Meeting Young Students' Needs: Response to Intervention

Response to Intervention is a relatively new term in Kentucky education law. In the Prichard Committee's Kentucky EdGuide on "Students Who Need Added Support," the main idea is explained this way:

Response to Intervention or “RTI” is a new state initiative, required for the primary years.

Response to Intervention calls for schools to organize instruction by setting up tiers of response that start with a core program that will be effective for most students and then add supplemental support and then intensive intervention when evidence shows which students need different or additional support. For example, a student who consistently struggles with the core program (tier 1) may receive some added opportunities (tier 2) and then if that support is not enough, move to more intensive support (tier 3).

In parent-teacher discussions, it may help to ask what “tier” of services a child is receiving and then for details about how that tier works.

The RTI requirements can be found in a new state statute enacted in 2013 (KRS 158.305) and in the Kentucky Board of Education regulation on "The Use of Response-to-Intervention in Kindergarten through Grade 3" (704 KAR 3:095).

Interested readers may also want to learn about the Kentucky System of Intervention, an approach recommended by the Kentucky Department of Education for students from kindergarten through grade 12, offering ideas for implementing RTI-methods to serve students well even in the grades where the law does not require it.

Or, to learn about Kentucky's other supports for students' varied needs, check out the EdGuides on:
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• Students Who Need Added Support
• Students with Disabilities
• Students Ready for Added Challenge
• English Language Learners
• Poverty and Non-Academic Barriers to Learning
• Digital Learning and School Technology
• Student Conduct and Discipline
• School Safety

--Posted by Susan Perkins Weston

Reaching Top 20 Will Require Hard Push for Kentucky Improvement

LEXINGTON, Ky. – Moving Kentucky into the top tier of states in key areas of education by 2020 will require a hard push for improvement in the next six years, according to a new report from the Prichard Committee for Academic Excellence.

The 2014 update of the Committee’s “Top 20 by 2020” found Kentucky’s performance in six categories to be on track to reach the goal. These include reading scores, Advanced Placement credits and teacher salaries.

But other indicators show reason for concern. The report noted that Kentucky lost ground in the math achievement of eighth-grade students and the share of higher education costs that families must pay. The state’s performance also showed no net improvement in total higher education funding or bachelor’s degrees earned in science, technology, engineering and math.

The state’s ranking in other areas showed some improvement, but not at a rate sufficient to reach the Top 20 by 2020. These include the number of adults with a high school diploma, preschool enrollment, per-pupil funding and adults with a bachelor’s degree.

The Prichard Committee began its Top 20 measurements in 2008, when it issued a challenge to the state to accelerate the improvement of its education system. The latest report is the third update of the initial measurement. The update is available here.

Education Commissioner Terry Holliday applauded the report for highlighting Kentucky’s progress in areas like reading, Advanced Placement and teacher salaries, and for also providing a clear roadmap of the areas that need further attention going forward.

“We are proud of the progress Kentucky students and educators have made the past several years as they have embraced more rigorous standards and become more focused on college- and career-readiness,” Holliday said. “At the same time, the report confirms what we already know:  there is still much work to be done. We need to be making faster gains in key content areas like mathematics and science while also continuing to close achievement gaps so that all students have the skills and knowledge they need to succeed in life. We are committed to making continuous progress, and are grateful for partners like the Prichard Committee for Academic Excellence for joining us in this critical work.”

Bob King, president of the Council on Postsecondary Education, noted the state’s increase in bachelor’s degrees, from 44th to 39th in the last six years, and expressed the importance of partnerships to work toward the Prichard Committee’s 2020 goal. 

“The steady improvement in bachelor degrees or higher and adults with a high school diploma is welcome news to Kentucky’s economic future. We look forward to working alongside Prichard and our other partners to make even greater gains in the future.”

The update also noted the Committee’s three overarching priorities for Kentucky education:
·         A strong accountability system that measures the performance of students, teachers, principals and postsecondary graduates;
·         Adequate funding;
·         Sustained and expanded engagement of parents, community members and businesses in support of schools.

“It is great to see the areas where we are making good progress but we still have a lot of work to do. We will continue to monitor these areas and look forward to evidence of more forward progress in the 2016 report,” said Stu Silberman, executive director of the Prichard Committee.

--Prichard Commitee Press Release

for September 3, 2014 publication

Study results, adjust instruction: Improving western Kentucky nursing education

Check out a great National Public Radio story: Western Kentucky Community and Technical College figured out that the Introduction to Anatomy and Physiology was a major barrier for many students who want nursing careers--and didn't accept that result.

Instead, WKCTC analyzed the problem and looked for instructional solutions:

"You're not taking this class as just an elective," Dean Karen Hlinka says. "You're taking this class as building the foundation for the rest of your education. So you've got to get it."

Hlinka realized that a lot of her students just weren't ready. They knew how to memorize, but they didn't really know how to think. So the school set up a special class, which teaches just the first six weeks of a whole semester. It began integrating how to read the textbook into class lectures, instead of just what's in the textbook.

With the new approach, WKCTC is reporting passing rates 20 percentage points better than the national average, giving clear evidence of success with an impressive improvement to teaching and learning.  

Added tip: for the fullest excitement, I recommend listening to the broadcast version: I think it's more detailed and energetic than the website text!

--Posted by Susan Perkins Weston

Learning at higher levels: Content knowledge to strengthen students' reading

How can students learn at significantly higher levels?  To build substantially stronger reading skills, one key step may be to equip students with powerful academic content knowledge.

Karin Chenoweth explains the connection:

If schools aren’t teaching kids an awful lot of content — that is, history, science, literature, and the arts — the same kids who do well on third-grade tests can fail later tests — not because they can’t decode the words on the tests, but because they cannot understand the words once they’ve decoded them. And they can’t understand them because the words haven’t been taught.

Some kids do arrive at school with a lot of background knowledge and rich vocabularies, usually acquired from discussions at home and a set of experiences ranging from being read to from an early age to being taken to museums. The kids with those kinds of experiences tend to be kids from educated and well-off families, which is one of the reasons that reading scores are so highly correlated with family income and mother’s education.

If we are to break that correlation and ensure that all children can read and comprehend well, schools need to have coherent, content-rich curricula that systematically teach history, science, literature, and the arts. This isn’t so that children will do well on fifth-grade reading tests, by the way; it’s so that they can understand the world around them. Fifth-grade reading tests are just proxies for what comes next.

Chenoweth is writer-in-residence at the Education Trust, so it's no surprise to find her pursuing and articulating strategies that can have the biggest benefits for students who may lack many of life's other privilege.  Her article originally appeared at the Huffington Post, and it is now also available at the Core Knowledge blog, which has long argued that rich content and strong reading can grow best when learned together.

-- Posted by Susan Perkins Weston

Six basics for Labor Day

1.  Teaching causes learning. (Thank you, Richard Elmore!)

2.  Better standards can contribute to better learning --if they are translated into better teaching.

3.  Smaller classes can allow better learning --if they allow better forms of teaching.

4.  Funding can support better learning --if the dollars enable better teaching.
 
5.  Changing pay and pensions and job security rules might promote better learning --but only if those incentive structures turn out to be effective in promoting better teaching.

6.  Kentucky education is a huge system involving a vast array of ideas and arguments and dollars and cents and buildings and software and hope and dreams, and the whole giant swirl is only important for a single reason: because the lives of our children are being changed by the work of our teachers.

--Posted by Susan Perkins Weston 

Low-income access: KCTCS

As a group, the Kentucky Community and Technical College System (KCTCS) institutions enroll substantial numbers of students who qualify for federal Pell grants based on family income.  In the graph below, it's clear that the schools of Eastern Kentucky serve some of the highest proportions, but all of these schools have higher Pell rates than any public university except Kentucky State.

The average net price at these schools is also relatively for low-income students, with only one four-year school offering a better rate.

Both sets of numbers are for beginning students, as are those in yesterday's post showing similar data for the universities, and all results come from the College Navigator site.

Low-income access to four year colleges: two notes [Revised]

In two charts, it's clear that Kentucky public four-year institutions vary dramatically how they engage low-income students. Revision note: both charts reflect data for beginning students at each university.  That fact was omitted in the original post

First, Pell grants are the leading federal support to help students afford college, and Pell participation is the easiest way to gauge a university's low-income enrollment (much the way free-and-reduced-price meal eligibility is the quickest indicator for K-12 education).  On this indicator, notice the huge sweeping change from Kentucky State's 75% to UK's much smaller 25%.

Second, net price is an important measure of accessibility, indicating the average amount students pay after all financial aid is subtracted from a university's sticker price.  On that indicator, Northern Kentucky University clearly looks most accessible, charging less than half of what Kentucky State and Western ask from low-income students.

This data and much more is available at the great College Navigator site.

Tomorrow, I'll share a matching look at these two indicators for KCTCS.

Local school revenue: Clarifying "the 4%"

Right now, school boards all over Kentucky are voting on budgets and tax rates for the school year, and the media reports often say the vote was on whether "to take the 4%" or not. 

That means they're voting for a 4% increase in the total amount brought in by local taxes.  If a district brought in $1,000,000 in local revenue last year, they're setting taxes that will bring in $1,040,000 this year.

Here's the tricky part: that may not mean a school board is voting to raise the tax rate on local properties.  In some districts, boards may be able to bring in 4% more dollars by lowering the tax rate on all the property being taxed.  That's because in most districts, the taxable properties become more valuable year by year.   If the assessed values go up enough, a district that wants 4% more revenue may have to lower the tax rate it charges on each $100 of taxable property. In other districts, it may be possible to bring in 4% more revenue by keeping the same tax rate, or raising the rate just 1% or 2%.

What's the magic of 4%?  That number matters because state law says that if a school board increases revenue more than that, voters can call a referendum to consider repealing the increase.  Given that rule, boards are very hesitant to go past the 4% mark.


For individual property owners, the key thing to know is that 4% in the headlines isn't necessarily 4% on your tax bill.  If you read the full article, you may find information on the old and new tax rates--or you may need to wait for your bill to arrive in the mail.

For community members in general, it can also be good to check on whether the new tax rate allows the schools to keep up with changes in prices and enrollment.  Recently, inflation has been lower than 4%, but if it ever went back to double digits, it would be really hard for districts to keep up.  And if 4% more money has to fund 6% more students, schools may be giving each child less support even though there's a larger total being spent.

[Note just for folks who love stuff like this: the rule about a 4% revenue increase only applies to property that's being used in similar ways from year to year.  When property is developed --say, from farm use to homes or from homes to stores-- it isn't included in figuring out the 4%. My friends and colleagues who work on these details at the state or local level will, rightly, want me to mention that nuance.]

Fantastic LDC task from Simpson County

Ashley Gore of Simpson County has created one of my favorite Literacy Design Collaborative modules ever, now recognized as meeting the "exemplary" standard under LDC's national jurying standards.  She asked her students to address this teaching task:

Is Hester Prynne a virtuous woman? After reading The Scarlet Letter, write an essay in which you discuss Hester's Prynne's character attributes and evaluate her virtues in connection with Proverbs 31. Support your position with evidence from the text(s).

In keeping with the LDC design process, the plain black text comes from an LDC template, but the part I've underlined in blue reflects wording Ms. Gore added to create a distinctive task for her own discipline and students.  Then she supported her students by identifying the reading and writing skills essential to the task and designing "mini-tasks" where students learn and apply each of those skills on the way to completing their essays. (Past Prichblog posts on LDC are here.)

The whole design is excellent, but my special excitement comes from seeing one of my very favorite Bible texts deployed in a way that requires respectful, critical analysis and comparison with a powerful novel.  It's a truly great teacher-created approach to implementing the Kentucky Core Academic Standards in a deep literary study.  

The complete module is available in LDC's CoreTools Library: you'll need to set up a free account to log in to the site, which also offers a complete set of LDC design tools for anyone who wants to try them out.

 (Illustration by By Mary Hallock Foote [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons)

Teaching quality and time for teacher growth

At The Atlantic, a new and helpful article argues that "mastering the[teaching] craft demands time to collaborate—just what American schools don't provide." 

One compelling piece of the evidence comes from data gathered during the PISA test of student performance around the world.  Using information on school practices, Elizabeth Green has identified an important difference in how countries organize the work of teaching:

How much time do teachers spend on classroom instruction, and how much time do they have outside of class to devote to the other considerable, less visible aspects of the job: lesson planning, paper grading, conferring with students, calling parents, meeting with colleagues to discuss methods and goals. 

Here, the PISA results are not ambiguous. Every single country that outperforms us has significantly smaller teacher workloads. Indeed, on the scale of time devoted by teachers to in-class instruction annually, the United States is off the charts. 

We spend far more hours in the classroom on average, twice and nearly three times more in some cases, than teachers in any other OECD country save Chile.

Finnish high-school teachers, for example, clock 553 hours in the classroom each year. In Japan, home of jugyokenkyu [lesson study], that number is 500. In the U.S., it’s 1,051. (Figures for elementary and middle school show roughly the same skew.)

The whole article deserves a careful read, and so does Elizabeth Green's new book, Building a Better Teacher.

KCAS Core Academic Challenge: How can our standards be improved?

Everyone in Kentucky is invited to provide specific feedback on the Kentucky Core Academic Standards for English language arts and mathematics.  This statewide challenge was announced this morning by Commissioner Terry Holiday and will last through April 30, 2015.

I took a first look at the comment site this evening and was pleased to see that users can sign in, start comments, and return later to complete comments on the full set of standards.  I also found it easy to zoom in on the standards that interest me most: those for "literacy in history/social studies."  Below, you can see a quick sample of the options, including space to recommend replacement language and share reasons for the recommendation.

This is a huge opportunity for public participation: please take up the Challenge!

Check out our last blog post on Ed Week.

http://bit.ly/1olvn0I

Thanks for the Engagement

By Stu Silberman on August 25, 2014 1:05 PM 

I want to take this opportunity to say thanks to all who have contributed to our public engagement blog. I would also like to thank Education Week for giving us the opportunity to share information and opinions on what has been happening in education over the last couple of years. This will be our last post, and I hope we have helped broaden the public's understanding of developments in education, particularly in Kentucky.

We recently released the Prichard Committee's Ed Guides, reader-friendly information about the work that is taking place in Kentucky schools. We also will release our "Top 20 by 2020" report soon, showing how the state's performance on key education indicators has changed since our last update two years ago. We conducted research on charter schools this summer and will convene a study group to prepare a report we will share with our members in November. We also plan to convene a group to review where we are in early childhood care and education programs. I share all of this with you to invite you to continue keeping up with our work via our website, onFacebook, Twitter @prichardcom, and our Prichard Committee blog.

Clearly, all of us have much to do for our kids. Among the items on the list (and there are many others):

· A focus on early childhood education to prevent the development of achievement gaps and allow all kids to start school on a level playing field. Although there is near unanimous agreement that this is a long-range solution worthy of support, states are still coming up short on funding.

· Initiatives to attract more of the best and brightest to the teaching profession. Teaching is one of the most important and most difficult jobs that exist, but salaries for beginning teachers do not reach the level of professional pay. We must begin to pay a professional wage and bring more top students into the profession.

· Efforts to engage families in schools in ways that improve student achievement. We must encourage and help develop parent/guardian advocates and leaders. When families are truly engaged, supporting our schools and advocating for excellence, kids are the beneficiaries. This is a major focus for us at the Prichard Committee with the Governor's Commonwealth Institute for Parent Leadership.

· Listening to the people on the front lines - students as well as teachers. Given the chance, they can provide the knowledge, resulting from their experience, that we need to move to the next level of educational excellence. We are particularly proud of the Prichard Committee's Student Voice Team and the input they have been providing.

And, of course, there are efforts related to testing, academic standards, funding, governance, teacher evaluation - a long, growing and important list. Yes, we are making progress, but it always seems to be two steps forward and (at least) one step back. I worry that politics continues to drain the energy needed for progress. We must find a way to end the partisan games and focus on doing what is best for the kids of this country.

In closing, I also want to thank our staff for all the time they have devoted to organizing, reviewing and editing the posts to this space. We would not have been able to participate in this endeavor had it not been for your help and wisdom.

For those of you who continue to be interested in sharing your thoughts we welcome you to do so via the Prichard blog.

Success in the First Year of College Suggests Likely Degree Completion

Prichard Committee Statement

KY Center for Education and Workforce Statistics Releases

2014 Kentucky Postsecondary Feedback Reports

The postsecondary feedback reports recently released by the Kentucky Center for Education and Workforce Statistics (KCEWS) show employment and earnings for graduates of Kentucky’s eight (8) public four-year universities. They also show similar information for students who start college but leave without completing a degree.

The feedback reports provide data for parents and students to make informed decisions about their courses of study given the likely wage and employment opportunities in Kentucky. The report shows that a full 80 percent of Kentucky’s graduates stay in Kentucky to work and live. For these students, and those who plan to stay in a particular region of the state, this is very helpful information. For example, in general graduates with more education make higher salaries, but a deeper look shows graduates with associate degrees from three Kentucky universities (EKU, KSU, NKU) make significantly more than their peers with bachelor degrees and nearly as much as individuals with graduate degrees. 

The Prichard Committee is especially pleased to see a focus on the data related to students who drop out of college. The feedback reports provide good information about students who start college but choose to leave without finishing a degree. In 2013, roughly 10 percent (8,833) of the total enrollment in Kentucky’s 4-year public universities left college and did not transfer to another institution. One year later, their average salary was less than $15,000 a year. Gender does not seem to be a determinate for “leavers” with males and females leaving about equally. However, the data in the report does suggest that these college students were either ill-equipped academically or lacked the dispositions needed to persist in higher-education. Nearly 70 percent of “leavers” left college with less than 30 credit hours earned (the equivalent of one year of college) and more than half (58%) had a GPA lower than a 2.0. 

As we persist in Kentucky to balance an Unbridled Learning Accountability Model that ensures College- and Career Readiness for ALL, policymakers need to be mindful that readiness implies success at the next level.  As we increase the number of students “ready” we need to also ensure that those students have the skills, dispositions and supports they need to persist in their first year of college and beyond. The data show that students completing their first year of college are much more likely to complete their degree. College and career counseling at the high school level and retention efforts at the postsecondary level are both important strategies to help students achieve their potential.

The 2014 Postsecondary Feedback Reports by Institution can be found at: http://kcews.ky.gov  

Investments in Young Children Last a Lifetime

From Ed Week Blog:  http://bit.ly/1oGuynP

The following post is from Cindy Heine, the Associate Executive Director (retiring), from the Prichard Committee for Academic Excellence.

After years of working on behalf of better schools, I have a ready answer when people ask my opinion about the most important thing we can do to improve education outcomes: invest in quality early childhood programs.

Pre-birth through kindergarten is the most critical time for children to develop socially and emotionally and to establish learning patterns for school and work. As our committee's first chairman and namesake Edward Prichard pointed out in the early 1980s, addressing achievement gaps must begin "....not in the high school, not in the middle school, not even in the first three grades. It has got to begin in the preschools and the kindergartens and in the womb (with) ... things such as prenatal care, child nutrition, emphasis on the learning process in the home. ..." He understood then what research clearly shows now - that early investments are critical to improve students' chances for a strong education.

Our 1980s study of elementary/secondary education included reviews of early research reports showing that impoverished children who attended the high-quality Perry Preschool were more likely to complete high school and continue with postsecondary education, more likely to be employed and less likely be arrested. We also observed that it was the children "in the middle" who were missing out. Those from the poorest families were served by Head Start, and those from affluent families were enrolled in programs their parents could afford. So a key recommendation in our report, "The Path to a Larger Life," was preschool for all children ages three and four whose parents wanted it.

Forty years later, researchers continue to follow the Perry Preschool students with long-term results showing higher earnings, greater likelihood of home ownership and having a savings account and lower incidence of crime. Other studies, including the Abecedarian Project in North Carolina and the Chicago Parent Child project, all show similar long-term results for children who attend quality programs, with a return on investment averaging about $7 for each $1 spent.

I am often asked about a Head Start study that showed test scores of third graders who did not attend Head Start to be essentially the same as those of children who did. The implication is that Head Start didn't make a difference. Long-term results, however, show children in the program are less likely to need special education services, less likely to repeat grades and more likely to graduate from high school.

What this implies, as Nobel Laureate and University of Chicago Professor James Heckman points out, is that these programs make a difference in such executive skills as perseverance, motivation, attention, self-confidence and getting along with peers. We often forget that skilled teachers help children solve their own disputes on the playground, guide them to complete projects and help them gain self-confidence by solving their own problems. These are skills needed in classrooms and the workplace. Established early, they last a lifetime.

Health care professionals - in addition to economists - are also focused on children in their earliest years. Research shows stronger outcomes when mothers have good prenatal care and deliver babies at term. Brain development in the last two to three weeks of pregnancy and in the first few years of life is critical in establishing the foundation for learning and socio-emotional development. New research on ' toxic stress' in children shows the more stressful events (homelessness, hunger, serious illness, death in the family, family violence, adult substance abuse or mental illness, for example) children experience without the support of caring families, the worse the long-term health, social and economic outcomes.

All children deserve to be in quality environments, whether at home, in child-care settings or in preschool. They need adults who care about them, talk with them, read to them, help them deal with stressful events and provide them with a secure, loving and nurturing environment. We need a system of care that assures quality prenatal care for all women, supportive programs like Kentucky's Health Access Nurturing and Development ( HANDS) home visiting program for vulnerable families, quality child care for all children, quality preschool for all children whose families want it and support and information for parents in these early years.

Kentucky is moving to coordinate and provide these supports through the Governor's Office of Early Childhood and with the Race to the Top Early Childhood grant, but it will take a focus on quality and an investment of resources. We know through research that giving all of our children the strongest possible start is not only the smart thing to do, it is the right thing to do.

Chess Impacts Students

Chet Sygiel, Chess teacher in the Jackson Independent school district, talks about how Chess impacts students.

http://bit.ly/1A1vhVk

Trust in Teachers: Let's Include Legislators and Students

This is a cross post from Ali Wright of the Center for Teacher Quality

http://www.teachingquality.org/content/trust-teachers-let-s-include-legislators-and-students

Transforming the Teaching Profession Through Honest Feedback

Jana Bryant, a 2014-2015 Hope Street Group Kentucky State Teacher Fellow discusses how honest feedback can help transform the teaching profession.

http://bit.ly/1sedjN0

Evaluation and the Beginning Teacher

Pennye Rogers, a 2014-2015 Hope Street Group Fellow discusses Kentucky's new evaluation system and its impact on beginning teachers.

http://bit.ly/1mkkYpG

What Happened to School Facilities Since the Rose Case?

Researcher Caroline Wilson demonstrates what has happened to school facilities in Kentucky since the landmark Rose decision.

http://bit.ly/V3SANX

Private College Return on Investment

Gary S. Cox, President of the Association of Independent KY Colleges and Universities talks about the return on investment from private colleges.

What's in a Grade?

David Cook of the Kentucky Department of Education talks about the importance of grading systems to ensure student mastery.

http://bit.ly/1qLmAeM

Empowerment Begins With Preparation

Ronda Harmon, the Executive Director of the Kentucky Association of School Councils (KASC) in Danville, Kentucky talks about preparing for a new beginning.

http://bit.ly/1uLgRTS

Incredible Young Talent

Carrie Nath, the Executive Director of The Governor's School for the Arts talks about the impact programs such as this can have on the lives of students.

http://bit.ly/1podX9u

Tapping the Power of Partnerships for School Readiness

Dr. Leon Mooneyhan, CEO of the Ohio Valley Educational Cooperative discusses the power of partnerships for school readiness.

http://bit.ly/Sv1K48

The Governor’s Scholars Program

Aristofanes Cedeño, Executive Director and Academic Dean of the Governor's Scholars Program talks about the long term impact of the program.

http://bit.ly/1kN3898

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

Quality Teacher Preparation

The following post is from Dr. Ann Elisabeth Larson, Vice Dean and Professor, Dean-elect of the College of Education and Human Development at the University of Louisville.

The Kentucky Association of Colleges for Teacher Education (KACTE) a state affiliate of the American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education (AACTE) is pleased to have received an invitation and this opportunity from the Prichard Committee to post a blog about educator preparation, particularly teacher preparation, in Kentucky. 

KACTE members represent 28 public and private higher education institutions across the Commonwealth that prepare university-based certified educators in traditional and alternative route programs. KACTE member institutions have a long history of collaboration, with a common goal of offering accredited university-based programs at the state and/or the state and national levels and preparing high quality educators for Kentucky's P-12 schools. We work closely with Kentucky's state agencies, the Education Professional Standards Board (EPSB); the Council on Postsecondary Education (CPE); and the Kentucky Department of Education (KDE). 

As well, KACTE has ongoing collaborations with other state groups and associations, including the Prichard Committee, and members of our association, including through the leadership of the executive board, are actively engaged in Kentucky's reform efforts to improve the preparation of teachers, other school professionals, principals and superintendents.

A number of recent statewide reform initiatives in collaboration with state agency and association partners have been at the forefront of our work. Some of these projects, in collaboration with state agencies, include: Senate Bill 1, Unbridled Learning (2009), Common Core and College and Career Standards' professional development for higher education faculty who teach courses in education and arts and sciences; co-teaching training, based on St. Cloud State University's model, for cooperating teachers who mentor teacher candidates; university supervisor training for those supervising teacher candidates in P-12 field and clinical experiences; and design and implementation, with funding from the Council on Postsecondary Education, of a clinical model of teacher preparation similar to a medical model of physician preparation (three universities received significant, competitive grant funding to design and implement replicable clinical context teacher preparation models - University of Louisville; Western Kentucky University; and Eastern Kentucky University - in collaboration with P-12 district partners).

Also, KACTE has collaborated to support individual higher education institutions to implement new and more rigorous admission to teacher education requirements (as outlined, among other principles for reform in teacher preparation, in Our Possibility, Our Promise: Transforming Educator Preparation and Entry into the Profession , Council of Chief State School Officers, 2012) and new student teaching regulations promulgated by the EPSB; will soon focus on enhancing literacy and reading across the curriculum for teacher candidates in elementary, middle and secondary program levels; will be ramping up to respond to and infuse new Council on Accreditation of Educator Preparation (CAEP) standards and contribute to program and accreditation reviews for educator preparation by CAEP and EPSB - all of this is occurring as Kentucky moves ahead of the nation in many regards in educator preparation reform. 

KACTE has also been at the forefront of continuing to explore the development and implementation in collecting, using and reporting data for program and continuous improvement aligned with accreditations and examining ways to access more P-12 student learning data needed by teacher candidates to build knowledge and skills in developing and managing data-driven instruction.

KACTE also focuses on the uses and implementation of new technology in educator preparation. Our association has been providing feedback through our Kentucky Instructional Technology in Educator Preparation (K-ITEP) committee to the EPSB and is continuing a dialogue on the accuracy, cleanliness and usefulness of data collected and presented. Additionally, KACTE is leading efforts in higher education to connect teacher candidates and higher education faculty to CIITS (Continuous Instructional Improvement Technology System) and Infinite Campus as the Kentucky Department of Education expects teachers and administrators to use and access these systems to be at the cutting edge and forefront of supporting P-12 student learning and achievement. Ethics training and a focus on development and monitoring of positive dispositions demonstrated through teacher candidates and educators in advanced roles as exemplified in practice are also priorities in our work in educator preparation in Kentucky. Our education faculty are former P-12 practitioners who typically hold doctorates in their respective fields, are trained in research methodology and are active scholars.

Teacher quality, particularly as it relates to the preparation of new teachers, has drawn widespread national and state attention in recent years. With data indicating the growing problem of teacher attrition, especially among early career teachers (Cochran-Smith, 2004; Darling-Hammond, 2003; Ingersoll, 2001), the need for a new model to educate teachers in the service of P-12 student learning has never been more compelling. Guided by principles detailed in a 2010 report of NCATE's Blue Ribbon Panel, current reform in teacher education focuses on the role of clinical preparation and partnerships between higher education and P-12 to prepare teachers for improved student learning. KACTE is at the forefront of this model in Kentucky through teacher education reform in higher education. Clinical preparation of new teachers includes the following design principles identified by NCATE's Blue Ribbon Panel Report: a focus on P-12 student learning; a mutually beneficial and reciprocal partnership; the integration of clinical preparation for teacher candidates throughout the program, beginning early in the program and concluding with a practicum/clinical experience/student teaching; continuous assessment of teacher candidate progress; strong content or disciplinary preparation; teacher candidate learning within a professional community of practice; rigorous selection of clinical educators in the schools who serve as mentors and cooperating teachers; designated and supported clinical sites which have the support and investment of the school district and the university; cutting edge technology applications to support P-12 student learning and teachers' and teacher candidates' practice; data collection and analysis for data-informed decision making and program improvement; and development, support and nurturing of the partnership among the district, school and the university.

Current reform in teacher education focuses on the role of clinical preparation and partnerships in preparing teachers for improved student learning. The transformation of teacher education through clinical partnerships form the organizing structure within which all stakeholders commit to the recruitment, admission, preparation, assessment and continuing development of teachers who effectively enable the learning of all students in all contexts. KACTE recognizes that preparation within partnerships is a central tenet both in the design principles and the five major recommendations of NCATE's Blue Ribbon Panel Report (2010). These new types of partnerships in which we pool resources and human capital can lead us to shape the new normal in a way that increases P-12 student learning.

New standards, priorities and reform in policy and practice will shape and be shaped by clinically rich, effective forms of teacher preparation programs. Dr. James Cibulka, president of the National Council for the Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE) and Council for the Accreditation of Educator Preparation (CAEP), reflected on the transformation of teacher education: "One of the major themes of NCATE's Blue Ribbon Panel Report, Transforming Teacher Education: A National Strategy for Preparing Effective Teachers, is the need for new types of partnerships between higher education and P-12 in the service of P-12 student learning (Cibulka, 2010)." These clinical partnerships form the organizing structure within which all stakeholders commit to the recruitment, admission, preparation, assessment and continuing development of teachers who effectively enable the learning of all students in all contexts. Cibulka advised, "Preparation within partnerships is a central tenet both in the design principles and the five major recommendations of the Panel."

At the University of Louisville, our clinical model of preparing elementary and middle grade teachers not only connects to the current efforts to transform teaching as outlined in the Blue Ribbon Panel Report, but also builds from the foundational efforts associated with Professional Development Schools (PDSs). As noted in NCATE's Standards for Professional Development Schools, established over a decade ago (NCATE, 2001), professional development schools are innovative institutions formed through partnerships between professional education programs and P-12 schools. Their mission is the professional preparation of candidates, faculty development, inquiry directed at the improvement of practice and enhanced student learning (p. 1). This mission resonates with the overarching goals and activities of our current clinical model of teacher preparation at the University of Louisville as we have recently expanded its application from an elementary setting to that of a middle school.

UofL's Signature Partnership Initiative (SPI). The purpose of the University of Louisville's Signature Partnership Initiative ( SPI) is to work with community agencies and organizations to enhance the education, health, economic and social conditions of West Louisville. The focus on education has engaged the College of Education and Human Development (and other units on campus) with identified SPI schools. Of particular significance has been our work with J. B. Atkinson Academy for Excellence in Teaching and Learning, our University's designated lab school. The clinical model developed in partnership with J. B. Atkinson Academy has resulted in: on-site university classes; a faculty liaison to support candidates' development; high quality and rigorous early field and clinical placements to provide authentic learning experiences for teacher candidates; collaboratively developed professional development to invoke change aimed at improved student achievement; opportunities for teacher growth such as a National Board for Professional Teaching Standards (NBPTS) cohort, the Louisville Writing Project (LWP), the Kentucky Reading Project (KRP); numerous collaborative research projects; and participation by teacher candidates and experienced teachers on funded grant projects designed to boost student learning.

KACTE recognizes that by bringing together theory, practice, preparation and application in the clinical setting of a P-12 school, all stakeholders gain new knowledge and skills aimed at improved P-12 student learning. Teacher candidates have authentic teaching opportunities with excellent and dedicated teachers; teachers have professional development opportunities to develop innovative "best practice" teaching strategies; and inquiry and data based decision-making guide instructional and program improvement in both the school and university settings. The need for new types of partnerships between higher education and P-12 schools to educate teachers in the service of P-12 student learning has never been more compelling. As identified in NCATE's Blue Ribbon Panel Report, Arne Duncan, U.S. Secretary of Education noted, "The report of NCATE's Blue Ribbon Panel marks the most sweeping recommendations for reforming the accreditation of teacher preparation programs in the more than century-long history of our nation's education schools." 

KACTE stands ready and is committed to reforms and initiatives shared in this blog post, including a clinical model of teacher preparation. We look forward to continued collaboration with Kentucky's state agencies - EPSB, CPE, and KDE - and with our numerous and key partners at community and state levels to ensure a high quality educator for every student, every day in the Commonwealth of Kentucky. And, finally, we invite interested observers to follow our efforts and provide feedback on our higher education work to reform educator preparation in Kentucky.

Family Engagement Matters

Cory Curl, member of the Prichard Committee talks about the importance of family engagement.

http://bit.ly/1d6mYeA

Why I Became a Teacher

Brison Harvey, who teaches social studies at Lafayette High School in Lexington, Kentucky talks about why he became a teacher.

http://bit.ly/1nkjWHU

New Model of Instructional Leadership

Sarah Yost, who teaches 8th grade English Language Arts at Westport Middle School, talks about a new model for instructional leadership.

http://bit.ly/1d6mYeA

Thank You Kentucky for the Advocacy

Kip Hottman, a 2013 - 2014 Hope Street Group Fellow and a Spanish teacher at Oldham County High School discusses the advocacy taking place in Kentucky.

http://bit.ly/1jXPjbU

Teacher: Overpaid Babysitter? No Way!

Cameron Young, a student at Paul Lawrence Dunbar High School in Lexington, Kentucky talks about a third grade teacher who has influenced many lives.

http://bit.ly/1g3A6qu

Puzzling over Fleming County High School results

On the one hand, the Herald-Leader reports that a state audit has said that that Fleming County high school's principal "should be removed because of a lack of academic progress."

On the other hand, Fleming's school report card says the school's overall score went up nearly five points in one year, putting it in the 87th percentile of schools statewide.  Here's a screenshot:

Puzzled, I went to another level of detail, checking out the five components that make up that overall score:

Here's what I see in these numbers:

• In achievement and in gap, Fleming is clearly behind state average. Those two results come from K-PREP scores.
• On growth, Fleming is just slightly above state average. The growth measure  looks at how individual students' reading and math scores changed from grade 10 to grade 11.
• In graduation, Fleming  has a nice, but not vast, lead over the state.
• It's readiness that soars above the state, based on students qualifying as ready for college and career as measured by ACT and other tests of readiness for college and career.
• Finally, the overall score is an average of the other five elements, treating all five as having equal weight, rather like a grade point average--and Fleming County High comes out ahead of the state average for high schools.

Looking at it all,  I can see an argument for weak results, based on achievement and gap, and I can see an argument for great results, based on readiness and graduation.  From the overall score, it looks like state policy sees the combined results as pretty strong.

So far, I've ended up with a new puzzle: How can a school's readiness results be so different from achievement?  I think the two approaches are supposed to be measuring the same students on roughly the same content and skills--but clearly they're identifying quite different views of this particular school.

Meet Me Half Way and Change My Life

Simone Stigal is a student attending the Family Care Center who tells her story about a teacher changing her life.

http://bit.ly/1kZtuZ7

Beyond a Favorite Teacher

Jasmine Liu, who is a sophomore at Paul Laurence Dunbar High School in Lexington, Kentucky talks about an outstanding teacher.

http://bit.ly/1iUQNie

Common Core: Sinking Ship or Rescue Vessel?

Lea Ann Atherton, a 2013-2014 Hope Street Group Fellow who teaches writing at Lone Oak Middle School in Paducah's McCracken County discusses the implementation of the common core in her classroom.

http://bit.ly/1h9YKQW

Engaging Teachers in Policy Development

Hope Street Group, a national nonpartisan, nonprofit organization known for working with teachers to impact education policy, recently released a new report, "Engaging Teachers in Policy Development."

http://bit.ly/1iV3VrP

An ebb in higher education enrollment

FiveThirtyEight is spotlighting a decline in the percent of high school graduates going directly on to higher education, from 70% in 2009 to 66% for 2013, leading me to wonder about the Kentucky pattern.  As far as I can tell, the Bureau of Labor Statistics isn't publishing state-level reports like the one used by FiveThirtyEight, but I did find Council on Postsecondary Education data on a related issue: total undergraduate enrollment.  As graphed above, our in-state pattern includes:

• A 4% increase in public university undergraduate enrollment since 2010
• A 15% decline in Kentucky Community and Technical College System enrollment over those years
• A 5% decline in total undergraduate enrollment combining the four-year and two-year schools

Both 538 and CPE reason that the peak years of the recession saw a peak in students choosing college and the economic recovery is likely to mean that some high school graduates choose to focus on employment immediately after graduation.

How About Life Ready Students?

David N. Cook, Director of Innovation and Partner Engagement at the Kentucky Department of Education says students need to be "Life Ready."

http://bit.ly/1fpfWBk

How to Invest Education Dollars

Liza Holland,Secretary of the Kentucky PTA, discusses the input received from citizens about how to best invest our education dollars.

http://bit.ly/1nsjQ1q

Seat Time or Results?

Dr. Terry I. Brooks who is the Executive Director of Kentucky Youth Advocates talks about the need to revisit seat time versus results.

http://bit.ly/1m6j1v6

It's About Time

Lauren Hill, who teaches English at Western Hills High School in Frankfort, Kentucky discusses how to best utilize time for teachers.

http://bit.ly/1jr6AJj

Get On Board for Academic Excellence

Julia Link Roberts, Mahurin Professor of Gifted Studies at Western Kentucky University says it is time to get the conversation going about achieving excellence, in all academic areas, in all schools across the United States. http://bit.ly/1lDUaB7

Education advocates praise Kentucky budget that raises teacher salaries, restores funding

Prichard Committee @prichardcom Education advocates praise Kentucky budget that raises teacher salaries, restores funding kentucky.com/2014/04/01/317… @stusilbermanfc #kyga14 12:07 PM - 02 Apr 14

We Must Change Accountability First

David N. Cook, Director of Innovation and Partner Engagement at the Kentucky Department of Education discusses the need to change the types of accountability systems used in education.

blogs.edweek.org/edweek/engagem… 

Early Childhood Education Begins with Parents: By Pam Darnall

Pam Darnall, CEO of Family & Children's Place says providing support for positive parent-child interaction and connecting families to a broader network of support resources are all essential to a child's success.

blogs.edweek.org/edweek/engagem… 

Funding is Critical to Improved Learning

Lindsey Childers, a 2013-14 Hope Street Group Fellow from Christian County, Kentucky talks about funding as it relates to improved student learning.

http://bit.ly/1jyIzmE

Educating All Kids: Funding Matters

Lea Ann Atherton, a 2013-14 Hope Street Group Fellow who teaches writing at Lone Oak Middle School in Paducah's McCracken County says funding matters.

http://bit.ly/1gCWmGH

Funding for Technology is Essential

Tabetha Cooksey, a 2013-14 Hope Street Group Fellow and a Middle School Science teacher at Cumberland County Middle School discusses the need to adequately fund technology in our schools.

http://bit.ly/1iYq8VQ

Inspire Math Students

Natalie McCutchen, a 2013-14 Hope Street Group Fellow who teaches 7th grade Math discusses the need for adequate funding to make math fun.

http://bit.ly/1lgX92d

Elevating the Teaching Profession

Ellen Sherratt, a Research and Policy Associate at American Institutes for Research discusses trends to elevate the teaching profession.

http://bit.ly/1ml0GwG

Realities of Budget Cuts

Christine Holajter, a 2013-14 Hope Street Group Fellow and music teacher talks about the realities of budget cuts.

http://bit.ly/1peMoLc