Holliday on Kentucky Newsmakers

Kentucky Education Commissioner Terry Holliday sat with WKYT's Bill Bryant this weekend for an interesting interview.

This from WKYT:

Highlights include:

• The weather and calamity days under HB 427 which allow the Commissioner to excuse up to ten days. Nobody will go to school beyond June 21.
• Holliday is looking at a switch to Average Daily Membership (ADM) rather than the current Average Daily Attendance (ADA) for calculating attendance. Probably a good move overall although it might not help small schools.
• The TELL Survey has gather responses from about 25,000 Kentukcy teachers on working conditions and leadership in the schools. Look for results in May.
• The state has removed about 17 school councils to date pursuant to (HB 176) Audit Team recommendations in low-performing schools.
• Some stuff about conservative anxiety over cursive writing, civics, math by hand, grammar, penmanship... Holiday says we are "preparing children for their futures, not our past."
• Holliday's best rejoinder came in response to concerns that today's students don't know their civics like their parents do. Holliday said, "I would challenge you: [You] pull randomly ten folks off the street and let me pull ten fourth graders and let's have a civics competition... I think our schools are doing pretty good work. Something happens when they become adults though. They forget what they learned in school."
• Holliday is still open to charter schools and believes, "If parents have a choice, they're more engaged in their child's education." But he correctly reads the data an says there are some great charters and some really bad charters.
• Rand Paul sees no federal role for education. Holliday disagrees and says [if there was no Department of Education] "I think children would suffer" particularly poor students and special needs students. "I think the federal government has a huge role to play in that.
• A little chatter on the tenure debate.
• Cooperation and collaboration with teachers, improved working conditions and fair evaluations...
• Pension and health care..."about to put us out of business"
• Stu at Prichard: "real excited about Stu going into that position"
• Holliday's one goal: More kids graduate from HS college and career-ready
• Bad budget and the Legislature: We look at 2013-14 as being a better session

Holliday Warns JCPS that Staffing Overhauls may Fall Short

This from Toni Konz at the Courier-Journal, Photo by Sam Upshaw:

Kentucky's education chief has warned Jefferson County Public Schools it could lose millions of dollars in federal funding — or lose control entirely of the overhaul process — if the district doesn't make a more determined effort to turn around its lowest performing schools.

Education Commissioner Terry Holliday said the district's staffing changes may not be meeting state and federal requirements at several of the 12 Jefferson County schools targeted for overhauls because their reading and math scores are some of the worst in Kentucky.

Less than one-third of the 70 teachers being replaced at three of those schools — Doss, Fairdale and Seneca high schools — teach reading and math, the two subjects that led the state to demand major overhauls at the schools because of their poor test scores, according to data obtained by The Courier-Journal in an open-records request.

“The reason why these schools are persistently low achieving is due to their graduation rate and reading and math scores,” Holliday said in an interview. “If we are not looking to replace reading and math teachers, how can we expect to improve reading and math scores?”

Holliday has put the school board on notice that he could take over decisions about how the district overhauls its most-troubled schools if the Kentucky Education Department determines the district isn't taking the reform effort seriously...

2010: A Busy Year

Last week, Kentucky Education Commissioner Terry Holliday took a look back at the events of 2010 and notes that it was a busy, fruitful year for the state’s P-12 education community.

“When I tally up the events and accomplishments related to P-12 education, I see many positive events,” said Holliday. “Overall, 2010 will be remembered as a year of activity and purpose in public education. I believe that Kentuckians have a renewed sense of hope for the future of our P-12 education system, and I know that our teachers, principals, superintendents, parents, elected officials and citizens recognize their crucial importance to the state’s success.”

Then, as is the new year's custom, the Commish offered the major highlights of public education in 2010.

• Common Core State Standards adoption – In March, the Kentucky Board of Education, Council on Postsecondary Education and the Education Professional Standards Board jointly adopted the Common Core State Standards for English/language arts and mathematics. In doing so, Kentucky became the first state in the nation to adopt those standards. This was a bold step toward improving education outcomes for Kentucky’s students. The work began in 2009, when Gov. Steve Beshear signed the agreement that states develop common academic standards. Kentucky joined 50 states and territories, the National Governors Association, the Council of Chief State School Officers, Achieve, ACT, ETS and others in a major effort to place America back in the front of educational attainment in the world. Everyone was so excited they did the happy dance.
• Passage of House Bill 176 (KRS 160.346) – In its regular session, the 2010 General Assembly passed House Bill 176, which will have resonating effects for years to come throughout the state’s public school classrooms. House Bill 176 provided much-needed interventions in the state’s lowest-performing schools. Through its mandates, Kentucky is able to offer school districts more options to help them improve – from selecting an education management organization to operate schools, to exercising more flexibility in staffing, to restructuring the existing management of those schools that are persistently low-performing. Thanks to the actions of the legislature, and to the support of educators, board members and partners across the state, Kentucky will lead the nation in the next wave of educational improvement.
• Persistently low-achieving schools named and supported – In the spring of 2010, Kentucky identified 10 schools as “persistently low-achieving” (PLA), based on state and federal criteria. The schools’ identifications were tied to their reading and mathematics test score results and adequate yearly progress (AYP) status. By identifying these schools, we ensured that they would be eligible to receive federal School Improvement Grant (SIG) funding of up to $1.5 million over a three-year period. This funding will be used to help the schools raise achievement levels, improve the performance of their students and achieve AYP. The schools also received leadership assessments, which provided insight and suggestions for improvement, along with strong technical support.
• New Kentucky Board of Education members –Gov. Steve Beshear appointed five new members to the Kentucky Board of Education. The five – Martha Jones, Roger Marcum, Jay Parrent, Bill Twyman and Mary Gwen Wheeler – represent a broad range of experience and backgrounds, but they share the common goal of improving education for the state’s children. In August, the board selected David Karem as its chair, then set four strategic priorities to guide its work: Next-Generation Learners; Next-Generation Professionals; Next-Generation Support Systems; and Next-Generation Schools and Districts. This board is focused on supporting schools and districts, raising achievement, ensuring that students are prepared for life after high school, closing gaps, accountability and transparency.
• Leadership Networks – Throughout 2010, KDE staff were engaged in the work of developing a system of Leadership Networks designed to support the high-quality implementation of the requirements set forth in 2009’s Senate Bill 1. The networks are intended to build the capacity of each school district as they implement Kentucky’s new Core Academic Standards, develop assessment literacy among all educators and work toward ensuring that every student is college- and career-ready. Those Leadership Networks are now in place. Participants are collaborating with other leaders in their regions to hone practice and knowledge and working within their districts to scale up highly effective practices in every classroom.
• Budget cuts – As with other state agencies, the Kentucky Department of Education has experienced significant budget cuts over the past few fiscal years. This has impacted our agency’s ability to fill empty positions and required us to rethink our short- and long-term plans. An agency-wide reorganization in the summer of 2010 was a direct response to these cuts and enabled us to focus on the Kentucky Board of Education’s strategic priorities, the implementation of 2009’s Senate Bill 1 and the provision of services to our state’s 174 school districts.
• Race to the Top – Kentucky was fortunate to be named as a finalist in both Phase 1 and Phase 2 of the federal Race to the Top competition. However, we were not awarded funds in either phase. This was disappointing; but, the lack of Race to the Top funding did not deter us from moving forward with our plans. We’ve continued to focus on support for students and educators; providing high-quality learning opportunities; providing the training our educators need; connecting them with best practices; and setting a high bar for success. The fact that Kentucky was named a finalist twice indicates that our plans are strong and worthwhile. And, the unanimous support of our plan from the state’s superintendents and local boards of education was a heartening result of this process.

Holliday Opposes SB1 Delay

Says Kentucky's SB 1 Test

Will Not Have to be Replaced

When National Assessment Arrives in 2015

In a letter sent to legislative leaders, Kentucky Education Commissioner Terry Holliday opposes any moves to slow down implementation of or redirect funding for 2009’s Senate Bill 1 (SB 1).

The letter was delivered via e-mail to Senate President David Williams and Speaker of the House Greg Stumbo on Friday. Gov. Steve Beshear, Rep. Carl Rollins (chair of the House Education Committee), Sen. Ken Winters (chair of the Senate Education Committee) and members of the Kentucky Board of Education also received copies of the letter.

Holliday sent the letter to counter calls to slow down implementation and use any funding directed for SB 1 for other purposes.

In the letter, Holliday notes that SB 1 is a top priority for the Kentucky Department of Education and Kentucky Board of Education, because students and teachers need an education system that will prepare children for the competitive world environment.

“I know of no more important expenditure of funds than to prepare our children for their future,” Holliday said.

Senate Bill 1, passed in the 2009 session of the Kentucky General Assembly, is a comprehensive piece of legislation that addresses many items in the area of public school assessment and accountability. The bill, which revised 14 existing laws and created one new statute, requires that a new system of public school assessment and accountability be implemented in the 2011-12 school year.

Holliday assured legislators that Kentucky is leading the nation in implementing common core standards and in assessing them - and will not need to replace the SB 1 test in 2015 when the national consortia announce their test. Kentucky's assessment vendor is working with the consortia.

Although the bill did not specify funding for implementation, monies in the P-12 education budget have been redirected for that purpose, including professional development funds.

SOURCE: KDE Press release