Good News For Students with Disabilities

2016 statewide results show improvement in math, reading and other subjects, with most gaps narrowing

For students with identified disabilities, recently released 2016 results show some important progress, including:

■ Mathematics proficiency increased at all three levels, growing 3.4 points at the elementary level, 2.5 points in middle school, and 0.9 points at the high school level.

■ Proficiency also increased in reading, social studies, writing, and language mechanics.

■ Achievement gaps declined between these students and their classmates without identified disabilities almost across the board, with an exception only for mathematics (where growth was even bigger for students without disabilities).

These results for students with identified disabilities still provide reasons for concern, including these:

■ Science proficiency declined, with gap results improving because scores also declined (and declined faster) for students without identified disabilities.

■ The gaps between these students and their classmates remained unacceptably large in every subject and at every level

■ Proficiency remains far away for most of these students. For example, just over 28 percent of students with identified disabilities were proficient or above on the elementary KPREP mathematics assessment, even after this year’s big step up in those results. 

The chart above combines each subject’s KPREP results, averaging together the percent of students who reached proficiency or above at the elementary, middle, and high school levels, except that science uses the only high school assessment results. 

For further detail, with results and improvements at each level and full gap details, check out this one-page display of the trends for this group of students.

The Ready Graduates rate will combine the four-year graduation rate and the college and career readiness rate for graduates –but graduation results are not yet available for this particular group of students. 

It is important to remember that no one assessment can give a complete picture of progress towards meeting Kentucky’s ambitious goals for student learning. Many other kinds of evidence can enrich our understanding of how students’ knowledge and skills are developing.

Still, these results suggest generally positive movement for Kentucky’s students with identified disabilities. We must sustain and build on that improvement, providing the supports, challenges, and opportunities these students and all students need to reach much higher levels of achievement.

Note from Susan Perkins Weston: This post is an early sample from a larger report the Prichard Committee is developing, designed to share news like this for multiple groups of students, build attention to achievement and achievement gaps, and encourage statewide commitment to the urgent work of developing excellence with equity across Kentucky public education. Questions and feedback are especially welcome on this effort, as we're working to make the reporting as useful as possible.

Preschool Partnership Grants awarded for fiscal year 2017

Bravo to a diverse array of Kentucky school districts and local child care and Head Start organizations for their innovative leadership in partnering to promote school readiness in their communities.

This week, the Kentucky Department of Education announced the completion of the review process for fiscal year 2017 awards to school districts and their partners through the Preschool Partnership Grant program. A total of 23 school districts have received awards for up to $25,000 in Tier I planning grants and 46 school districts have received awards of up to $150,000 for Tier II implementation grants.

Awards can be found at KDE's website.

We commend the leaders from state agencies and advisory groups that worked to advise and fine-tune the grant requirements as well as those who provided technical assistance to potential grantees. This is a major step toward promoting strong partnerships across school districts and child care to increase the number of children served in high-quality, full-day preschool settings - which supports school readiness as well as working families.

As we have highlighted before, the Preschool Partnership Grants were authorized in the 2017-18 biennial budget through a $7.5 million/year set-aside from the preschool appropriation. This year will prove an important time to learn from the efforts of local partnerships, analyze the data, and set the course for stronger partnerships to benefit our youngest Kentuckians well into the future.

Math and College Readiness Are Key Bright Spots in 2016 Data

Here's the Prichard Committee Statement on 2016 school results:

2016 statewide assessment and accountability results released Thursday morning show some exciting progress for Kentucky’s students toward college and career readiness – with mathematics proficiency showing particularly important growth.
Kentucky students have made strong progress in math achievement. The percentage of elementary students scoring at the proficient level in math increased by 3 percentage points, while the percentage of middle and high school students performing at this level increased by 4 percentage points. This is important progress to celebrate because Kentucky has long struggled with mathematics performance.

Even better, the strong mathematics improvement is fully shared by student groups traditionally behind their peers. Students with disabilities, students with low family incomes, African-American students, Hispanic students, and students of two or more races all saw mathematics proficiency increases of 3 percentage points or more.

Similarly, college and career readiness continues to increase. The readiness rate stands at 68.5, up from 66.9 in 2015. Nearly all of that improvement came from growth in college readiness shown on the ACT and college placement exams.

One area of concern is that the 2016 results suggest that the statewide novice reduction effort, designed to lift students above the lowest performance level in reading and mathematics, has yet to realize positive results at scale. In reading, the percent of students scoring at the very lowest level actually increased for most student groups. This is an area where we should pay close attention moving forward.

Now, five years into the implementation of higher standards that better align to the expectations of colleges and employers, it is clear Kentucky is on the right path. We celebrate the educators, parents, and community partners who have been working hard to set high expectations and help more students learn at high levels. It is now more important than ever that we maintain our momentum to increase achievement for all students and close achievement gaps each student.

The Prichard Committee’s recent “Excellence with Equity: It’s Everybody’s Business” report on the achievement gaps in our schools urges Kentucky to redouble its efforts to close gaps and ensure high levels of achievement for each and every student. Closing these gaps is more critical than ever given the increasing need for education and training after high school to ensure the future success of each individual student and the state’s economy and quality of life as a whole. The Prichard Committee plans to analyze this year’s results for each student group and issue a more detailed analysis later this fall.

Additional 2016 bright spots included:

• More elementary students reaching proficiency in reading than in 2015
• More middle school students reaching proficiency in reading, social studies, and writing, making middle school the most improved level overall
• More high school students reaching proficiency in social studies and language mechanics
• More students completing high school, raising the four-year graduation rate from 88.0 to 88.6

Additional areas of concern include 2016 proficiency levels that were lower than 2015 rates for:

• Elementary students in social studies, writing, and language mechanics
• Middle school students in language mechanics
• High school students in English 10, biology, and writing.

The Prichard Committee for Academic Excellence is an independent, non-partisan citizens’ advocacy group. Since 1983, the Committee, made up of volunteer parents and citizens from across Kentucky, has worked tirelessly to improve education for Kentuckians of all ages.

Importance of community partnerships to support school readiness goals

The central message that we heard from those who served on the Prichard Committee’s Achievement Gap study group was that it will take everyone working toward the same goal to achieve educational excellence for each and every child. 

Today, we have welcome news that at the national level, trends toward growing educational inequality show signs of reversing - with a hat tip to the broad array of leaders across business, health, faith, community organizations, government, and schools who have worked together to emphasize the importance of the earliest years of a child's life.

Sean Reardon and Ximina A. Portilla have found evidence from three nationally representative samples of incoming kindergartners that between 1998 and 2010, school readiness improved for children overall, with low-income children beginning to catch up with their higher-income peers.


This research should reinforce our resolve to work together to spread the message and ensure each child has the opportunities they need for a strong start in life. 

Communities across Kentucky are now resolving to build capacity for greater collaboration and partnership. 

The Preschool Partnership Grants authorized in the 2017-18 biennial budget are an important opportunity for Kentucky communities and school districts to build partnerships to work toward their school readiness goals. The state agency partners that worked together to design the grant program were right to do so in a way that meets communities where they are – encouraging all communities to apply for planning grants (Tier 1) or implementation grants (Tier 2) for those that are farther along.

Thanks to this grant program, school districts, child care providers, and other partners will have specific support to build capacity to serve more low-income 4-year olds in high-quality, full-day settings that provide the best foundation for school readiness and support for working families.

The 2014 General Assembly increased the eligibility for public preschool from 150% to 160% of the federal poverty level beginning in fiscal year 2016, providing an extra $18 million to cover expected enrollment increases. Across Kentucky, however, preschool enrollment of low-income 4-year olds declined from 9,338 to 9,201 between December 2014 and December 2015. Partnerships between school districts and child care centers will help boost enrollment and strengthen Kentucky’s early childhood care and education system from birth through preschool across all areas of the Commonwealth.

Many states across the nation, including states such as North Carolina with many rural districts, have long had “mixed delivery” models to deliver preschool with public funds in both school districts and child care settings. Several states, such as Oregon and Virginia, are now rolling out system that encourage or require this approach. One of the major reasons they have taken a mixed delivery approach is to maintain the viability of child care centers, which provide such essential care and education for infants and toddlers and working families.

While Kentucky policymakers did not choose a mixed delivery approach for its preschool program, the Prichard Committee’s Strong Start Kentucky coalition has long recognized the need to encourage voluntary collaborative models across school districts and child care to ensure both sectors remain strong, particularly in rural areas where child care options are the most limited.

In April 2015, in partnership with Metro United Way, United Way of Greater Cincinnati, Kentucky Youth Advocates Blueprint for Kentucky’s Children, the Kentucky Head Start Association, the Kentucky Department of Education, the Governor’s Office of Early Childhood, and the Cabinet for Health and Family Services Stars for Kids Now, we released a brief, Pre-K Collaboration in Kentucky: Maximizing Resources for Kindergarten Readiness, that detailed examples of models underway now in Kentucky. Several partnerships in rural areas have been pioneers in working together to better serve young children:

• Christian County - Hopkinsville Lets Go Play Academy and Christian County Schools. The school district sends a preschool certified teacher to the child care center to provide preschool services. The center provides the classroom assistant.
• Perry County - New Beginnings Learning Center (NBLC) partners with Hazard/Perry County Schools. The center offers Head Start, state funded preschool and private high-quality child care in a fully blended classroom. Children receive a full-day program with wraparound services to meet families’ needs. The preschool teacher is paid half by the school system and half by New Beginnings.
• Henderson County - Henderson County School District, Audubon Head Start and Henderson Child Development Center. The school district has twelve preschool classrooms providing a half-day program. The child development center is onsite to provide wraparound services and extend the school day.

The Preschool Partnership grant program is designed to help more districts and communities plan to take these steps or to enhance current partnerships.

Of all the stretches of road on a child’s educational journey, those that the child travels in her earliest years are those that often take the most coordination to get her where she needs to go next. We are encouraged by the courageous partnerships across the state and look forward to learning from their efforts. 

 *Note - we have edited this post to clarify that the research draws on a nationally-representative sample of incoming kindergarteners, and to focus on one study cited in the New York Times article which identified reduction of school readiness gaps based on family income. 

Helping parents support their children through school

| Guest post from Dr. Keith Look, Superintendent, Danville Independent Schools |

This August, my oldest child began Kindergarten. In my twenty plus years of public education experience, I have hired and fired, hugged and restrained, and cheered and cried in some of the most challenging settings. Yet at this moment, I feel more prepared to revamp instruction and assessment than I did to tell my child good-bye on that first day (and likely the second, the third, and . . .).

Granted, I feel confident in my child’s Kindergarten readiness. But what about in third grade when his friend tells him to try this new “candy?” What about in 6th grade when he decides he is “not doing the work of that math teacher?” What about in 10th grade when he would prefer an “A” in the easy class as opposed to the C+ in its harder version? And what about all the other conversations I have coached parents through as a teacher and administrator but now, all of the sudden, realize apply to my child?!!?

As a professional in and student of the industry, I am the lucky one. I will have the networks and resources to get answers I need, but the average parent may not. So much attention is given understandably to new parents and early childhood educational experiences. As children grow older, information and support plummet. We wonder why parent engagement falters after elementary school. Maybe the answer is obvious. Maybe it is because we do not teach parents how to be “good education parents” at the myriad of stages across all of K-12.

The Danville Schools’ Good Education Parent initiative aims to make parents safe in their vulnerability when it comes to supporting their children through school. There must be space for all of us to help each other figure it out. Race, class, and all other official demarcations that divide us are irrelevant when it comes to understanding how to discipline the 7th grade student who decides to put everyone’s gym clothes in the locker room shower. The only person you want to hear from is another parent who says, “Let me tell you what I did when my daughter . . .”

It is time to begin the conversation anew. It is time to admit our own vulnerabilities and anxieties in order to help the next parent know his/her child is going to be okay. Perhaps more importantly, it is time to empower parents to know that they are not insane, weak, or ineffective for struggling to drop off their Kindergartner, discipline their 7th grader, or help their sophomore become proud of his/her talents and abilities.

The Danville Schools is proud to claim this work and make this charge—for ourselves and all other districts in the state. Start the conversation. Initiate the storytelling. Help me – as well as all the rest of us who are reaching new grades, schools, and milestones with our children for the first time – to be a good education parent in your district and community.

Unleash Student Voice to Make Schools Better

| by Eliza Jane Schaeffer, Student Voice Team |

Eliza Jane is chair emeritus of the School Governance Committee and strategy and development coordinator for the Prichard Committee Student Voice Team. She is a recent graduate of Henry Clay High School and a rising first year at Dartmouth College. 

This month, Kentucky students begin their annual mass migration from backyards and summer jobs to school rooms and study halls. And while we give up our borrowed right to lay in bed all day and watch Netflix, we also give up a more fundamental right, one that older Americans take for granted.

The moment we step into a school building, we forfeit our right to be heard. In our lives outside of school, we are technically free to comment on and change the policies and practices which shape our environment. But as students, a role we are required by law to play, we lack this ability.

My claims are not simply complaints and clamor.

In evaluating the data from the nearly 300 Kentucky schools and districts we surveyed, we found that 57% of schools do not offer their students an outlet for feedback and fewer than one in ten district school boards and school councils have student members. These statistics come fresh from the Student Voice Team’s Students As Partners report, a year-long, youth-led investigation into the merits of supporting students to serve more meaningful roles in school decision-making. 

In spite of this discouraging data, the report indicates real potential for growth. Our results show that nearly half of Kentucky superintendents and principals would be willing to add a student member to the decision-making body under their jurisdiction. This figure provides an opening to further the conversation about what is possible when the primary stakeholders are more fully supported to participate in school governance.

For inspiration, look no further than Northern Kentucky. In Boone County, high school senior Michael Henry serves as an advisory member on the board of education and as the head of the Superintendent’s Student Advisory Council, a group which meets monthly to brainstorm and implement ideas for school improvement, hold question and answer sessions with the superintendent, listen to guest speakers, and interact with district officials.

Henry told the Student Voice Team that the board members “really appreciate the student’s opinion.” More importantly, he shared that students in the district are now excited about and involved in the decision-making process and will routinely stop him in the hallway to share their opinion on a matter the school board is currently discussing. Having a chance to meaningfully contribute to school improvement “is pushing them to get more involved,” he said.

Our research shows that supporting students in shaping their learning environment as Boone County did generates self-efficacy, agency, and opportunities for deeper learning. It also benefits the school system as a whole. A more productive, engaged student body translates to higher performances in the classroom, higher levels of informed discussion, and school policy solutions that reflect the experiences of all stakeholders.

With these education benefits in mind, we hope more of Kentucky’s elected officials, teachers, administrators, and students will embrace a school system that both fully recognizes--and unleashes--the potential of student voice to make our schools the best they can possibly be. And perhaps next year, as our students return to the classroom and lose their summer glow, they will not also lose their right to be heard.

To read the Students as Partners report and learn more about the Student Voice Team’s research, reasoning, and recommendations, click here.

ACT results show far too few Kentucky high school graduates have academic preparation they need for postsecondary pursuits

ACT results from the graduating class of 2016 released today indicate that Kentucky’s graduates have only narrowly sustained the progress that has been made in English (57% meeting Kentucky’s college- and career-ready benchmark) and reading (50% meeting benchmark) over recent years. The results, however, show that graduates have lost ground in mathematics, falling from 44.5% meeting benchmark in 2015 to 41% in 2016. Achievement gaps, meanwhile, have not budged.

It is imperative that Kentucky make rapid progress in the number of students graduating with the academic preparation they need for their next steps. It is also imperative that this journey ensure that students in groups with the lowest rates of meeting college- and career-ready benchmarks make dramatic improvement.

A high school graduate’s preparation for postsecondary education and training involves a range of academic, technical, and employability knowledge and skills that go well beyond what can be measured on a single test. The ACT test, however, which is taken by all 11th grade students in Kentucky, provides one important data point with which to evaluate Kentucky high school graduates’ preparation for their postsecondary pursuits.

Today’s results matter for two distinct reasons.

The first reason is that a students’ scores on the ACT have a direct bearing on his or her opportunities after high school. Meeting Kentucky’s college- and career-ready benchmarks means entry into credit-bearing courses in Kentucky colleges and universities, putting students on a solid footing to meet their postsecondary goals. Results from 2016 raise an alarm that fewer students will be ready for credit-bearing courses in mathematics, increasing the cost of postsecondary education and lowering students’ likelihood of completion. These results have real costs for families and the state’s economy.

The second reason is that these results provide a comparable measure of student learning of essential academic knowledge and skills. ACT’s own research shows that the best strategy to increase scores is to expose students to rich and rigorous coursework. Test prep is not a sound strategy. Across the board, Kentucky’s results on a variety of state and national measures show that mathematics needs considerable and urgent attention.

These results call for Kentuckians to work together to accomplish the following:

• set high expectations for each student along with school culture and climate that helps each student achieve at high levels, as students will rise to the expectations of adults that they respect and admire
• increase investments in effective and equitable strategies to ensure that each student engages in challenging work that aligns to the state’s standards
• put an emphasis on mathematics with a systematic approach that encompasses elementary and middle school years that set the foundation for high school success

Finally, as Kentucky works to rebalance a college- and career-ready accountability system for all schools, it’s critically important that the state use national benchmarks of readiness rather than Kentucky setting its own, lower benchmarks that fail to set expectations for students at an adequate level relative to their peers in other states. Setting benchmarks lower than the national bar puts Kentucky’s students at a disadvantage.

Kentucky schools prioritize educator diversity

| by Cory Curl |

One of the many reasons that we Kentuckians have such devotion to Kentucky is the strength we draw from the rich and textured cultures flourishing in communities between the Mississippi River and the Appalachians, from country to city and everywhere in between.

We aspire that our young people, in particular, draw strength from their cultures as they take their education journeys. As such, leaders across Kentucky have long prioritized efforts to recruit and retain educators whose experiences or expertise reflect the full range of our students' cultures. 

The Prichard Committee study group report released last week, Excellence with Equity: It's Everybody's Business, calls on the state to redouble these efforts and to do so with urgency. 

The report illuminates, for example, that past efforts to recruit teachers of color have not met their promise. Today, Kentucky has 20.9% students of color but only 4.6% teachers of color. 

We are encouraged by new momentum to increase intentional efforts to recruit and retain a more diverse teacher workforce. For example, in Paducah Independent, district leaders point to the need to make sure students have role models that look like them and know where they came from. Kentucky's 2016 Teacher of the Year, Ashley Lamb-Sinclair, shares her own story of why educator diversity matters for all students. 

Many states and communities across the nation are also bringing renewed energy to educator diversity. We look forward to learning from these efforts as well as strategies that our Kentucky communities take in coming years.

Why Knowledge Matters

| by Cory Curl |

Reading comprehension has a lot to do with students’ knowledge and vocabulary.

To build a foundation for reading comprehension for all future learning, students need exposure to a well-rounded curriculum including science, social studies, arts, music, and other subjects beginning in early elementary school. Susan Weston has shared this point several times here at PrichBlog.

Fortunately, Kentucky’s education community has understood this for a long time. Both policy and practice have emphasized a well-rounded curriculum, and we have the results to suggest that this is the right track.

Science is a case in point. As Lisa Hansel of the Knowledge Matters campaign pointed out in a webinar that we hosted last evening, Kentucky ranked 4th in the nation on the 2009 4th grade NAEP science test. That year, Kentucky elementary schools had the highest amount of instructional time devoted to science (see this paper by Dr. Rolf Blank).

Lisa also suggested that this commitment to building knowledge in the early grades contributes to Kentucky’s strong showing in NAEP reading, where Kentucky 4th grade students score in the top 10 in the nation.

The webinar also featured Robert Pondiscio of the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, who went into lively detail about why knowledge matters for reading comprehension, as well as why attention to this connection is important for equity for all students. Lisa provided five concrete recommendations of how states can incentivize a well-rounded approach in the early grades. You can learn more about the research and recommendations in this issue brief.

We had a great discussion about how parents can advocate for a knowledge-rich curriculum. Lisa and Robert also shared stories to illustrate why an emphasis on building knowledge provides an opportunity for engaging and active classroom learning rather than rote memorization.

The Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) provides some policy spark for states to incentivize a well-rounded education, an opportunity that Secretary of Education John King underscored in recent remarks. As always, we encourage you to be involved in Kentucky’s efforts to redesign its accountability system and otherwise take advantage of opportunities provided in the new law.

We welcome your suggestions on how can help keep you informed and engaged through the process.

What Kind of Student Writing Do We Want? And Where?

| By Susan Perkins Weston | 

 Some writing makes an argument to support a claim.  Other pieces inform or explain, and still others provide narratives or real or imagined experience.  Our Kentucky Academic Standards call for students to become skilled in all three, but that still leaves room to puzzle about how much teaching and learning time should be invested in each kind. 

In EdWeek's new coverage of Changing Practice in Writing Instruction, that balancing pops up in multiple places.  In one interview, Lucy Calkins says "the common core says that a third of kids’ writing should be narrative."  Another article reports that "By the time students are in 12th grade, literary writing to convey experiences is expected to take up 20 percent of the time allotted to composition, compared with 40 percent each for informative writing and argumentative writing."

Both statements share a part of story. The 2010 Common Core State Standards aimed to align with an earlier Writing Framework for the National Assessment of Educational Progress.  The original CCSS document show that framework using this table:

It's clear that Dr. Calkins' comment is about the grade 4 expectations, and the other article was explicitly looking at grade 12.

Both leave something big to be said.  This isn't all about English and the study of composition. Much of the high school writing for argumentation and explanation can be, should be, and must be part of mastering scientific communication and civic participation. That work belongs in science classes and social studies classes. That version of literacy needs teachers who are expert in the work of those disciplines.  Still more, those disciplines need literate students: they need students who are equipped to make sense of texts about science and social studies and equipped to organize and share thinking in those fields. 

For example, a high school's writing plans might be spread out like this, with plenty of room for narrative in English because major slices of argument and explanation happen in other classes.

The elementary and middle years can prepare students for that high school range, with argument and explanation becoming increasingly important as students mature.

Seeing the role of disciplines beyond English is essential to understanding how richly English classes can engage narrative writing, literary texts, and other classic undertaking.

The Pursuit of Excellence: Principles to Guide Kentucky's Future Postsecondary Success

The Prichard Committee today released a report outlining the the key elements of the Committee's work in postsecondary education going forward, as well as establishing guiding principles for ensuring Kentucky reaches its education, economic, workforce, and civic potential.

The full report can be found via the Committee's web-site here, The Pursuit of Excellence: Principles to Guide Kentucky's Future Postsecondary Success. 

Below is the full text of the Prichard Committee's statement released today:

LEXINGTON, Ky. – Providing a framework for a productive discussion on the future of postsecondary education in Kentucky is the goal of a series of guiding principles developed by the Prichard Committee for Academic Excellence.

“The Pursuit of Excellence: Principles to Guide Kentucky’s Future Postsecondary Success” provides a focus for the committee’s return to an area of advocacy that served as its foundation in the early 1980s.

The citizens’ organization was known at the time as the Prichard Committee on Higher Education in Kentucky’s Future. Its 1981 report, In Pursuit of Excellence, noted that “despite a tendency of people to become pessimistic about the value of institutions, (they) still look to education as the road to a better life and as the source of information and talent needed to solve problems.”

That remains true today as Kentucky faces issues of access, affordability, accountability and the relative value of achieving success through postsecondary education, the committee said.

In encouraging parents, students, business and community leaders, institutions and policymakers to participate in a discussion to ensure Kentucky builds and maintains an educated citizenry and a talented workforce, the Prichard Committee issued guiding principles that focus on access, affordability and quality:

• Access – High-quality postsecondary educational opportunities in Kentucky should be inclusive of all students, and Kentucky should ensure that all students are prepared for, have knowledge of, and are encouraged to pursue opportunities through postsecondary education pathways.
• Affordability – High-quality postsecondary education in Kentucky should be affordable to all students who want to benefit from and pursue such opportunities.
• Quality - To ensure the highest quality postsecondary education system and student outcomes, Kentucky should focus resources on and measure institutional performance in improving the lives of students and the public at large.

“In the current fiscal and political climate, investments in postsecondary education – both funding and strategies to achieve public goals – must remain a public policy priority,” the committee concluded. “Abundant research and the reality of the lives of countless Kentuckians make clear that greater educational attainment does, indeed, represent the path to a larger life for individuals and the state as a whole.”

“The Prichard Committee has focused on increasing the quality of P-12 education for more than 30 years. With more students than ever becoming ready for college and career, it’s critical to ensure our entire education system presents a seamless web of opportunity for all Kentuckians,” said Brigitte Blom Ramsey, executive director of the Prichard Committee.  “Renewing focus on access to affordable, high-quality postsecondary education will support efforts to ensure Kentucky has an educated citizenry and talented workforce.”

African American Suspensions: Cause for Sorrow

| By Susan Perkins Weston | 

 

Both suspensions and in-school removals take students out of their regular classes as a consequence for behavior. The chart above does not mean that every African American student was suspended last year. It does come close to meaning that for every African American student who was not suspended, another African American student was suspended more than once.

So far, what I’ve got on this is sorrow.

Sorrow for the students who separated from their classmates, removed from their school’s broad welcome in the simplest and most visible way imaginable.

Sorrow for the students who watch those separations, puzzling over what it means, puzzling over whether they should learn something general about an “us” or about a “them” from the pattern of who gets sent away.

Sorrow for the educators who decide on the separations, whether they had better options or not, whether they are still searching for other ways to work with the students or settled into despair.

Sorrow for the families, whether they think a particular exclusion just or unjust, whether they are giving the children the best preparation to avoid this kind of consequence or not.

Sorrow for connections not made, relationships not flourishing, potential not growing at its fullest possible speed.

Sorrow for all of us, because these students should be strong, secure, and settling into confident membership in our communities, and we somehow have not come close to making what should be into what happens here now.

I wish I had deep insight into how this happens in schools and classrooms.  I wish I had bold ideas for how to make it different.  I've been looking at these numbers since last October, without finding that kind of clarity.  Sorrow is what I've got, so I'll speak that, and welcome all thoughts on how we can do better.

Below: sharply contrasting data for three other groups of students:

Forward Progress for Early Childhood

| by Brigitte Blom Ramsey, Executive Director |

The 2016 session of the Kentucky General Assembly proved to be an unexpected win for progress and innovation in early childhood.

Given the state’s significant state fiscal challenges, the session began with little hope for increasing the state’s investment in our youngest learners, and with a lot of questions about the continued support for the Commonwealth’s commitment to quality early childhood.

Nonetheless, early childhood advocates proposed key measures to help maintain the state’s momentum:

• Align public preschool eligibility and child care assistance eligibility to the same Federal poverty level (FPL) and incrementally increase eligibility for both programs to 200% of FPL. Current preschool eligibility is 160% of FPL 
• Current child care assistance eligibility is 150% of the 2011 FPL 
• Incentivize collaboration between public preschool and private child care to increase participation in preschool and serve children in environments that best suit their needs.

In the end, the final budget approved by the Governor and General Assembly included significant progress – maintaining and increasing the state’s investment while also providing for innovations to build capacity and strengthen the system:

• Increased child care assistance eligibility to 160% of current FPL, bringing it into alignment with the eligibility level for public preschool 
• Maintained the full $90 million for preschool and maintained eligibility at 160% of FPL 
• From the $90 million for preschool, carved out a set aside of $7.5 million in each year of the biennium to establish an incentive grant for local collaborations between school districts and private child care providers to increase participation in preschool. Statewide, enrollment has dropped significantly since 2010.

Source: Kentucky Department of Education Staff Note, June 2015

We are thrilled to see the incentive grant program for early childhood partnerships in the budget. This is a testament to the state’s commitment to innovation and partnership in early childhood. It will be important for Kentucky to make the most of this unique opportunity by building evidence of success by serving more young learners, increasing school readiness, and improving efficiency of programs.

The budget language calls on the Kentucky Department of Education (KDE) to administer the incentive grant program. It requires KDE to work with the Kentucky Board of Education, Early Childhood Advisory Council, Cabinet for Health and Family Services, and Child Care Advisory Council to design the program requirements. The next few months will be a pivotal time for these state agencies and advisory groups, as well as for school districts and child care providers to identify ways that they can partner to better serve young learners in full-day programs.

Why is it so important for school districts and child care providers to work together?

• Increasing access to quality preschool programs helps increase kindergarten readiness and early success in school.
• Public preschool should be increased in a way that does not crowd out private child care.
• Public-private partnerships bring diversity into the system that helps build the state’s capacity to serve more children with high-quality services that meet families’ needs.
• Partnerships between the public and private sectors encourage efficient and effective use of resources.

The idea of partnerships is not new in Kentucky.

• In April 2015, in partnership with Metro United Way, United Way of Greater Cincinnati, Kentucky Youth Advocates Blueprint for Kentucky’s Children, the Kentucky Head Start Association, the Kentucky Department of Education, the Governor’s Office of Early Childhood, and the Cabinet for Health and Family Services Stars for Kids Now, we released a brief that detailed the benefits of partnerships and examples of models underway now in Kentucky.
• In January 2016, the Early Childhood Study Group report recommended partnerships as a way to strengthen school readiness and ensure a stronger system for children from birth through third grade.

Please do not hesitate to contact us with any questions, comments, or ideas about effective partnerships between school districts and child care providers. We will continue to keep you informed as we learn more about this unique opportunity for Kentucky’s young learners.

ESSA Update: The Details Matter for Equity

| by Cory Curl, Associate Executive Director |

As we discussed here late last year, the U.S. Congress approved a new version of the federal Elementary and Secondary Act. This version, known as the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), gives states some more leeway in how they design their K-12 school and district accountability systems.

This move at the federal level gives us an opportunity to do what we do so well in Kentucky. We have a long history of working together to set clear, meaningful goals for student and school success. We then come together around a set of shared measures to show how schools and districts are – or are not – making progress toward these goals.

To that end, the Kentucky Department of Education has just concluded a series of 11 town hall meetings across the Commonwealth. At the town hall meetings, Commissioner of Education Stephen Pruitt and Associate Commissioner Rhonda Sims shared information about ESSA and listened to educators, parents, and students about how they define student and school success. Videos and summaries of these meetings are available online, along with comments that have been submitted via email.

The next few months will be an important time for Kentuckians to continue engaging in these conversations. Everyone has a seat at the table to contribute to the process of setting these goals and measures, which will have so much influence on the priorities that schools and districts set for years to come.

As the process unfolds, it will be critical to make sure that the goals and measures give schools and districts a big push to prioritize equity, making sure that every child gets what he or she needs to be successful in their next steps. This is the only way that Kentucky will be able to close the achievement gaps that have persisted for so long.

ESSA will help us on this front. While it gives states more flexibility in how they design their systems, it includes several requirements intended to ensure that equity is a priority for schools and districts.

To keep you informed on ESSA’s requirements and flexibilities, we are partnering with The Education Trust, a national nonprofit organization that advocates for high academic achievement for all students, particularly students of color and students in poverty. We have developed a series of fact sheets, below, to translate what’s in the federal law to what it means for us here in Kentucky.

The Every Student Succeeds Act: What’s In It? What Does it Mean for Equity?
• Overview
• Accountability
• Public Reporting

Update: View our May 12th Community Conversations webinar with The Education Trust 

Postsecondary Funding - A Mixed Bag for Kentucky

Lawmakers in Frankfort concluded the 2016 Regular Session of the General Assembly in a flurry of activity during the waning hours of Friday April 15.  Putting aside the on-going legal dispute over current year cuts to postsecondary institutions and any potential vetoes the Governor might still make, the impacts of the enacted FY 2016-2018 budget on postsecondary education were a mixed bag.

On the one hand, most campuses received a 4.5% reduction, one-half of the 9% originally proposed by both the Governor and the Senate.  This amounts to a total reduction of $59.1 million over the biennium and represents an 18.2% decline in yearly funding since FY 2008, or $197 million.  Kentucky State University, in recognition of significant challenges facing the campus, was exempted from the funding reductions and received long-sought additional funds to fully match the federal requirement for land-grant programs.  Additionally, Western Kentucky University and Northern Kentucky University received additional appropriations in FY 2018 to help bring their state allocation per student to the average of the other regional campuses.  Overall, the enacted budget continues the pattern of state disinvestment in Kentucky’s postsecondary institutions that has persisted since 2008. A disinvestment whose costs are ultimately born by students and families.

On the other hand, student financial aid fared substantially better in the final compromise - increasing across all programs by $117.9 million over the biennium.  Need-based aid through the lottery-funded College Access Program (CAP) and Kentucky Tuition Grant (KTG) increased by $55 million – which could serve up to 30,000 more financially disadvantaged students.  This represents significant increases to the main need-based programs that have been flat funded for nearly 10 years. Two new programs were created to help increase college access and attainment.  The Work Ready Kentucky Scholarship received $25.3 million over the biennium and would provide essentially free tuition to recent high school graduates enrolled in associate’s degree programs at Kentucky community colleges, public universities and private colleges.  The Dual Credit Scholarship received $15 million over the biennium and will assist eligible high school students in paying for courses for which college and high school credit is awarded.

The budget also initiates the process by which postsecondary institutions will receive part of their funding based on performance against certain metrics.  Beginning in FY 2018, 5% of funding will be performance-based, rising to 15% in FY 2019 and 25% in FY 2020 and beyond.  A working group is established that will provide formula recommendations for the performance-based model to the Governor and General Assembly by December 1, 2016.  While in the early stages and not yet defined, this should be the first step in a process of recognizing that public investment will require accountability for progress toward well-defined system, institutional, and student outcomes and performance goals.

As the title of this post suggests – a mixed bag - perhaps one step backward and one step forward.  Issues of affordability and ensuring access to postsecondary opportunities for all Kentuckians’ make further reductions to institutional funding difficult to stomach.  A renewed commitment to state-funded financial aid programs, however, signals hope that perhaps progress is possible.

In the future, Kentucky needs to more effectively link decisions and policies on state appropriations, student aid and tuition to better define the expectations of institutions and students.  Lack of transparency in how postsecondary education is financed, and how the varying financial components interact, ultimately leads to less effective and efficient use of public resources and makes it more challenging for Kentuckians to reach their educational, economic, workforce, and civic potential.

A Tale of Two Maps

| By Susan Perkins Weston |

I groaned when I first saw NPR's magnificent new map of district-level spending per pupil across the country, part of a newly launched "School Money" project. Then I looked a little closer.



The shot above zooms in on the Kentucky part of NPR's illustration, showing:

• Red for spending 33% or more below national average (after a regional cost adjustment)
• Orange for spending 10% or more below national average
• Off-white for spending around average, between 10% below and 10% above
• Light green for 10% or more above average
• Dark green for 33% or more above average

My groan was because Kentucky doesn't offer much green. Owsley County is the single light green spot on the eastern side of the  map. Anchorage Independent provides the one dark green speck on the Kentucky map, nearly invisible inside Jefferson County. There really is bad news here, because most of our children receive school funding that isn't close to what's available across the nation.

But there is something else to see.

Owsley County has some of the deepest poverty in the nation --and the map shows it as having higher funding per pupil than most of the state. Owsley is surrounded by other Appalachian counties facing huge economic challenges, but those are the counties with funding most like national average.

In some ways, the NPR funding map looks a bit like a reverse-color version of this one from the Kids Count Data Center:

This one shows 2013 child poverty, with the darkest orange showing the deepest concentration of poverty, clustered heavily in the mountain counties. On this map, Owsley County has the highest child poverty rate in the state.

Comparing the two map shows that (roughly and with exceptions) Kentucky spends more on education where families have fewer financial resources to contribute. That, I submit, is a bit of good news inside Kentucky's low-funding bad news. Spending more for students who need more makes sense for a state committed to equipping each and every child to flourish and contribute as adults.

Added note: NPR's article and map are truly wonderful. The article gives a vivid sense of how much harm weak funding can do, and the map lets you click on any county to see its 2013 funding. Do check them out!

P-12 Funding: Action By the General Assembly

 | By Susan Perkins Weston | 

The General Assembly approved a budget on Friday, which is now awaiting action by Governor Bevin.  Unless the Governor vetoes some portions of the budget, it looks like the coming year will see a few major items get small increases and most parts of education funding continue without cuts. Here come some details.

The General Assembly’s budget provides a few increases in the 2017 Department of Education budget compared to 2016, including:

• $14 million more for facilities
• $9 million more for health insurance
• $8 million more for the teacher retirement employer match
• $4 million more for the SEEK base guarantee, Tier 1 and transportation
• $2 million in new funding for 'a review of the classification of primary and secondary school buildings”

The General Assembly did not include line items for two other investments made in past years. That is, the budget does not explicitly show:

• KETS funding that was budgeted at $23 million in 2016. The Kentucky Education Technology System has been shown as a line item in every budget since 1990.
• Added staffing for vocational/technical schools budgeted at $3 million in 2016. Those dollars were new in the budget for the last biennium and were shown as an effort to build college and career readiness.

Those two changes may not quite be complete cuts, though.

That’s because there’s one more big change:

• $28 million more is appropriated to the Department but not governed by a specific line item.

Since those dollars are not governed by a line item, they may turn out to go to technology, technical schools, or both. The amounts spent on those items could be higher or lower, and the uses could be exactly like past years or vary in small ways or vary in big ways.

Funding is unchanged for a number of other initiatives, including extended school services, family resource/youth service centers, gifted and talented, instructional resources (textbooks), the mathematics achievement fund, preschool program, professional development, Read to Achieve grants, safe schools , state agency children, and state-operated technical centers.

Outside the Department of Education budget, there are three other items that matter deeply to K-12 education:

• $541,900 less for the Education Professional Standards Board
• $13 million more for the School Facilities Construction Commission
• $480 million more to the Kentucky Teachers Retirement System.

That $480 million is the largest number in this whole blog post, and there's room to argue that it ought to be cited right at the beginning.  It's here at the end because those dollars aren't about paying for 2017 education.  They're about compensation owed to those who taught our children in years past. Filling the KTRS shortfall is about finishing paying for 2016, 2015, 2014, and years and years and years of earlier work with students.  The shortfall is about money that owed and must be paid, and the state will be making quite a few more big payments in the coming years to finish paying off that debt.  However, those payments won't allow any 2017 school to add a book to its library or a laptop to its inventory, much less an added teacher or a teacher with a better paycheck –and that's why it's not the starting point for this summary of what's coming next in P-12 funding.

Our new PrichBlog summary shows added detail, including changes for the 2018 budget and a detail page on small programs that receive less than $5 million in funding. You can download that here, or view the complete budget bill by going here and clicking on the link that says HB303.

P-12 Budgeting: Legislative Action So Far

 | By Susan Perkins Weston | 

Wednesday, the Senate Appropriation and Revenue Committee voted out its version of a budget for Kentucky P-12 education, and today the Senate as a whole voted approved that plan. Compared to the state budget for the current 2016 fiscal year, the Senate committee plan for 2017 would:

• Increase SEEK base and Tier 1 funding, facilities, retirement and health insurance
• Cut many line items that fund specific kinds of support for student learning
• Eliminate entire line items, including KETS technology, Kentucky School for the Blind, and Kentucky School For the Deaf
• Increase dollars not controlled by line items, giving the Department of Education the capacity to restore some of the funding from the eliminated line items
• Leave a puzzle about the total funding for SEEK

Details follow, along with notes on how the Senate approach differs from the House edition.  A conference committee will almost certainly be needed to work out a final budget that can be enacted into law.

INCREASES
Compared to FY 2106's budget, the Senate version would provide:

• $5 million more for the SEEK formula (when combined with growing local revenue, enough to continue the 2016 base guarantee of $3,981 for a growing number of pupils, along with student need add-ons and equalize local Tier I revenue)
• $14 million more for SEEK facilities
• $8 million more for the retirement match for teachers
• $9 million more for health insurance for school district employees

 These increases match the budget plan approved by the House.

CUTS TO PROGRAMS
The Senate budget would offer:

• $8 million less for preschool
• $3 million less for family resource and youth service centers
• $2 million less for ESS tutoring
• $1.5 million less for textbooks and other instructional resources
• $1.5 million less for Read to Achieve grants
• $1.1 million less for professional development
• $0.9 million less for children in state agency care
• $0.9 million less for safe schools and alternative schools
• $0.6 million less for gifted and talented programs
• $1.7 million less from 14 smaller grants

The House version would not make these cuts, which are closely aligned with the Governor’s budget proposal for 9% cuts to many programs.

ELIMINATED LINE ITEMS
The Senate plan would provide no funding for some line items that appeared in the budget for 2016, including:

• $23 million gone for KETS education technology
• $10 million gone for Kentucky School for the Deaf
• $7 million gone for Kentucky School for the Blind
• $6 million gone from eight smaller grants

The House budget would eliminate the KETS line and the added vocational staffing, but continued the other line items.

FUNDING NOT CONTROLLED BY LINE ITEMS
Some of those eliminated line items may still receive support, drawing on $35 million that the Senate approach would provide to the Department of Education without assigning them a specific use, including:

• $20 million for KDE Operations and Support Services that is not addressed in the line-item amounts
• $15 million for KDE Learning and Results Services that is not addressed in the line item amounts

The House plan would offer non-line-item funding totaling $28 million.

A SEEK PUZZLE
The SEEK section of the budget includes thirteen line items that add up to more than the General Fund total. That is, the budget bill would:

• Shows $3,036,462,000 in line items for SEEK base, Tier I, facilities, retirement, and other entries
• Shows $3,035,747,400 as the SEEK General Fund total
• Leaves $714,600 as the puzzling difference between the two

The House version would create the same puzzle!

ADDITIONAL DETAILS
You can download a PrichBlog comparison of the House and Senate  versions of the budget legislation here. Check out the legislative record on this bill here: click on the links for HCS and to download the full bill versions.  

SB 253 and HB 589: Charter Bills with A Few Differences

 | By Susan Perkins Weston |

Two charter bills filed this past Tuesday offer very similar rules for starting charter schools, but vary on details of who will be able to authorize those schools, how many schools can be opened, and where they can be located.

For Senate Bill 253, sponsored by Senators Wilson, Givens, and Seum, you can download our two-page Prichard analysis based on eight key questions here. For House Bill 589, sponsored by Representative Montell, a matching summary is here.  You can download each bill from the online legislative record here.

The rest of this post combines the two summaries, adding green highlighting when discussing places where the two bills handle issues differently. 

WHAT STUDENT RESULTS WILL CHARTER SCHOOLS BE EXPECTED TO DELIVER?

Charter schools will be accountable for “annual student achievement performance targets … set, in accordance with the state accountability system, by each public charter school in conjunction with its authorizer, and those measures shall be designed to help each school meet applicable federal, state, and authorizer goals.”

Charter schools will also propose their own performance frameworks that include indicators for student proficiency, student growth, achievement gaps, attendance, returning enrollment from year to year, college or career readiness, financial performance, and the board’s performance and stewardship, with the option of including additional indicators.

Possible Questions: Do targets “in accordance with the state accountability system” include annual measurable objectives, focus school criteria, and priority school criteria? Do they include professional growth and effectiveness system results?

WHICH PUBLIC SCHOOL REQUIREMENTS WILL BE WAIVED, AND WHICH REQUIREMENTS WILL CHARTER SCHOOLS HAVE TO FOLLOW?

Required:

• Plans for identifying and serving gifted students and students who are academically behind (examples: gifted student service plans, response to intervention, extended school services, accelerated learning)
• State assessments and school report card data
• Health and safety laws (examples: vaccinations, emergency drills, criminal record checks, weapons rules, student seclusion and restraint rules)
• Civil and disability rights (example: individual education plans (IEPs) as required by KRS 157.196)
• KTRS/CERS retirement and state health insurance for employees
• Financial audits and state purchasing rules
• Open records and open meetings

Not required:

• Free and reduced-price meals for low-income students
• Student learning services, including primary talent pool, primary program, family resource and youth services centers, individual learning plans, college-level courses in high school, and class size caps
• Program reviews and their use in accountability
• Teacher certification and single salary schedule
• 2% contingency reserve

Possible Questions: Do health requirements include physical activity in grades K-5? Do civil and disability rights include Title IX gender equality and alternate diplomas? Must school report card data be gathered using Infinite Campus?

HOW WILL STUDENTS BE ADMITTED OR ASSIGNED TO CHARTER SCHOOLS?

Students of school age will be admitted if they apply to a charter school and are currently enrolled in a “needs improvement” school or if they receive free/reduced-price meals and live in the district where the school is located. Applicants will also be admitted if their siblings attend the school or their parents are teachers or administrators there, and they will be able to continue attending if they are already enrolled at the school. If a school has too few applicants who fit those rules, enrollment will be opened up for any student who lives in the district where the school is located to apply for admission until May 15. If the school has too many applicants, a lottery will be used, except that preference will go to students already enrolled, their siblings, and children whose parents work at the school.

Possible Question: When will lotteries be held for schools that are over capacity?

WHO WILL AUTHORIZE CHARTER SCHOOLS?

SB 253: A nine-member state-level Public Charter School Commission will authorize two charter schools per year. Two more charter schools per year will be authorized by local school boards: one by a school board in a county with an urban county government (Fayette) and one in a county with a consolidated local government (Jefferson or possibly Anchorage).

HB 589: A nine-member state-level Public Charter School Commission will authorize a maximum of two charter schools per year in a county with an urban county government (Fayette County) and two in a county with a consolidated local government (Jefferson County). Local school boards will be able to authorize charter schools with in their own districts’ attendance areas.

WHO WILL BE ABLE TO APPLY TO RUN A CHARTER SCHOOL?

“Teachers, parents, school administrators, community residents, public organizations, private organizations, or a combination thereof” will be able to apply for a charter. The school will have to be “administered by a charter school board of directors” but the bill does not say it will have to be organized as a corporation. The school will have to apply for tax-exempt status within six months after charter approval. (A nonprofit education services provider can be chosen by the charter board to provide “educational design, implementation, or comprehensive management” of the school, but the charter board will still have final authority over policy and operations.)

Possible Question: If a charter applies for tax-exempt status and the application is denied, will it be allowed to continue operating?

WILL CHARTER SCHOOL NUMBERS AND ENROLLMENTS BE SUBJECT TO CAPS?

SB 253: The number of charter schools will be capped at four in 2017-18, with four more in each of the next four years, for a total of twenty by 2021-22. 

HB 589: Charter schools authorized by the Commission will be capped at four in 2017-18, with four more in each of the next four years, for a total of twenty by 2021-22. Charters authorized by local boards will not be capped.

Enrollment will not be capped.

Section 1(3) of the bill says that a charter may only enroll students who live in the district where it is located. However, Section 12(2) calls for admission of students from “needs improvement” schools and children of the school’s teachers and administrators, without listing that residency requirement. Section 12(2) also call for admission of students who currently attend the school and their siblings, which could include those who have moved out of the district since their original enrollment.

Possible Questions: Can charter schools admit students who do not currently reside in the district? Can students continue attending a charter school if they move out of the district during the school year?

HOW WILL CHARTER SCHOOLS BE CLOSED IF THEY DO NOT DELIVER?

A school’s charter must be revoked if the school “does not meet, for three (3) consecutive years, state student performance measures adopted by the Kentucky Board of Education under KRS 158.6453, excluding nontested program reviews, and academic program requirements found in the charter school's contract.”

A school's charter may also be revoked for failure to make significant progress on state accountability measures and on performance measures set in each school’s contract, failure to meet generally accepted accounting standards, or “material and substantial violation” of the school’s charter contract provisions.

WHAT FUNDING WILL CHARTER SCHOOLS RECEIVE?

 For charter schools authorized by local school boards, funding will be negotiated between the charter school and the charter authorizer. That funding will at least be comparable to what is provided to other schools in the district where the charter school is located.

For charters authorized by the state commission, funding will match state guaranteed SEEK funding plus the school’s proportionate share of locally-raised “Tier 1” and “Tier 2” funding. The Kentucky Department of Education will pay those amounts to the charter school and deduct them from the school district’s funding.

Both kinds of charter schools will receive categorical funding generated by their students, and both will receive state on-behalf payments for employee health and certified employee retirement.

Charter schools will not receive state transportation funding, but local school districts will be required to transport charter school students from home to school and back.

Possible Questions: Will board-authorized schools receive dollars that districts do not allocate to schools, including those for itinerant staff, extra duty staff, operations and maintenance, central office leadership and other functions?