New Arts Standards: Creating, Performing, Responding and Connecting

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

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

Disciplines

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

Anchor Standards 

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

Performance Standards for Each Level

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

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

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

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

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

My Current Puzzles

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

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

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

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

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

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

699!

699 is small, painful and worth remembering.

699 is the number of Kentucky students with disabilities who were ready for college, career, or both when they graduated from high school in 2014.

699 is a tiny fraction of:

• 3,092 graduates with disabilities in 2014
• 4,051 grade 11 students with disabilities who took our writing assessment in 2013
• 4,744 grade 10 students with disabilities who took our writing assessment in 2012
• 7,858 grade 5 students with disabilities who took our assessments in 2007

699 is small, painful, memorable, and worth serious attention.

Kentucky Tonight: Five Key Educational Issues

Here's a link right to Monday night's great discussion, featuring Prichard's own Brigitte Blom Ramsey. 

Cory Curl! Named Associate Executive Director of Prichard Committee!

Here's today's press release from the Prichard Committee:

 LEXINGTON, Ky. – Education advocate and policy leader Cory Curl has been named associate executive director of the Prichard Committee for Academic Excellence.

Curl’s appointment is effective September 7, 2015. She will succeed Brigitte Blom Ramsey, named recently as executive director of the statewide education advocacy organization.

A graduate of Guilford College in North Carolina, with a bachelor’s degree in geology, and the University of Kentucky Martin School, with a master’s degree in public administration, Curl has been a senior fellow for assessment and accountability for Achieve, Inc., since January 2012. Achieve is a national nonprofit organization that helps states achieve their education goals with technical assistance, research and development, and tools for advocacy and communications.

“Cory has the perfect mix of public policy expertise and experience in education related advocacy. She is committed to ensuring the best education for future generations of Kentuckians. We couldn’t be happier that Cory has agreed to help lead the Committee’s efforts,” said Ramsey.

Curl, of Versailles, has an extensive background in education policy. Her experience includes working as a consultant in the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Innovation and Improvement; director of the Tennessee Department of Education’s education delivery unit and director of policy and planning for the department; and as a research analyst and policy advisor for state and national organizations.

She became a member of the Prichard Committee in 2012.

“The Prichard Committee has such a remarkable history of articulating educational aspirations for the Commonwealth – and of harnessing the energy and commitment of its citizens to translate these aspirations into action and impact. I’m thrilled to have the opportunity to work under Brigitte’s leadership to continue in this tradition, partnering with citizens, policymakers, teachers, parents and students to accelerate Kentucky’s educational progress into the top tier,” said Curl.

For Father's Day and Kentucky's Best Heritage

I'm a historian's child, and as a result, a big fan of the work of the Rosenwald Fund, and its long-time leader, Edwin Embree, grandson of Berea's John G. Fee.  Especially, this tale:

In May 1948, one month before the Julius Rosenwald Fund was to close its doors forever, Edwin Embree received a letter, posted in Lexington, Kentucky. It came from a guidance counselor at Paul Laurence Dunbar High School, Sadie M. Yancey. Ms. Yancey had just won a Rosenwald fellowship, one of the last to be granted. After thanking Embree, she reminded him of an incident involving his grandfather that he had described in Brown America.

Toward the end of the Civil War, when John G. Fee was at Camp Nelson, he entered the faculty dining barracks with a young black woman recently appointed as a student/ teacher. When they sat down at a table, several other diners—all white—moved away; a chaplain from Maine stormed from the building; and the waitress refused to serve the young woman. As the tense scene unfolded, Fee was given a filled plate. Immediately he passed it to his companion and insisted, vigorously, on another plate for himself. That woman, Yancey wrote, was her grandmother, Eliza Mitchell Jackson.

Often she had heard her grandmother tell that story and other stories demonstrating Fee’s “humanitarianism and great courage.” Her grandmother and grandfather, Yancey reported, became “two of the most outstanding contributors to the progress of their race in Lexington.” She told Embree this connection now, Yancey concluded, because she considered it “rather singular that your grandfather was instrumental in the continuance of my grandmother’s education, and you, though unwittingly, have been instrumental in the continuance of mine.”

 In a gracious note, Embree responded that the story remained vivid in his own family. Even as a small boy growing up in Fee’s home, Embree recalled, he had recognized he was “in the presence of greatness.” With his grandparent and Yancey’s in mind, Embree wrote, it was “especially fitting that the grandchildren of these two pioneers should find themselves in association.”

That's from "Living the Fee Legacy: Edwin Embree and the Rosenwald Foundation," published in the Winter 2006 Berea College Magazine.

Even if you don't know the Rosenwald fellowships, you  know the talent they nurtured.  Marian Anderson sang at the Lincoln Memorial after returning from a fellowship-supported tour of Europe; Charles Drew's work on blood transfusions built on a fellowship-supported final year of medical school, and Mamie Clark's three years of doll-selection research led to the work she published with her husband Kenneth and the most important citations in the case of Brown v. Board of Education.  Here's what I found when I wondered about Ms. Yancey's later work:

Established in 1954, [The National Association of Student Affairs Professionals] has served as a vehicle for student affairs personnel to implement effective and efficient student services and programs for African American and minority students. The Yancey Award was established to honor Sadie M. Yancey, the first president and former dean of women at Howard University, who was instrumental in the development and growth of the organization. 

One more thing: this is post for Father's Day because the Embree article was written by Alfred Perkins, retired Berea dean and professor, known at my house as Dad, and because after pondering all week about how to do more to build up a community where all talents can bloom, I'm looking forward to asking his advice when I call him this afternoon. 

Student Voice Team Spotlights Completions (Tripwires in the Courier-Journal)

Check out the great voices in the Courier-Journal's opinion section!  Fresh from the Prichard Committee's Student Voice Team's work on Uncovering the Tripwires to Postsecondary Success, read:

• Amanda Wahlstedt on "Poor students need more"
• Andrew Brennan on "The college dropout crisis"
• Ashton Bishop on "The view from middle school" 
• Gentry Fitch on "Tripwires to postsecondary success"
• Mariah Mowbray on "Remedial education's high price"
• Naomi Kellogg on "High-achieving minority students"
• Susie Smith on "Guidance counselors need help, too"

And do let their main argument sink in: college completion results are not what we need them to be, and work to understand and change those results deserves a high spot on Kentucky's education agenda. 

University Graduation Trends (Disaggregated!)

The College Completion web project (spotlighted in yesterday's post) also lets us see more clearly what's changing for students from different backgrounds.

In the charts below, Kentucky public higher education has a clear upward trend in bachelor's degree graduation rates overall and for Asian and white students, with weaker and bumpier results for black, Hispanic, and American Indian students. 

More exactly, these are the rates for students who started school full-time and did not transfer out after that. For example, the 2013 rates are for students who enrolled full-time during 2007-08 year and earned degrees by 2012-13 from the school where they started their college work.

The caveat about enrolling full-time and not transferring does matter a good bit. The 2013 results above reflect 7,826 bachelor degrees going to students who started full time and stayed at the same, institution but the Council on Postsecondary Education reports that 16,568 bachelor degrees were awarded in the 2012-13 school year. That means that the data above tells about half the bachelor graduation story. It's not a complete account of what's happening in Kentucky's efforts to increase bachelor's degree attainment, but it is the part of the story that can be told with the data currently available for public analysis.

(Hat tip to the Student Voice Team for finding the College Completion site while researching its new Tripwire report!)

College Completion Maps (Bachelor and Associate Degrees)

The College Completion web project (developed by the Chronicle of Higher Education) offers  great detail for all states, with graphics into the bargain.

For example, the site shows vividly that Kentucky's 2013 graduation rate for four-year public institutions is lower than many states, shown by the pink rather than green shading of our state.

On the other hand, our two-year public institutions are doing better than quite a few states, as shown by the shading in light green.

 

There is a caveat on both maps: they show graduation in 150% of expected time by students who enroll full-time and never transfer.   That full-time, stay-at-one-school information is what each institution reports out, so that's what the maps are able to show.

The 2013 results above reflect 7,826 bachelor degrees going to those students who started full time and continued at the same institution.  However, Kentucky's Council on Postsecondary Education reports that 16,568 bachelor degrees were awarded in the 2012-13 school year.  For the associate map, the results reflect 2,370 degrees to the full-time, stay-put cohort, but CPE reports 9,713 associate degrees earned in 2012-13. 

That means the maps above tell about half the bachelor story and about a quarter of the associate situation. They're not complete accounts of what's happening in Kentucky public postsecondary completion, but they are the part of the story that can be told with the available public data.

(Hat tip to the Student Voice Team for finding the College Completion site while researching its new Tripwire report!)

Student Voice Team Investigates College Success

Uncovering the Tripwires to Postsecondary Success brings new insight from the Prichard Committee Student Voice Team, seeking reasons for Kentucky's low college graduation rates by working both with experts and with fellow students across the state.  The report identifies three major barriers to college completion:

• The Birthright Lottery: students’ family backgrounds and regional limitations can make college-going easy or hard, in ways that aren't really about their individual potential.
• Veiled College Costs: some students can pay for coaching on college applications and activities that make them stronger applicants, while others without the family resources for those opportunities are behind before they even start.
• College and Career Unreadiness: many students miss the habits and abilities that can be even more important than ACT scores in  supporting college completion.

Together, the young Kentuckians who developed the report have made the case that our state needs to engage postsecondary challenges with the same seriousness we have brought to K-12 readiness and completion issues.  Do check out their argument, and do join the conversation they urge us to begin!

Maker Space: Already Live in Northern Kentucky!

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

Great Graduation Maps (from EdWeek)

As part of its "Diploma Counts" coverage, EdWeek is offering color coded maps of state graduation rates for various groups.  It's a wonderful approach, letting viewers click quickly from group to group and experience the gaps as vivid changes.  The darkest blue is used for the strongest results, while the darkest orange-brown identifies the weakest outcomes.

Above, results for economically disadvantaged students, with Kentucky's 85% rate shown as well above the national average of 73%, tied with Texas, and better (when you mouse over each jurisdiction) than the results in each of the other states.

Below, results for students with limited English proficiency are far lower, though our 64% rate is a bit better than the national 61%.

Do give these powerful maps a close look: they'll make sure that the differences sink into your bones.

(Added note: Consider a cautious viewing of the map for students with disabilities. It shows a 52%  Kentucky graduation rate for students with disabilities, while Kentucky's school report card data file shows a 74% rate.  The SRC 2012-13 file matches EdWeek for every other group, so there may be a data glitch somewhere. PrichBlog will try to find out why the numbers don't match and which statistics accurately reflect results for those students.)
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2015 Working Conditions: Improving with Room to Improve More

The newest TELL results suggest that Kentucky educators are seeing improvement in their working conditions. TELL is short for  the Teaching, Empowering, Leading and Learning Kentucky Survey, taken this spring by nearly 45,000 school-based certified educators, asking them how much they agree with a series of statements about their own schools.

Compared to the 2013 results, teachers were more positive on all 80 items. The biggest change: 68% of teachers agreed that "professional development is evaluated and results are communicated to teachers," in 2015, up from just 61% two years back.  The smallest change: whether "teachers have sufficient access to instructional technology," with 82.1% agreeing now compared to 82.0% in 2013.

The greatest promise of the TELL survey is that it can help us figure out how to strengthen learning by supporting teachers, and to get those benefits, we need to pay extra attention to the weakest results.  So, here are the 10 items that got the lowest teacher agreement in 2015, with the 2013 responses included to show both that we've made some progress and that there's room for lots more work:

Much of the work to change these numbers will need to be done locally, so do check out the school-by-school reports available at www.tellkentucky.org/results, and think about what might be the best ways to make your own places stronger.

At the state level, these numbers may suggest that it's time for another, deeper search for great approaches to:

1. Freeing time for teachers to meet individual student needs, with that time spent both in classroom instruction and in non-classroom work spent analyzing evidence and ideas for making that instruction more effective for each child.
2. Making sure professional development matters –which may turn out to mean making it an embedded, connected part of that search for evidence and ideas" on how to serve each child.
3. Engaging parents and guardians more effectively –again with particular attention to collaboration on understanding and meeting individual needs.
4. Empowering teachers to have deeper, more effective influence on school decisions –especially those that effect items 1, 2, and 3 above.

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2014-15 Readiness Results in Grades 8 and 10 Include Some Losses

2014-15 scores are now available for the Explore and Plan readiness assessments, showing an increase in 10th grade students meeting science and mathematics benchmarks compared to last year, but declines in reading and English for both grade 8 and grade 10 and a loss in mathematics for grade 8.  Grade 8 science results were unchanged from 2013-14. The graphs below show detail, and results for all schools and districts are available in the supplemental data section of the Department of Education's Open House portal under the Assessment link.  (2014-15 ACT readiness results for grade 11 have not yet been released.)

Ms. Lemily's Lesson: Looking Closer at Math Excellence (With Elves!)

Last week, PrichBlog shared some of the “Finding Solutions” account of Christa Lemily’s eighth grade students working on figuring out whether classic Corvettes make good investments. The question can be answered with several different mathematical strategies, so it's a great example of the fluent, flexible problem-solving called for by Kentucky's academic standards.

To explain that, let’s start by spending a minute with the Brothers Grimm and their tale of “The Shoemaker’s Elves.” The first night, the elves turned one piece of leather into a pair of shoes so fine that, after selling them, the shoemaker could afford to leather for two pairs. The second night’s two beautiful pairs brought in enough money to buy leather for four. The third night? You know the answer: enough for eight pairs.

So, how did you figure out that it was eight? Here are five respectable options:

1. Maybe you used addition.
2. Maybe you multiplied.
3. Maybe you’ve worked or played with numbers enough that you just know what happens as you double a small number. 
4. You probably didn’t use percentages, but you could. If the story was trickier, with two pairs yielding revenue to buy leather for three, multiplying by 150% each morning might be a good choice.
5. You probably didn’t use an exponential function either, but if the growth was 20% each night, and you wanted to know the result after 10 nights, you might end up using a formula like 
   

Fortunately, we don't need to unpack that formula to see the point about mathematical options.

Instead, let's swing back to Ms. Lemily's class at South Warren Middle and their question about Corvettes. If the shoemaker story is about growing (appreciating) value, the car story turns out to be about the opposite: depreciation or value going down. On average, Corvette convertibles lose 15% of their value the first year, and between 8% and 10% each year after that. With a $60,000 car, that’s going to produce values like this over time:

Under Kentucky's standards, Ms. Lemily’s students should be ready to work out those numbers by multiplying percentages, figure out that Corvettes are better as transportation than as investments, and notice that the graphed results do not look like a line. Kentucky's math standards for grade 8 call for students to be able to:

•  "Interpret the equation y = mx + b as defining a linear function, whose graph is a straight line; give examples of functions that are not linear.” [Emphasis added]

From the “Finding Solutions” description, Ms. Lemily's students may have reached that standard and also be closing in on some high school expectations, like being able to:

• "Recognize situations in which a quantity grows or decays by a constant percent rate per unit interval relative to another," and
• "Construct linear and exponential functions, including arithmetic and geometric sequences, given a graph, a description of a relationship, or two input-output pairs (include reading these from a table)."

Do notice that the standards are not asking students to remember every formula they see in a math class. The goal is for them to recognize the kind of change involved and construct a function that works for that situation. That's one reason the Prichard Committee report came with a subtitle about how “Standards Push Students Toward Real-Life Problems.”

Overall, South Warren Middle School's strong focus on the math standards seems to be paying off. With Ms. Lemily in the lead, South Warren was one of the first middle schools in the country to join the work of the Mathematics Design Collaborative, and as of last year, their K-PREP scores impressively outpaced the state average for most groups:

One more thought. An even deeper goal in our standards is for students to master these key mathematical practices:

1. Make sense of problems and persevere in solving them.
2. Reason abstractly and quantitatively.
3. Construct viable arguments and critique the reasoning of others.
4. Model with mathematics.
5. Use appropriate tools strategically.
6. Attend to precision.
7. Look for and make use of structure.
8. Look for and express regularity in repeated reasoning.

The work happening in Ms. Lemily's classroom embodies those practices, and equips her students to use all eight in high school, in college, and across their careers. It's an impressive step up in how Kentuckians teach and learn math!

Maker Spaces: A Rising Idea for Deeper Learning?

"Maker space" is a term for our decade, proposing flexible access to up-to-date technology, including the chance to explore 3-D printers and other tools and to work with others who are also figuring out what those new technologies can do.

Can school libraries become maker spaces? EdWeek is reporting on school libraries working to promote "education through tinkering and creating" through maker spaces for student use.

For example, a Missouri elementary school has stocked its space with "craft supplies, sewing machines, snap circuits, Lego sets," as well as a 3-D printer for student use.  A Michigan effort is developing after-school opportunities for students to develop technology skills and finding, according to a faculty coordinator, that "there is a real hunger; there is a sense that there's something about this that's powerful for them."

On a first read, this looks like a savvy new approach to familiar challenges. To use these tools, students will have  to apply and develop problem-solving and critical thinking skills.  To complete their projects, they'll need to use math and science skills in systematic, productive ways. And if we want to see students engage with their full energy, these kinds of resources certainly seem likely to draw them in.

On a second read, it's clear that the approach is in its early days. So far, there's not much formal research to confirm or disconfirm learning results.  Still, that's how engineering is supposed to work. A sound design process identifies a need, proposes solutions, and tests them out, check to see which ones best meet the criteria for meeting the need and revising many times to find an approach that fully succeeds. 

Here, there are two clear needs: developing students' STEM understanding and developing those capacities to participate effectively that we often call "21st century skills."  Maker spaces look credible as possible solutions to both needs, and definitely worth multiple, vigorous trials.

High School Attainment: Five Years and Five Decade Change

Here's a quick look at rising Kentucky educational attainment, using data from the Census Bureau's American Community Survey.

Census data will include private school and home school diplomas, along with equivalency degrees, so this chart can never be a straightforward match to our reported cohort graduation rates.

Still, this is a clear indication that our state is making sustained progress on high school attainment.

It's also worth pausing to trace the evidence of a huge educational change decades ago. 

You can see the difference if you compare Kentuckians 65 and older to any other cohort, and notice how much lower their completion rates were. 

You can see the shift even more sharply if you look at how that age group changed from 2008 to 2013. That's the transition from the youngest members of the group being in 1943 to the youngest being born in 1948, and roughly from 1961 eligibility for high school graduation to 1966 eligibility –and moving through those years has quickly given Kentucky a dramatically better educated group of older citizens.

Finding Solutions (New Prichard Report On Implementing Standards in Kentucky Classrooms)

Important news fresh from Tuesday's Prichard Committee press release:

A first-hand look at how Kentucky’s academic standards are spurring innovative teaching and learning in classrooms is the focus of a special report from the Prichard Committee for Academic Excellence.

“Finding Solutions: Standards Push Students Toward Real-Life Problems” features eighth-grade math teacher Christa Lemily’s approach to introducing her South Warren Middle School students to mathematical formulas by determining the value of investing in a classic car. Such connections between challenging math and real-world situations have grown as a result of Kentucky’s academic standards.

“The standards focus not just on repetition, but on understanding and applying mathematic reasoning,” Lemily said. “These standards help teachers focus on how students are taught to reason and think through math as much as they focus on the skills that students are taught. The goal is math thinkers, not just math do-ers.”

Teachers at Pembroke Elementary and Millbrooke Elementary, both in Christian County, also share their experiences with the standards. Pembroke teacher Jettie Payne said the standards are prompting her fifth-grade math students to gain a solid understanding of fractions and decimals.

She also said her classroom represents a change from the way she learned to teach. “I remember sitting in class thinking, ‘When will I ever use this?,’” she said, adding that her lessons now draw clear connections between math and everyday application.

Millbrooke’s Cindy Wyatt said the standards have prompted her to select more challenging books for her second graders, leading to more interesting reflections and conversations in reading groups and stronger vocabulary development.

Kentucky's academic standards are also the focus of a second Prichard Committee report released today on “Progress in Kentucky Education: Higher Standards, Assessments and Teaching." Together, the reports provide an overview of progress in Kentucky education and how that is reflected in both policy developments and classroom practices.  Both are available at www.prichardcommittee.org.

New Prichard Report: Progress in Kentucky Education: Higher Standards, Assessments and Teaching

And more important news from Tuesday's release:

LEXINGTON, KY –Kentucky’s academic standards are the focus of a new Prichard Committee report, which shares additional information about the state’s assessment and teacher evaluation systems.

“Progress in Kentucky Education: Higher Standards, Assessments and Teaching” describes the interconnected elements of the state’s education system:

• academic standards that establish what students should know and be able to do as they move from grade to grade toward graduation
• an assessment system that measures how well students and schools are meeting those standards
• a professional growth and effectiveness system to ensure that educators are able to improve their skills every year and equip students for steadily higher levels of performance

The report points out that higher academic standards are critical because Kentucky’s students face a future where jobs will require that they can adapt and learn new skills on a continuing basis; in other words, they must learn how to learn. Kentucky’s state standards help them do that, the report notes.

Making sure schools and students are on the right track is essential, and Kentucky’s statewide assessments provide evidence about the learning that is taking place in schools. The report notes that assessments are particularly important for spotting and addressing achievement gaps between groups of students – a continuing, significant challenge for Kentucky.

The report also emphasizes the relationship between effective teachers and student success, pointing up the need to give educators ongoing feedback and opportunities to develop stronger professional skills. Kentucky’s new Professional Growth and Effectiveness System looks closely at both the quality of what teachers do and the learning that takes place in the classroom.

The system identifies areas where each teacher is already effective and where improvement is needed, and it promises consistent support for making those improvements, the Prichard Committee report points out. It also sets clear criteria and quick timelines for ineffective educators to improve their practice or move out of the profession. A matching system is in place for principals, and similar approaches are being developed for counselors, librarians, instructional supervisors, and other professional education positions.

“It’s clear we are on the right track in Kentucky. Our students are performing at higher levels and teachers are meeting the standards by providing deeper learning opportunities in the classroom. Staying the course and working together will ensure continuous improvement for our students and for our state,” said Stu Silberman, executive director of the Prichard Committee for Academic Excellence.

“Progress in Kentucky Education” was released today along with a special Prichard Perspectives report on  implementing the standards in Kentucky classrooms: “Finding Solutions: Standards Push Students Toward Real-Life Problems.” Together, the reports provide an overview of progress in Kentucky education and how that is reflected in both policy developments and classroom practices.

Both reports are available at prichardcommittee.org.

The Mathematics We Need

Here's a challenge:

• You are planning to make and sell ice cream cones at a school sports event.
• You expect to make and sell 300 cones.
• You buy ice cream in 1 liter tubs.
• Each tub costs $2. 
• You can fill ten cones from each tub. 
• Each empty cone costs 5¢.
• You plan to sell each filled cone for 80¢.
• Before buying the ice cream, you survey 60 people to find out what flavors they like. Here are the results of the survey:

In this situation:

1. Work out the quantities you need to buy and the costs
2. What profit do you expect to make on the day?
You know that if you try to work through the task above, you'll have to do more than remember what you learned in seventh grade.  Instead:

• You'll have to figure out how the information fits together, and show some tenacity to work through to a solution.
• There's a good chance that after you've been working on a problem like this for a couple of minutes, you'll erase something in order to change your strategy.  
• When you've worked through the whole thing once, there's also also a good chance that you'll realize one of your steps wasn't done quite right, and for precision you need to do some of the work a second time.  
• If you've been around this sort of block a few times, you know you want to make notes next to the calculations so someone else can look over your thinking and help you see if it's clear and sound.

Most of all, you know you didn't learn the "one right way" to answer this task in school, and you know this kind of task above is the stuff of real life, relevant both for large scale capitalism and for local PTA leadership.

To be ready for college and career, Kentucky's students need preparation for mathematics with these kinds of demands.

That's what we're building by implementing Kentucky's academic standards.  Along with ability to do particular kinds of equations,  we're working to build eight mathematical practices, including four illustrated in my bullets above:

• "Make sense of problems and persevere in solving them"
• "Use appropriate tools strategically"
• "Attend to precision"
• "Construct viable arguments and critique the reasoning of others"

This kind of readiness is also what we're building by participating in the work of the Mathematics Design Collaborative.  The task comes direct from a set of "summative tasks" developed for MDC that allow students to show and teachers to see how well student can put their mathematical learning to work.  It's a middle school task, confirming that we're aiming very high indeed for our high school graduates.

Source note: No claim about standards should come without source specifics.  You can download a copy of the Kentucky Core Academic Standards for yourself, and check pages 56 and 57 to see the language quoted above.  You can see the same expectations without a download at the Common Core State Standards site by looking under Standards for Mathematical Practice.

Geek note: The rubric for the task shows it as sound to round up on liters of strawberry and down on chocolate chip, based on assuming that the survey was accurate.  I myself would discount the survey substantially because it did not include chocolate and because I can't tell if the 65 people surveyed were a good sample of the kinds of people coming for the sports event.  Mind, I'd still end up with the same profit estimate, but I'd bring a different set of wares to the game.

What is Assessment? (GCIPL Fellow Video)

Parents Want to Know: What is Assessment on Vimeo.

This clear, simple, accurate, kid-focused video is part of a GCIPL leadership project by Jenny Hobson and Katie Starzman, and it's seriously great.

HANDS: Kentucky’s Home Visiting Success Story

Liza Holland, a consultant working with the Prichard Committee, shares this post:

Health Access Nurturing Development Services, or HANDS, is Kentucky’s home visiting initiative to support at-risk families and give babies and children a better start in life.

HANDS is funded through Kentucky’s Master Tobacco Settlement at $9 million and leverages that money to access an additional 17 million in federal Medicaid funds. It is a program carried out by health departments in all 120 counties.

HANDS has demonstrated great maternal and child outcomes. A sample of the recent findings includes these maternal outcomes:

• ADEQUATE PRENATAL CARE – 14% more than similar high risk families that did not participate
• PREGNANCY-INDUCED HYPERTENSION – 49% less than similar high risk families that did not participate
• MATERNAL COMPLICATIONS DURING PREGNANCY – 40% less than similar high risk families that did not participate

And also these child outcomes:

• PREMATURITY – 26% less than similar high risk families that did not participate
• LOW BIRTH WEIGHT INFANTS - 46% less than similar high risk families that did not participate
• INFANT DECEASED IN HOSPITAL – 94% less than similar high risk families that did not participate
• CHILD ABUSE AND NEGLECT – 47% less than similar high risk families that did not participate

The U.S. Senate recently approved a two-year extension for the Maternal, Infant, and Early Childhood Home Visiting (MIECHV) program, which passed the U.S. House of Representatives last month. This federal-state partnership, which provides critical family support and coaching, has a long history of bipartisan backing at the federal and state levels. The extension of funding through September 30, 2017—$400 million a year for fiscal years 2016 and 2017—will mean that more of our nation’s vulnerable children will have the opportunity to grow up safer and healthier and to be successful in school and life.

These good results for children and families are made possible in part by the strong national advocacy work of Prichard partners like the Pew Charitable Trusts and ReadyNation, as well as the work across Kentucky of many dedicated citizens.  HANDS and other early childhood initiatives are important Prichard Committee priorities.

Past and Future of Home Visiting (From the Pew Summit)

Liza Holland, a consultant working with the Prichard Committee, shares this post:

At the recent Pew Quality in Home Visiting Summit 2015, Deb Daro, a Chapin Hall Senior Research Fellow at the University of Chicago, shared a brief history of home visiting, along with thoughts on next steps to strengthen this highly effective strategy for early childhood support services.

Home visiting as a means of providing support to parents has it roots in rural history, harkening back to Mary Breckinridge out on a horse in Kentucky at the turn of the 20th century doing home visiting. Building on a long tradition, in the early 1980’s, states began to implement government-supported programs targeting a variety of intervention strategies. This decade saw the development of a wide array of models across the US.

In the 1990’s, there was a trend towards new national models, which could be replicated, and a need for real data to support outcomes. This time period saw an impressive expansion in home visiting, but a growing friction among the various models being implemented.

The first decades of the 2000s brought a spirit of collaboration, and a focus on high quality evidence for policy and practice decisions. The Pew campaign began and allowed true discussion at a national level. Advocates began to initiate efforts for broad federal policy in this area. After the introduction of a few bills that did not get anywhere, the Obama administration included home visiting in the 2010 agenda, eventually leading to the inclusion of Maternal, Infant, and Early Childhood Home Visiting (MIECHV) in the Affordable Care Act.

The MIECHV program was set up as a state and federal partnership and brought several key innovations, including supporting replication of evidence based programs. it required a shared management plan, emphasized improved home visiting quality, and focused the field on outcomes and benchmarks. MIECHV funding allowed states to vastly expand their infrastructure and take proven programs to scale in their states.

Today, Daro shares some concerns for the field. She feels we may be pushing Home Visiting as a solution to everything. Although a quality strategy, it will not solve all of societies complex problems. She is concerned about the field loosing focus and experiencing a bit of mission drift. She worries we are using data for accountability rather than learning. This is still a fairly young field and we need to keep exploring the best options for delivery. And finally, we may be too focused on federal funding – “The cake is the state level - fed is the icing”, said Daro.

Going forward, we need to keep making basic improvements in the revision of benchmarks and continue with the Pew Data work. We need to expand learning opportunities and support new research findings. Daro would like to see improvements in MIECHV dynamic elements and greater collaboration. She supports more critical thinking and better balance. We need to dispel the myth that only some families need help. EVERYBODY needs help with parenting.

Overall, would like to see the same investment into entrance to life as we do for exit (aged services).

Daro’s walk through history was a rousing kickoff to 2 days of learning, networking and collaboration around home visiting issues, sponsored by the Pew Charitable Trusts. Pew has had a significant impact on the home visiting field since the campaign initiated. Working in the areas of public advocacy, having developed a model policy framework, research and information sharing, Pew has been a true leader in the development of home visiting nationally.

Pew chose to work with Kentucky as one of their key states to ensure that legislation was enacted to ensure support of a continuing, quality home visiting program in Kentucky's HANDS initiative.

Making the Grade: How to Become a Teacher in Kentucky

Here's a guest post from Gabe Duverge at Campbellsville University:

Politician Brad Henry once said, “A good teacher can inspire hope, ignite the imagination and instill a love of learning.” Teachers can have a truly profound impact on their students, from pre-K to adulthood. But there are requirements to be considered qualified to teach. Although these requirements vary by state, Kentucky has some of the most stringent standards in the nation. This guide will help you navigate the complex, and occasionally confusing, world of Kentucky regulations so you can understand what you need to do to follow your passion and change the lives of others in the classroom.

NECESSARY CREDENTIALS
In Kentucky, as with any state, the proper credentials are needed to become licensed as a teacher. The Kentucky Educational Professional Standards Board (EPSB) manages the certification process and distributes teaching licenses. Their process involves several steps and requirements.

Undergraduate Degree
Each teacher in the state of Kentucky must have at least a bachelor’s degree to teach; the coursework and type of degree required depends on the type of teacher. Here are the basic coursework requirements:

• Elementary School Teacher (Grades 1-5): To earn certification, teachers must have completed coursework in all subject areas taught in elementary school, including English, math, social studies and more.
• Middle School Teacher (Grades 6-9): To become a middle school teacher, teachers must have an undergraduate major in English, math, social studies or science, with the major being equivalent to 30 or more semester hours of coursework. Most education degree programs fulfill this requirement by offering concentrations in various areas of teaching.
• Secondary School Teachers (Grades 9-12): As with middle school subjects, a teacher must have a major in their subject areas. Specialty subject areas like art and music have specific requirements.

Department Rethinking Its Teacher Tech Platform

What is CIITS?

CIITS is short for the Continuous Instructional Improvement Technology System (CIITS), Kentucky's online technology platform for improving teaching and implementing our statewide push toward college and career readiness.

From its launch in 2011, CIITS has been billed as a new and better way to:

• share education resources for classroom use
• provide online professional development for teachers, principals, and other educators
• develop and implement school and district improvement plans
• gather and track evidence for PGES (our new Professional Growth and Effectiveness System, designed to replace older approaches to evaluating individual educators)

CIITS has been an ambitious statewide investment, featured heavily in Kentucky's applications for Race to the Top funds and for waivers of No Child Left Behind requirements.

And CIITS may be in some trouble.

According to Kentucky Teacher, the Department of Education is now consulting education leaders around the state about which parts of the system are worth keeping and which should perhaps be dropped.  

The biggest frustrations has been over the PGES-related tools, known as the Educator Development Suite or EDS. There, recurring software problems have added technical challenges to a process that was already complicated and potentially stressful for participants. The Department has already agreed to reduce the data entry requirements. Now, the state may drop the statewide platform entirely, which would give each district responsibility for creating its own record-keeping system.

The professional development component seems never to have been a big draw. Long known as PD360 and now called Edivate, it has only attracted 9% of CIITS users over the last two years--and that one component carries a $4 million annual price tag.

The teaching resources have gotten greater attention: 66% of teachers have used the IMS (Instructional Management System) part of CIITS to develop and share at least some of their own lesson plans.  The Department publishes reports on the number of IMS log-ins for each school, so there has definitely been strong encouragement to explore that part of the platform

The final element, known as ASSIST, is a format for improvement planning by schools and districts.  Kentucky Teacher mentions that element, but does not offer a summary of what's being said about its effectiveness. (From my own limited experience studying the planning documents, ASSIST-based plans seem to include a wide array of objectives, but offer limited clarity about implementation or follow up and some definite difficulties with making and publicizing annual revisions. I cannot tell how ASSIST has been working for principals, and I especially don't know whether the online approach has made it easier or harder for school leaders to think through and act on worthwhile changes to teaching and learning.)

A CIITS decision is scheduled to be finished by May 30, according to the article. The outcome may be an important milestone in Kentucky's current work to equip our next generation for success, so stay tuned.

Kindergartners Reading Closely

EdWeek is sharing a lively example of students (very small students) figuring out story details:

The book recounts how the author's grandmother taught her to manage her fear of thunderstorms by learning to tell how far away they were and hurrying to bake a cake before the rain began.

The teacher asked a cluster of questions aimed at helping the children understand that the author is also the narrator. "I wonder who's telling this story? Turn and talk to your buddy," she said.

And then: "Oh, so the character is also the author?"

When the narrator described the "sharp crackling light" that frightened her, Ms. Landahl said: "What is she scared of?"

Hands shot up. "Thunder!" some children called out.

"Well, that's the sound," Ms. Landahl replied. "She can see the light, right?"

There was a momentary pause, and then a girl said: "It's lightning."

The article on "New Read-Aloud Strategies" offers a great look at ways to take students deeper into reading.  For this kindergarten class, it's done through reading out loud to enjoy the story, then reading again to enjoy more deeply, with attention to how the parts fit together.  A video portion of the story shows students talking in pairs to figure out some of the answers and identify the specific part of the story that is the evidence for the answers they choose.

At this age, the goal is to ensure that the young learners can"with prompting and support, ask and answer questions about key details in a text."

That's laying a foundation so that in two years they'll be ready to "ask and answer such questions as who, what, where, when, why, and how to demonstrate understanding of key details in a text," and in four years they'll be able to "refer to details and examples in a text when explaining what the text says explicitly and when drawing inferences from the text."

Those three italicized standards are  kindergarten, second grade, and fourth grade versions of Reading Standard 1 from Kentucky's academic standards, and they are also expectations for those three levels in Nevada, where the EdWeek article found Ms. Landahl and her students studying the book Thundercake.

Parts of Ms. Landahl's teaching plan came from designs shared by teachers across the country and shared through the Read-Aloud Project, jointly sponsored by  Student Achievement Partners (based in New York) and the Council of Great City Schools (serving students and schools in urban areas all across the country).  In turn, Kentucky teachers from Pikeville to the Jackson Purchase can draw from those resources and contribute their own teaching plans.

It's a great example of how sharing standards can contribute to excellence for individual children in local schools all over the country.

Kentucky State Preschool Rankings

Kentucky just received some strong rankings for our state preschool efforts, placing us...

17th in percent of 4-year-olds enrolled in state prekindergarten, with 30% of 4-year-olds enrolled in our state-funded program

10th in percent of 3-year-olds enrolled in state kindergarten, with 7.4% of that age group enrolled in the state program

30th in  resources based on state spending of $3,469 per enrolled child

11th in resources based on all reported spending, which totals $6,818 per enrolled child

Those rankings and numbers come from The State of Preschool 2013-14, just released by the National Institute for Early Education Research, which also credited Kentucky's state program with meeting...

9 of 10 state pre-k quality standards, missing only the one that calls for assistant teachers to have child development associate or equivalent credentials.

Do note that the participation rates above are just for the state program. Adding in federal Head Start, the report shows 17% of three-year-olds and 46% of four-year-olds in Kentucky benefit from publicly supported programs.

It's also worth noting some uncomfortable one-year changes shown in the report. In 2013-14, Kentucky state preschool enrolled 90 fewer three-year-olds and 169 fewer four-year-olds than in 2012-13.  In the same period, state funding did not keep up with inflation, so that preschool buying power went down $186  per enrolled child.

However, there is good reason to expect those trends to turn around in 2015-16, when the state budget will add nearly $19 million in funding, estimated to be enough to allow another 5,000 children to participate in our state preschool program.

Those results show Kentucky doing better than most states, definitely a cause for a moment of genuine pride in our investment in the futures of these young Kentuckians.

Big New Idea: Next Generation Instructional Design

Next Generation Instructional Design (abbreviated as NextGen ID or NGID) is an ambitious new education effort underway in Kentucky, and I've spent part of the morning reading up.  Here, I'll offer short basics gleaned from the project webpage, followed by my own italicized notes on why each element seem important.

In daily student experience, NGID learning units will provide new opportunities for "project-based and problem-based learning," designed to develop high levels of knowledge, skill, and understanding and meet Kentucky's academic standards.  

The project/problem part means students themselves will be actively figuring out how to use what they learn, and they'll do the learning in ways that make its usefulness clear from the beginning.  The standards part means it will be the right kind of challenge, equipping them with capacities they can use for further achievement in college, careers, and community participation. Overall, this is a new push toward learning approaches that students often find meaningful, engaging, effective, and (dare I say it?) fun.

In daily teacher experience, these units will provide useful tools and common assignments for helping students learn, designed with built-in ways to check whether the learning is on track.

That's also great.  It's a plan to help educators with the demanding new expectations we've asked them to take on.  "Common assignments" also means they're designed for teachers to be able to collaborate with one another on development, implementation, and examining the resulting work to think about best next steps for students.  And, of course, engaged students are far less likely to cause  behavioral problems, so this sort of approach can also promises help with the whole discipline/classroom management challenge that teachers must address in order to support student learning.

Meanwhile, data on student growth is going to be essential for Kentucky's new Professional Growth and Effectiveness System. The NextGen ID effort will also examine how "student work samples and other artifacts may provide information related to educator effectiveness to complement, supplement or provide alternatives to existing test-based measures of student performance."

 In other words, there's hope that the work students turn in can be used for teacher evaluations.  If this succeeds, it will mean that judgments don't have to rely solely on assessments that measure only a fraction of what we really want students to know and be able to do: it'll be possible to look at fully-applied, hands-on, very-nearly-real-world use of students' knowledge and skills. It's a chance to get most closer to what students have really learned and much closer to what teachers have really achieved.

The work is also new and starting quite small.  Coordinated by the Fund to Transform Education, it involves about 60 Kentucky educators working to think through how the units can be used and what kind of impact they will have, while developing the skills to lead the development of additional units and help colleagues put the units to work across the state.

The good news there is that the plan is to move at the pace that allows deep work and lay good foundations for effective expansion in the years ahead.  The limiting factor is that moving at that pace means this exciting effort launch in all schools right away: it'll take patience and commitment to see how richly we can put it to work statewide.

For added information on NextGen ID, check out the Fund's webpage and press release, and for a livelier idea of the kinds of work these units may involve, check out this recent Kentucky Teacher report on the common assignment work begun in 2013.

Science and Tech Integration at Jeffersontown High (and in Forbes magazine, too)

Forbes Magazine has a great new article on next-generation learning at Jeffersontown High School, integrating science, technology, engineering and mathematics in collaboration with the Ford Motor Company and the United Auto Workers.

It's a great snapshot of active students and supporting teachers that go with the deepest sort of  engagement:

Working in small groups, boys and girls are on their knees, or sitting cross-legged on the floor, cutting 30 square feet of cardboard sheet into parts they designed on the computer and then placing them at carefully planned angles before taping them into position. Their math, science and engineering teachers are circling the room, helping when needed.

 And it also features:

• Professional development, including "teacher externships, which bring teams of teachers into Ford facilities to gain first-hand workplace experience that they can take back to their classrooms."
• Mathematics in active use: "In the welding classroom, sparks are flying while students assemble a metal security gate for a real customer. But first, they had to use quadratic equations and parabolas to design the gate’s arch."
• And a Prichard Committee voice: Sam Corbett (PC member and former chair) gets the next-to-last word in his role as director of the Jefferson County Public Schools Foundation.

It sounds like the complete picture of a big change underway, and an article not to miss.

Private school enrollment decline continues

Two years back, it was surprising to spot Kentucky's rapid decline in private school enrollment. In the graph above, the downward trend continues.  The 2% reduction over the last two years was slower than the drops ranging from 3% to 7% in each of the five previous two-year periods, but continues the pattern of losses.  Over the twelve years, enrollment went down by just under 20,000 and by 22%.

For a quick comparison, Kentucky public school enrollment grew by nearly 34,000 and 5%.

Source note: numbers are from the Digest of Education Statistics, 2011 and 2014 charts.

Income Effects of Growing Up in Different Places (Amazing Map!)

This great map is a quick national view of how growing up in different counties affects one's household income at age 26 (compared to growing up in an "average county").  The New York Times is offering a fascinating interactive look, with options for seeing impacts on all children, male versus female children, and children from families with different income levels. 

One small warning: the article itself is interactive.  For about one second, the text was about Manhattan, and then it changed to being about the Danville area.  It was reading me while I was reading it! 

That said, it's engaging enough to share quickly, before mining it for deeper Kentucky insights.

Puzzling Losses: National New Teacher Study Looks Different Than Kentucky

A new federal study of 2007-08 beginning teachers shows that 12% were not teaching in 2009-10. That's a sharp contrast to Kentucky data discussed in Friday's PrichBlog post, showing that 30% of teachers who began in 2009-10 were not teaching in 2011-12. The big difference in two-year losses seems worth puzzling about.

The Great Recession probably played a role in the story. If you started work in 2007, the options at the end of your first and second school years may have seemed bleaker than for any class in a long time, perhaps leading the teachers in the national sample to hold on tight. In contrast, Kentucky teachers beginning in 2009 likely saw improving job markets as they made their choices about whether to continue: moving to another field may have seemed much more possible.

The data gathering methods may also play a role. The federal study tracked a sampling of teachers, surveying the same individuals each year except for those who could not be reached. An obvious risk there is that the people who could not be found again were heavily people who left teaching –maybe yielding too low a report of leavers. The Kentucky numbers reflect "3,452 traditional school teachers with teacher job codes" using data from the Kentucky Center for Education and Workforce Statistics.  A risk there is not knowing about people who moved to other states but are still teaching –maybe producing too high a report of those no longer teaching.

On the other hand, the difference between 12% leaving (calculated one way) and 30% leaving (calculated another way) may partly be a reflection of other differences in new teacher experiences. The data may partly be a signal that Kentucky has room to improve our new teacher retention rates.

The new federal data and the state numbers discussed last week do not offer answers about what kinds of improvements would be helpful to teachers or to students, but they do clarify some questions that may be deserve systematic attention.

Astonishing Losses: What Happens To Our New Teachers

From last month's Kentucky Board of Education meeting, the slide below deserves some attention.

It shows that for every 100 teachers who were new hires of the 2009-10 school year:

• 18 were out of Kentucky teaching by the next year
• 12 more were gone by the year after that
• 7  were teaching in a different district by their second year
• 7  were in the same district, but at a different school
• 56 were still at their original schools

That's a huge dropout rate and a huge amount of moving around for those who stay in the profession!

For teacher preparation programs, it brings up questions like these:

• Do we equip our graduates with the best skills for a sound start in teaching careers?
• Do we give them a meaningful understanding of the work they'll be taking on, so they aren't surprised and and disappointed by the actual experience?
• Do we recruit students with a deep capacity to engage children and learning with passion and effectiveness, or are we just taking everyone who knocks on our door?
• Do we ask students and new graduates what parts of our program are helpful, and take action to improve the things that don't work?

 For school leaders, it raises other issues, including:

• Are we giving our new teachers the best support we can provide?
• Are we offering the kind of working environment and professional community that makes them want to stay on our team?
• Are we asking our recent hires (both those who stay and those who leave) what we can do better?

For Kentuckians generally, the overarching puzzle may be:

• What must we change in order to attract and keep young people of energy and talent in this important work?

Source note: the slide is from the Kentucky Teacher Equity Plan Power Point that was part of the April 1, 2015, KBE Agenda.