deeper detail

In 2008, the Prichard Committee challenged Kentucky to set its sites on having schools in the top twenty of the fifty states on a set of important indicators, and shared Kentucky's standings at that point.  This week, the 2012 report on state progress toward those goals is out, and as Stu Silberman has noted, it "offers reason for a real sense of pride and also a real sense of urgency.”

ON TRACK FOR 2020 
New results show Kentucky moving up on ten of the twenty categories, either reaching the Top 20 or improving at a rate to get there by 2020. Kentucky ranks:

• 4th in fourth-grade science 
• 11th in fourth-grade reading 
• 13th in eighth-grade reading 
• 16th in completion of associate’s degrees 
• 17th in eighth-grade science 
• 21st in family share of higher education costs 
• 25th in fourth-grade math 
• 28th in average teacher salary 
• 30th in adults with a high school diploma or equivalent 
• 31st in high school graduates going on to college 

IMPROVING, BUT SLOWLY 
On five categories, new results show gains, but the state is moving too slowly to reach the Top 20 on time. Kentucky ranks:

• 29th in students earning AP college credit 
• 32nd in eighth-grade math 
• 35th in bachelor’s degree completion 
• 38th in bachelor’s degree attainment 
• 43rd in share of bachelor’s degrees earned in science, technology, engineering and math 

FLAT OR LOSING GROUND 
New results show Kentucky stuck or losing ground on three categories. Kentucky ranks:

• 21st in per-pupil higher education funding 
• 29th in preschool enrollment 
• 41st in per-pupil K-12 funding 

NO NEWS
Two categories had no new data since the 2012 report. In those areas, Kentucky still ranks:

• 20th in fourth-grade writing, based on 2002 data 
• 36th in eighth-grade writing, based on 2007 data

Do check out the complete report, with trend graphs from 2008 forward and Prichard recommendations for reaching the Top 20 goals over the coming eight years.  It's an important way of understanding Kentucky's past progress and making sure we move even more strongly forward in the coming years.

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.

Leaders get up-close view of new math, literacy approaches

Here's the full Prichard press release for last week's showcase...

LOUISVILLE - Teachers from school districts across Kentucky shared what they see as revolutionary new teaching strategies and lessons that will strengthen what students know in math and language arts. What started as a pilot program in nine school districts will soon spread across the state - and to other states as well.


An audience of 225 state education department officials, policymakers, college professors, and leaders of statewide education organizations got a first-hand look at the new wave of classroom teaching and learning strategies on Tuesday (June 14) at a showcase in Louisville. Funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and organized by the Prichard Committee for Academic Excellence, the event emphasized an approach to math that puts students in the center of problem solving and language arts assignments designed to require deeper thinking and stronger writing in English, science and social studies classes.


Participants worked multi-step math puzzles, looked through real student writing samples, and asked questions to dozens of teachers who have been using new approaches.


"We want to show state leaders what this looks like in the most vivid way possible," said Susan Perkins Weston, a Prichard Committee consultant who is overseeing the work of the Mathematics Design Collaborative group and the Literacy Design Collaborative in Kentucky. Nine school districts across the state are involved in the project, with three of the districts involved in both projects.


Teachers explained how the math program focuses on building students' understanding of math concepts by working through problems, rather than memorizing formulas and plugging them into a page of workbook problems.


"This empowers students to own the work - they think and do the work themselves, building their understanding as they go forward," explained Jenny Barrett, a middle and high school math consultant for the Kenton County schools. She said the district has seen an increase in students' ability to "reason and think mathematically" through the new approach to math.


"This has changed the climate of my classroom," said Stacy Justus, a math teacher at Doss High School in Louisville. The math approach begins with a pre-test to show what students know about a given concept then shows them how to work through the topic. With challenging problems and teacher feedback, students emerge with a stronger handle on what they're expected to learn.


"My students can identify what they know and don't know, and they will tell you that this is constantly pushing them forward," said Justus. "Plus, I know my students a lot better - who's excelling and who needs help. This gives a teacher resources and strategies and a way for students to learn to become a team and accomplish a goal."
Meanwhile, districts in the Literacy Design Collaborative have worked to create "template tasks," or writing prompts that will propel students into deeper thinking and explanation of concepts in science and social studies while building their language arts skills.


Brian Toy, a science teacher at Lafayette High School in Lexington, said the writing tasks developed this year push students to read analytically, synthesize ideas from multiple articles and connect that kind of learning to what they've picked up from classroom lectures or labs. He said the more challenging tasks are the kind of work that will better prepare high school students for college and careers.


"I'm excited to use this because I can see how to use writing to improve content knowledge," added Robin Reid, a social studies teacher at Lafayette High.


Teachers from Daviess County explained how they are moving the approach into middle schools, a growing approach for districts that are part of the pilot effort. In addition to Fayette and Daviess counties, the literacy collaborative has taken root over the past year in Boyle, Jessamine, Kenton and Rockcastle counties as well. The math project, which has been underway for two years, is in Boone, Daviess, Jefferson, Jessamine, Kenton and Warren counties.


Kentucky Education Commissioner Terry Holliday, who sat in on showcase sessions, said the project is encouraging. "I got excited because it's about the learning, not the test scores," he said. "The question is how to get this to every teacher in Kentucky."


A recent grant from the Gates Foundation to the state education department will lead to the literacy and math approaches being spread statewide through regional leadership networks created to familiarize teachers and school leaders with the new Common Core Standards. In the coming school year, tools and approaches from the Gates-funded math and literacy programs will become a focus of the state's networks.


Weston said that the showcase provided a way to build a strong understanding about the program as it moves beyond pilot districts.


"This work is going to make a difference across the state and nation," said Stu Silberman, the Fayette County superintendent who is retiring and will become executive director of the Prichard Committee this fall. Indeed, educators from Colorado, Georgia, Florida, and Louisiana attended the Louisville session to gather ideas as they start similar work. Representatives of national organizations and foundations working with Gates on spreading the approach were also among the 40 out-of-state attendees.


Commissioner Holliday added, "This is focused on college- and career-readiness and the answer to the question every teacher has about getting there: 'How?' "

Showcasing the literacy and mathematics work

Today, I'm at a showcase of "Teaching and Learning at its Best," where Kentucky teachers will share their early work with two key strategies for supporting teachers in implementing the Common Core State Standards: Mathematics Assessment for Learning and Literacy Design Collaborative.

Both initiatives are supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and over the last 18 months, the Prichard Committee has convened educators from a small set of Kentucky districts as they tried out these two approaches.

I wish we had room for every PrichBlog reader to hear the presentations teachers have developed.

Short of that, I'll share all the documents and some of the highlights of the event here, and keep you posted as these efforts expand to include many more Kentucky classrooms in the coming months.

Starting out, here are links to:

• My presentation summarizing the two initiatives (PowerPoint slides converted to PDF)
• The showcase agenda
• The biographies of our general session presenters
• The teachers who will be sharing their experience in our breakout sessions

Prichard Committee focuses on new academic standards, teacher evaluation

The Prichard Committee held its spring meeting June 5 and 6, with great discussions described in the press release below:

CARROLLTON, Ky. - Kentucky's tough new academic standards defining what students should know before they graduate from high school offer exciting opportunities for progress, a group of teachers told the Prichard Committee for Academic Excellence during its recent spring meeting.

Beginning this fall, teachers and students across Kentucky will be working with a new set of standards in math and English language arts. A few school districts got an early start with the standards under a grant from The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Educators from one of those districts spoke with Prichard Committee members about their experiences so far with the new language arts standards.

"The beauty of these new standards is they take these big ideas (of what students should know upon graduation) and back them all the way to kindergarten," said Marty Dixon, middle and high school English language arts specialist for Fayette County Public Schools.

Robin Reid, social studies department chair at Lafayette High School in Lexington, said she was excited about the new standards because they encourage the use of writing to help students learn more about all subjects - a view echoed by Brian Toy, the science department chair at Lafayette. "This type of writing increases content knowledge and prepares students for college and careers," he added.

"Students can do this. They really can," noted Lafayette literacy specialist Sherri McPherson who has worked with diverse classrooms and had initial concerns about whether struggling students could master the work.

The committee also heard from Kentucky Education Commissioner Terry Holliday, who encouraged the group to continue its vocal advocacy for the tougher standards and the new assessment and accountability system that is being developed.

The state's limited resources will result in more cuts in education funding, Holliday said, predicting that the department will be pressured to spend less on the standards and assessment work to make money available for other purposes. He reinforced the importance of the standards and the need to improve the college/career preparation of all students with some statistical projections. According to the commissioner:

• Of the 50,000 students who finished 8th grade this spring, between 10,000 and 15,000 will drop out before graduating from high school.
• Of the remaining 35,000, only 10,000 will graduate ready for college-level courses or the demands of the modern workplace. The rest will need additional training or instruction.

The Prichard Committee has launched a public engagement initiative, ReadyKentucky, to help teachers, parents and other involved Kentuckians understand and prepare for the new standards. The committee is working in partnership with several other organizations and the support of The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to disseminate information statewide. More details are available at ReadyKentucky.org.

The role of teachers in student success is critical, and improving the way teachers are evaluated was the focus of another presentation to the committee by Sarah Buhayer, program manager of the MET Project: Measures of Effective Teaching for The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

"In this country, teacher evaluation is broken," Buhayer said in describing the research project that involves more than 3,000 teachers in seven school districts across the country. "Teachers want to be evaluated in ways that are fair and meaningful."

The study includes student surveys, correlations between student responses and classroom performance, videos of teachers' classroom presentations that they can use for self-evaluation, coaching and materials. The goal is to boost the effectiveness of all teachers through effective evaluation and targeted professional development.

The Prichard Committee for Academic Excellence is a statewide citizens' advocacy group, founded in 1983, working to improve education for all Kentuckians.

Commitment to build

Rachel Maddow understands great work worth doing:

Of course, she's also exactly on my wavelength about doing big things.  Here's how Bob Sexton and I wrote about the issue a few years ago:

A truly permanent system requires a wide array of adults who embody a muscular determination to deliver for all children. Outside of court, in the political effort to build the schools all children deserve, the definition of success should go beyond equal and adequate education for students in school today, to include creating a resilient culture of commitment.

This notion involves ideas closely related to the Brown emphasis on equality, but it adds a “Greatest Generation” emphasis on mighty achievements. To highlight the distinctive emphasis, we want to offer both imagery and words.

Visually, the commitment to educational opportunity for every child naturally summons up Norman Rockwell’s wrenching painting for “The Problem We All Live With,” showing a tiny Ruby Bridges walking to school escorted by four determined federal officials. We suggest that long-term success should summon up a few other Rockwell images. Think of his “Rosie the Riveter”, showing a young woman ready to put on coveralls, learn factory skills, and do what it takes to win a mighty war. Or think of his painting of “The Runaway,” dominated by the rather large back of a policeman who is making sure the kid in question has an ice cream soda before ensuring that he ends up at home before dark. Rosie and that policeman are Americans who mean to do what it takes. In talking about adequate schools in the political arena, it is essential to enlist millions like them. It is crucial that they see that a mighty project before them, worthy of their effort and investment, reflecting the values they most want to serve well as adults.l

Verbally, addressing a muscular commitment includes references to building, creating, nurturing, planting, and harvesting. It involves persistent language of shared effort: “our children,” “our schools,” “our state,” and “our future.” It requires a sense that mighty accomplishment is in within reach and worth the effort. It echoes President Kennedy asking what you can do for your country, or Dr. King expecting a great nation to rise up. It summons the sense of new energy and possibility that President Reagan summoned up for so many around him. It suggests that people who built Hoover Dam, defeated the Nazis, ended polio, and landed on the moon can certainly establish schools that deliver for every child.

Of course, this definition is not just about rhetoric. It is also about institutions and coalitions that can sustain stronger schools over generations.

That's from our 2009 paper, "Substantial and Yet Not Sufficient," written for the Education, Equity, and Law series.

Occasionally, when talking about infrastructure, Maddow will chant "wonk-a-chick-a, wonk-a-chick-a" for a while.  She's on my wavelength then, too.

Now and forevermore

150 years ago, today, the flag pictured above was taken down from Fort Sumter.  146 years ago today, it flew again over that same fort.  On that second occasion, Henry Ward Beecher offered these words:

On this solemn and joyful day, we again lift to the breeze our fathers’ flag, now, again, the banner of the United States, with the fervent prayer that God would crown it with honor, protect it from treason, and send it down to our children.... Terrible in battle, may it be beneficent in peace [and] as long as the sun endures, or the stars, may it wave over a nation neither enslaved nor enslaving.... We lift up our banner, and dedicate it to peace, Union, and liberty, now and forevermore.

When we speak of our public schools as developing citizens, I see no choice but to be clear that we mean to nurture citizens devoted to the republic symbolized by that flag, rightly describes as one nation under God, as indivisible, and with liberty and justice for all.

Call for Common Content and a Core Curriculum

An array of education leaders are now arguing that the best path forward for American education lies through developing a strong shared curriculum with an explicit grade sequence for core disciplines. They want to build on the Common Core approach to literacy and math standards with a clear, specific plan for what students will learn in each year of school in other major subjects

The drafters of "A Call for Common Content: Core Curriculum Must Build a Bridge from
Standards to Achievement" expect significant learning benefits from a systematic approach shared by multiple states:

Thanks to advances in cognitive science, we now understand that reading comprehension — so essential to almost all academic learning — depends in large part on knowledge.  In experiments, when students who are "poor" readers are asked to read about a topic they know well (such as baseball), they do much better on comprehension measures than "good" readers who know less about the subject.

The systematic effort to establish common, knowledge-building content must therefore begin as early as possible. The younger we start, the greater the hope that we can boost achievement across all schools and classrooms, but especially among our most disadvantaged students. Further, by articulating learning progressions linked to a grade-by-grade sequence for how learning should build over time, a defined curriculum will better enable each teacher to build on what students have already been taught. Students will also benefit, as they will be much less likely to find themselves either struggling to overcome gaps in their knowledge or bored by the repetition of what they have already learned.

They also argue that stronger curriculum will allow stronger assessments, so that each year's teaching and testing can work together:

Countries that already enjoy the benefits of a knowledge-rich curriculum are able to design course-related assessments — tying classroom and system-wide evaluations to what students are actually being taught. Rather than waste time prepping for what might be on the test, students and teachers can be confident that mastering the course content will prepare them for what they will be asked to demonstrate and do.

Original signatories to the statement include Randi Weingarten of the American Federation of Teachers, Kati Haycock of the Education Trust, Marc Tucker of the National Center on Education and the Economy, and scholars like Linda Darling-Hammond, Bill Schmidt, and Uri Triesman.  I also note Milton Goldberg, my boss when I worked for the U.S. Department of Education, and Checker Finn, Milt's boss in those same years.   Additional signatories are welcome to sign on here.  Overall, the early names suggest that a serious campaign is underway!

“I want my kids to be able to open a primary document and be able to pull the meaning, read the graphs, ask questions about the procedures being done, the conclusions being drawn,” she said. “These are the literacy skills you need in science. And there is a lot of reading to get to the joy of it.”

That's NYC high school teacher Stephanie Lane, describing her sense of urgency about building science-specific literacy skills. This EdWeek article describes pilot work by Lane and her colleagues taking on the new "complex text" requirements that are central to the new Common Core State Standards.

The details of their "inquiry-based" approach to digging in are helpful, and so is the central point about Common Core: our teachers will be investing a lot of hard, important work to understand and deliver on these new, demanding expectations.

Maybe states can share history standards after all!

The multi-state standards movement has results in place for reading, writing, and mathematics, and work in progress for science, but there's ongoing concern about when and how social studies will get its due. In that context, I was delighted to see the following set of history standards:

The student will demonstrate an understanding of...

…the exploration of the New World.

…the settlement of North America by Native Americans, Europeans, and African Americans and the interactions among these peoples.

…the conflict between the American colonies and England.

…the beginnings of America as a nation and the establishment of the new government.

…the westward movement and its impact on the institution of slavery.

…the Civil War and its impact on America.

…Reconstruction and its impact on racial relations in the United States.

…the continued westward expansion of the United States.

…major domestic and foreign developments that contributed to the United States’ becoming a world power.

…the economic boom-and-bust in America in the 1920s and 1930s, its resultant political instability, and the subsequent worldwide response.

…the social, economic, and political events that influenced the United States during the Cold War era.

…developments in the United States since the fall of the Soviet Union and its satellite states in 1992.

That's a sturdy outline of main standards, and the original backs each one up with indicators in moderate detail.  I like it.  Believing that history makes most sense as the main unifying backbone for social studies, I'd be happy to see Kentucky convert to something this firmly narrative.

And now the surprises.

First, half of these standards, through the Civil War, are for fourth grade, with the other half aimed at grade five.  There's another, deeper set for the high school "core area" of "United States History and Constitution."

Second, they're from South Carolina.  Long-time blog readers will remember me cheerfully quoting of Commissioner Holliday explaining the social studies delay with a quip about his own Palmetto State roots and opinions there about the Civil War.

Well, these standards sure look like South Carolina's public schools are done playing with secession. The indicators behind these two years of standards and the high school versions are invested in being part of a great nation.  They're firm and clear about slavery, segregation and discrimination on the one hand and the struggle for liberty, equality, and inclusion on the other.  Kindergarten standards begin with the Pledge of Allegiance and the National Anthem, and eighth grade centers firmly on "South Carolina: One of the United States."

Most importantly, if South Carolina is committed to this clear a version of our shared history, that's a good sign for our chances of coming to share history standards as well.

A background note: I checked out the South Carolina standards because the Fordham Foundation's new report on history standards gave them the only A this year.  In general, I am wary of Fordham's approach to grading states: they don't distinguish standards without teeth and standards actually tied to accountability like Kentucky's; their work does not seem anchored in care about what's feasible for students at each age-level; and they take pride in a kind of acerbic wit that I find counter-productive in public discourse.  So I use their grades only as a very broad indication of what might be interesting to explore.  I'm glad to see that Kentucky's grades moved up from an F for the pre-2007 core content to a D for the current edition, but I wouldn't want Kentucky to set policy based on satisfying this particular set of critics.

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.

Lincoln the essential

Fondly do we hope, fervently do we pray, that this mighty scourge of war may speedily pass away. Yet, if God wills that it continue until all the wealth piled by the bondsman's two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn with the lash shall be paid by another drawn with the sword, as was said three thousand years ago, so still it must be said "the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether."

With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation's wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations.      (Abraham Lincoln, March 4, 1865)

I note, with pleasure and pride, that this year this text is a Kentucky requirement, appearing in our reading standards (and the Common Core State Standards) as an expectation that all eleventh and twelfth grade students "Analyze seventeenth-, eighteenth-, and nineteenth-century foundational U.S. documents of historical and literary significance (including The Declaration of Independence, the Preamble to the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, and Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Address) for their themes, purposes, and rhetorical features."

AP U.S. History changes slow down a little

The New York Times reports that:

While the College Board plans to unveil a sweeping revision to Advanced Placement biology courses on Tuesday, it is delaying similar changes in United States history by a year to address concerns from high school teachers.

Although the current draft got 85% support in a survey of 413 AP history teachers the College Board wants to get that up to at least 90%.  For the new Biology curriculum, a similar survey showed 95% teacher support--and that document is scheduled for release this Tuesday.

Fewer, clearer, deeper: Advanced Placement edition

Next month, the [College Board] will release a wholesale revamping of A.P. biology as well as United States history — with 387,000 test-takers the most popular A.P. subject. A preview of the changes shows that the board will slash the amount of material students need to know for the tests and provide, for the first time, a curriculum framework for what courses should look like. The goal is to clear students’ minds to focus on bigger concepts and stimulate more analytic thinking. In biology, a host of more creative, hands-on experiments are intended to help students think more like scientists.

That's from the New York Times, which also reports that the College Board's timetable calls for:

• The 2011 tests to reflect similar changes in German and French that were already announced.
• The 2013 tests to reflect those biology and U.S. history changes.
• The 2014 or 2015 tests to show related shifts for physics, chemistry, European history, world history, and art history.

The article shares details of an overloaded curriculum, jammed with so many details that the big picture and the key skills get crowded out.   As a mark of the skill problem, Massachusetts Institute of Technology found that even students scoring a 5 on the Biology test lacked the problem solving skills they needed for higher-level courses –and stopped offering credit based on those scores. 

Here's a thought.  As P-12 education works toward shared standards for science and history at the lower levels, could we work backward from AP's outlines?  If we planned high school, middle school, and elementary work to lay strong foundations for students to take AP courses, would we put students on track to be ready for college and career?

The full article, with more about the pending changes and multiple positive responses from practicing educators, is here.

Civics 101

(Posted while hearing reports that Congresswoman Gifford has come through surgery and doctors are "as hopeful as possible under the circumstances" for her recovery from the bullet wound she received today while meeting with her peacably assembled constituents.)

The beginning of stable standards?

Today's Messenger-Inquirer editorial expresses concern about Kentucky's repeated decisions to replace standards and assessment:

For years, educators repeated that 2014 date over and over again as the time when Kentucky would really be able to see the rewards of its education reform efforts. Only something happened along the way.

Whether it was political maneuvering, the fact it became clear too many schools would not reach that goal, or more likely a little of both, Kentucky decided to scrap the CATS test -- and essentially say the 2014 "finish line" was merely an oasis, and the state needed a fresh start on holding schools accountable.

The legislature voted to devise a new test and a new accountability system, and it's this system that Holliday now wants to use as a replacement for federal adequate yearly progress requirements.

But how long until these "new" standards are thrown out as well? What happens when the political winds shift again, or if the results don't paint the type of picture education officials are expecting?

Parents, educators, business leaders and anyone else who cares about the quality of education needs to have an accountability system that they can trust to actually have some meaning. That doesn't mean that tests and standards can't be tweaked to reflect changes in core content or student demographics.

But it's time to determine what the standards will be, set goals with firm deadlines, and then continue on that path long enough to determine which schools are succeeding, which are broken, and what needs to be done to fix them. Otherwise, we're just left with a bunch of test scores, but no real accountability.

The concern about moving the goal posts is well taken--and a key reason why the Prichard Committee, the Council for Better Education, and the Kentucky Association of School Councils continue to offer Transition Index data that comes as close as possible to sustaining our old accountability system until the new one kicks in.

Still, the future may be better than the past on this issue, because our next system will have two new built-in reasons to stay focused and avoid frequent changes in direction.  First, there is lots of public support for the fact that our new literacy and mathematics standards will be consistent with those used  more than forty other states, making it hard to explain going back to a one-state approach.  Second, by 2015, we expect to share a testing system with many of those other jurisdictions, giving us results we can compare nationwide and lots of cost-savings into the bargain, and that too will be hard to give up.

Both factors will promote a stable system of goals and consequences, allowing the main debate to be about the best ways to ensure that all schools move steadily toward delivering for all students.

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.