Last night approximately 1,100 citizens gathered in ten locations around the state seeking a unified vision for education in Kentucky and to reenergize reform.Reminiscent of the Prichard Committee's Town Forums of 1984 which jump started KERA, Transforming Education in Kentucky (TEK) is Governor Stever Beshear's effort to gain consensus on a wide range of school improvements that will be presented to the General Assembly in 2011. As the governor said when he kicked off the initiative in October, I’m calling on our state and our people to recommit ourselves to ensuring the future of our children.” Last night, he called for "a fresh look" at education in the state.
If the 100 people in attendance at BCTCS in Lexington is any indication, the participants were a mix of prominent citizen advocates in education and health care, along with parents, policy wonks, college professors, teachers, school administrators and interested citizens.
Newly elected Kentucky Board of Education Chair David Karem, told the Courier-Journal the Jefferson County session “affirmed my belief that each student must be seen as an individual and that learning must be tailored to each child.”
Students with a strong elementary through high school education were twice as likely to earn a college degree, Bob King told the television audience. “That’s true even with all the interventions and remedial programs we have to help (poorly prepared high school graduates).”
In Paducah, facilitator Tom Prather said 87,000 new jobs in Kentucky are expected for college graduates by 2018.“But only 12,000 jobs are expected for students with only a high school degree,” Prather said.
The statewide forums should garner important concerns from local districts, according to Morehead State University dean of education Cathy Gunn, who co-chaired the Ashland forum with ACTC’s dean of advancement Louise Shytle. “These are your schools, the districts affected by decisions in Frankfort,” Gunn told the Daily Independent.
Joe Overby, a former Daviess County Public Schools educator and board member praised the effort. "This is the way you build a movement. It's a great way to start people talking about the same thing. It helps me understand that my concerns are a part of many," Oveby told the Messenger Inquirer (subscription only).
The largest single crowd (250 participants) gathered at Northern Kentucky University. When learning about this, Governor Beshear quipped, "I don't know what they did. They must have offered steak."
But the turnout at NKU is very likely the product of substantial momentum that began to gather in November, 2007, around the Vision 2015 Education Summit during Commissioner Jon Draud's tenure.Audience estimates are as follows: Paducah, 90; Owensboro, 100; Bowling Green, 100; Elizabethtown, 140; Jefferson, 85 (C-J estimated 100+); NKU, 275; BCTCS, 100; Somerset, 80; Prestonsburg, 50 and Ashland, 70.
TEK was also the new season's first topic on Education Matters, Kentucky Educational Television's educational policy program hosted by Bill Goodman. Goodman's guests included Governor Beshear along with First Lady Jane Beshear who spearheads the community-based Graduate Kentucky program, Education Commissioner Terry Holliday and Council on Postsecondary Education President Bob King.
Did you miss the program? Watch it here, at KET.
KET aired the program live and the panel fielded questions from participants and KET viewers while a feed of the program streamed in each location. Goodman bounced a few of the early questions off panel members to see who would best address which topics. The only question I noticed that drew little response from panel members had to do with the teaching of foreign languages in elementary schools, something Kentucky is not heavily involved in.
Afterward, the Commissioner expressed some surprise that "no one brought up the C-word." [charter schools] Goodman added, "and I didn't either... And you know what, we didn't have a question about it."
But perhaps the panel benefitted from a little administrative intervention. A staffer responded, "Well, there are some out there on the table." (Lots of laughter)
The staffer added, we were just swamped with questions from all over the state."
Beshear: "That's good."
Commissioner Holliday told the group, "We'll get all of the questions answered."
Then the staffer said, "There are a few political questions in there."
And feigning surprise, the Governor laughed and said, "No." (more laughter)
The TEK Task Force is seeking public input - from YOU - focusing (but not exclusively) on the following topics:
- Improving college readiness
- Providing every student with the opportunity to earn college credit during high school
- Creating a system of assessments that measure what employers value
- Ramping up academics in career and technical schools
- Using technology to improve teaching and learning
- Improving teacher recruitment and retention
- Improving transitions between preschool and K-12
Let the governor know what you think:
Following the program the panel took a few questions from KSN&C.
KSN&C: Reminding the governor of similar successful past efforts by state leaders to engage the public - most recently the Prichard Town Forums - "I assume this was not an accident, to set this up in the same way as the Town Forums in 1984."
Beshear: "You don't try to reinvent the wheel when something has worked you tend to utilize it again. Particularly the Prichard Forums, that we all recall, played such a vital role in energizing the population all across the state. The parents, and you know, getting outside the education establishment, and energizing the public in general and the parents in particular. It played such a vital role in actually making all of that happen. I'm very hopeful that this kind of thing is going to play the same kind of role as we move forward and try to take this whole system to the next level.
KSN&C: I was talking to Bob Sexton the other day, and he said one of the main things they learned was how hard the work is and how long a haul it is to maintain that energy. So after 2011, when the Task Force presents its recommendations to the General Assembly, what's next? How do you maintain that momentum?
Beshear: As these fellas will tell you, a lot of this effort is just in the beginning formative stages, it's going to take a continuous effort and continuous work to make these things happen ...
KSN&C: So you think you guys will be out there again?
Beshear: Oh, we'll be out there a number of times as we go along. And as Bob - we were talking today - some efforts in other states that have, sort of, dissolved.
KSN&C: Which is actually the more common thing....
King: Well I think the challenge for us is to get some early success. If we can do that, it drives more, you know? The concern I've had - and we talked about this from the very beginning, right after Senate Bill 1 was passed - what you saw in the other states, such as Arizona, they set higher standards, or tried to. In the first round, so many kids flunked the exams that the parents went nuts because they didn't understand it. They put pressure on the legislature, the legislature commanded that everybody get retested. They lowered the cut scores. They made the questions easier. Then they allowed the kids to take the test multiple times. Then, if it still didn't work after six administrations of the exam, you could supplement the kids' record with, literally, attendance and gym class, even though the kid couldn't read or couldn't do mathematics. The pressure that I fear is that if we don't get the parents educated about what's going on that that pressure will come on to Terry and come on to the legislature and it will be really brutal. And the worst thing you can do is succumb to it, but it'll be there. The more we can do now to let families know what's coming and why it's important will serve us well in the future.
Jane Beshear: I think that as long as you've got the desire from the top, from the governor's office, to make sure you move forward, and you've got the collaboration between K through 12 and higher education, you've got the prefect storm. And that's not going to, hopefully, go away at any time in the near future. Once you get the programs going and people start to see the results through the testing scores and everything else, and the change of attitudes in our schools. You've started the engine and it just keeps going and going.
KSN&C: As you know I'm hopeful about Race To The Top too, but if we don't get funded, what other kinds of opportunities are out there? Does the Gates Foundation ...
Holliday: Yes. There's tons of foundation interest in Kentucky right now especially with our leadership on standards and our parent communication about standards and our work on assessment with Gates...
KSN&C: You feel we'll get enough to get the job done?
Holliday: We won't get $175 million, but we'll get enough to get the job done.
KSN&C: But you can build the test and make the change?
Holliday: Yeah. Nationally, we're part of all the consortia of the national assessment...
Helen Mountjoy, a former state education cabinet secretary and leader on the TEK initiative, co-chaired the Owensboro event with Daviess County Superintendent (and Council for Better Education President) Tom Shelton. Mountjoy said involvement must come from local businesses and community members, not just educators.
"Our teachers and students are able to meet expectations when they know what those expectations are," Mountjoy said. "I think there are two things I hoped would come from this: The first was a sense of where Kentucky is. The second was to involve people and talk about their hopes and dreams for education and rebuilding their enthusiasm from 20 years ago (when the Kentucky Education Reform Act of 1990 laid the foundation for this effort)."
The scene at BCTCS:
Behind the scenes at KET, KDE staffers collect input from around the state.
Back stage before the show.
10 comments:
Richard,
I'm trying to figure out what happens to K to 12 education if the governor's plan to give kids certificates and a way out of public schools after 10th grade takes hold.
Could this depopulate the 11th and 12th grades in our public schools?
Has any teacher really thought this through?
And, if those kids sally forth into targeted two-year school trade-oriented programs (taught by non-certified teachers, BTW) without the last two years of high school social studies in particular, exactly what kind of citizens are we going to get?
There wasn't much point in bringing this up last night after watching a few of the votes in the NKU assembly. The crowd the governor assembled was mostly already won over. And, as your blog points out, they were sifting questions, in any event.
But 1,100 out of four million Kentuckians isn't even the beginning of any sort of meaningful consensus. And, I know at least one legislator who understands all of that very well.
Unbridled optimism. Tired cliches. An opportunity for the Governor to show a united front. Many of the questions seemed carefully screened to avoid any ambarrassment to the panelists. (This is perhaps why no phonecalls were allowed as is the norm at KET)
What would have made this panel memorable, would have been to have a included spot for the critics of Kentucky's education reforms.
Thanks for the comments.
The goal of education should not be to retain students in school for the beneift of teachers, yet, you raise an important practical point. Depopulate? Of course not. Reduce? Yes, as is appropriate and that must be determined by students demonstrating proficiency by meeting the standards (including social studies standards) - not by participating in a course.
Schools may have to make some staffing adjustments, (more troubling to some may be the challenge to the Carnegie unit and high school sports) but I think we are talking about a small, even elite, population. The alternative is to cause some students, for whom high school holds little further challenge...for what? That would focus on the organization instead of the child.
I tend to think we have not done enough for our gifted students and this holds some promise. Of course, we will have to see how it all plays out.
As for the number of folks gathered, we both know that if 1,100 Tea Partiers showed up for a rally, you guys would shout it from the roof tops. Why is one a pittance and the other a movement?
But still, what happened Tuesday night is NOT what's important. It's the follow up that matters.
While I reported what I observed as faithfully as I could, let's be honest about the issue of sifting through questions. KET has to do that for every call-in program they run. Staff apparently made those decisions.
From what I have observed, Holliday isn't the least bit shy about answering questions on charters. Afterall, what hasn't he already said on the topic? I took the laughter to be more about the generalized anxiety Kentucky seems to have over the issue - an anexity we both have wanted the state to get over. I think the same could be true of any hot button issue.
I got a different sense about the "political" questions. I do think they were screened out and I assume that was to stick to the topic - but I don't really know since I didn't see the questions.
Thanks for the comments.
The goal of education should not be to retain students in school for the beneift of teachers, yet, you raise an important practical point. Depopulate? Of course not. Reduce? Yes, as is appropriate and that must be determined by students demonstrating proficiency by meeting the standards (including social studies standards) - not by participating in a course.
Schools may have to make some staffing adjustments, (more troubling to some may be the challenge to the Carnegie unit and high school sports) but I think we are talking about a small, even elite, population. The alternative is to cause some students, for whom high school holds little further challenge...for what? That would focus on the organization instead of the child.
I tend to think we have not done enough for our gifted students and this holds some promise. Of course, we will have to see how it all plays out.
As for the number of folks gathered, we both know that if 1,100 Tea Partiers showed up for a rally, you guys would shout it from the roof tops. Why is one a pittance and the other a movement?
But still, what happened Tuesday night is NOT what's important. It's the follow up that matters.
While I reported what I observed as faithfully as I could, let's be honest about the issue of sifting through questions. KET has to do that for every call-in program they run. Staff apparently made those decisions.
From what I have observed, Holliday isn't the least bit shy about answering questions on charters. Afterall, what hasn't he already said on the topic? I took the laughter to be more about the generalized anxiety Kentucky seems to have over the issue - an anexity we both have wanted the state to get over. I think the same could be true of any hot button issue.
I got a different sense about the "political" questions. I do think they were screened out and I assume that was to stick to the topic - but I don't really know since I didn't see the questions.
RE: Richard's Tea Party Comment
Just a few thoughts:
No Tea Party rally in this state has been held with so much advanced publicity or been held simultaneously in 10 different locations.
If you want to compare numbers, a somewhat fairer comparison might be to compare attendance at just one of those TEK locations to a single-location Tea Party event.
Even in that case, travel distances to a TEK site for most attendees would generally be smaller than to a Tea Party.
Richard,
Still, it's not the rally that matters - it's what happens next.
In either case, the rally generates some amount of public awareness; hoping to connect with others who might agree. It is meant to encourage. If enough supporters can be influenced to act locally, the rally is a success - voters turn out or letters are written, legislators pay attention, policies change. The single rally, whether centralized or distributed is only as good as the energy it produces.
The better comparison, in my book, is with the Prichard Town Forums themselves where 20,000 people came out in 145 different locations representing every school district in the state.
If I were governor, looking to gauge the work ahead, I think that might be my starting point.
Long is the road, and hard, that leads to ... systemic school reform.
You mentioned we haven’t done enough for our gifted students and I was pleased growth measurement came up during the TEK conversation about the gifted. Requiring growth for all children will be key to ensuring the needs of the gifted are met. It will also benefit children on the other end of the spectrum because maximum growth is achieved when children are taught at their readiness level. Any news on how growth measurement will be incorporated into the future accountability system?
August 20, 2010 11:14 PM: Yes! Closing achievement gaps, challenging our best students and remediating our poorest students all require the same general approach: a diagnosis of what each individual child needs and a prescription for that educational service. This has to happen child by child.
The feds are kicking around growth models for inclusion in future assessments but I don't know how that's going to look. What we hear...is that Kentuckians may be surprised by Duncan's model. It has been described as somewhat CATS-like, without the NCLB stuff layered on top (which killed the original CATS).
How ironic will it be if it turns out that federal requirements caused Kentucky to mess up the CATS, so we got rid of it, in favor of a new test, which is being designed by a new federal administration, and requires us to return to a CATS-like exam?
"Closing the achievement gap by pushing down the top is like fostering fitness by outlawing marathons."
Helen Schinske
Right. ...and we should not allow that.
Of course, I haven't heard anyone suggest it either.
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