What I think I've learned [after reading numerous articles, research and op-eds] is that charter schools are neither the geat savior for frustrated parents and overregulated schools nor the great Satan against public education in the U.S. As with so many things, it's all in the details.
If its timetable holds, the Kentucky Board of Education is nearing the end of its search for the state’s fifth commissioner of education. Of course, maybe we should label whoever gets the job No. 6, considering the several times interim commissioner Kevin Noland has held that title.Hughes reminds us of the challenges ahead:
Either way, the selection will end eight months of speculation, gossip and “I heard that…” since Dr. Jon Draud revealed his retirement plans last December.
Will it be Superintendent so-and-so or any superintendent in Kentucky? One superintendent confirmed his application and the rumor mill identified at least three more as having acknowledged interest. Others may have joined but kept their cards close to the vest.
It would be easy for the next commissioner to hunker down in the Capital Plaza Tower for the rest of 2009, working to get his or her hands around the operations of the agency, the mandates for immediate action and the preparations for legislative work come January.
It also would be the worst thing the new commissioner – and the state board – could do.
Really go out on the edge and work with the department’s communications staff to create your own Web blog or other frequent electronic communication to the elementary and secondary education community. Encourage all of the alphabet soup K-12 groups (KASA, KASC, KASS, KSBA, etc.) to distribute those communications to our members as broadly as possible.
And put some meat in your message, for gosh sakes. We all want all students to achieve at high levels. We all support a challenging curriculum that pushes the at-risk as well as the gifted-and-talented to pursue a college degree. We all want higher test scores, higher pay for teachers and higher public confidence in Kentucky’s public schools. Tell us – at least in broad terms – how you want to spend your first year pursuing those dreams.
Frankfort — In a stunning move, the Kentucky Board of Education is poised to name John Calipari as the state’s next Commissioner of Education. The state board, meeting in Frankfort today for its monthly meeting, reportedly concluded negotiations with Calipari early this morning on his arrival in Lexington, where he rumored to be also considering some sort of part-time job with the University of Kentucky men’s basketball program.A little “APRIL FOOL!” humor from Brad Hughes at KSBA.
State board Chairman Joe Brothers called the negotiations quick and easy. “I think the turning point was when we agreed to retain the name ‘CATS’ for the new school accountability system,” Brothers said, adding…
KSBA, KASS, and KASA agree on many of the core issues in the debate to create a second generation of assessment and accountability in Kentucky’s education reform efforts. The founding members of the 3KT advocacy group do not collectively endorse all of the same concepts and issues; however, we can support the following common threads:
- Any new assessment must be valid at the student level and provide for longitudinal analysis of student achievement.
- Any new accountability system must include student level accountability.
- Any new assessment must include both norm-referenced testing (NRT) and criterion-referenced items. Our testing system should permit us to make comparisons available under an NRT model, but it must also establish proficiency standards and measure student performance against this
goal.- Any new assessment and accountability system should take a balanced approach that includes formative and summative assessments.
- Any new assessment and accountability system should incorporate end-of-course exams in core content areas to ensure curriculum alignment and
rigor.- Any new assessment and accountability system should align with NCLB/ESEA requirements and produce single, coherent results for students, parents, teachers, administrators, and our communities.
- Any new assessment system should reduce the amount of time spent testing, shift testing to the end of the school year, and provide more immediate results (60 days).
- Any new assessment system should include both multiple choice questions and open response items.
- Any new assessment system should eliminate the portfolio requirement at the 4th grade.
- Any new assessment and accountability system should be developed AFTER the revision of standards, and state standards should be narrowed, deepened, and amended to reflect accepted national standards.
- Any new assessment and accountability system should remove arts & humanities and practical living/vocational skills as long as these areas remain in the core content and a rigorous program evaluation is completed on each.
KSBA sat for a chat with outgoing KDE general counsel, former three-time interim commissioner Kevin Noland.In Conversation With…features an interview between a leader or figure involved in public education and a staff member of the Kentucky School Advocate.
This month’s conversation is with Kevin Noland, Deputy Commissioner and General Counsel for the Kentucky Department of Education. Noland, who has been with the department since 1991. He has served three times as interim education commissioner, most recently from September 2006 through December, 2007. He is retiring July 31.
Q. You were in the interesting position of having helped draft the Kentucky Education Reform Act when you were with the Legislative Research Commission and then joined the department of education when it was being implemented. What was that like to be on both ends of this historic event?A. It’s been a great experience to watch a massive change in education in Kentucky and be a part of helping to draft that and then being a part of helping to implement it. It has been amazing to me to see how hard people have worked and how successful they have been in trying to ensure that what we’re doing with education really makes a difference for the students and for Kentucky.
Q. Has KERA turned out the way you thought it would?
A. For the most part, yes. Any time you have a massive change and all the right intentions, there are unforeseen issues that require adjustments, and I think we should always be open to making improvements because we can’t anticipate all the potential issues and challenges that come with implementation. As knowledge is gained, as experience is gained, and as technology changes occur, I think the legislature and the department of education have been open to try to make adjustments when needed.
Q. If you had the chance, is there anything you would change now about KERA?
A. The one thing I would change is to ensure that there are adequate resources for teachers, administrators, local school boards and others to deliver the educational opportunities and to meet the needs of each child to reach his or her potential. I think originally one area that was not adequately funded was professional development for teachers, administrators and others to be able to learn, internalize and use the kinds of changes that were called for in KERA. It took several years for some initiatives to be institutionalized in our schools and school districts, and more money for professional development would have helped that.
Q. What has it been like to come to the department as general counsel and wind up serving three times as interim commissioner?
A. It has been an interesting learning process and quite a challenge. I feel like I have been the lucky one, getting to work with so many people who are dedicated to teaching and learning. I have seen over the years definite improvement in the function of school districts as well as the skills of the people in each role. Whether it be a teacher, principal, superintendent or local school board member, I have seen a change over time for the better. And what you hear discussed these days are issues related to student learning as opposed to other issues that we as adults can focus on sometimes.
Q. What has been the best thing about serving as interim commissioner and what has been the most challenging?
A. The best has been being able to serve in a role in which I could try to have an impact for the better for students and for school districts around the state. The most challenging has been to keep the focus on the most important issue, which is getting all students to proficiency and beyond and prepared for success, because we are often faced with putting out fires and being reactionary. It’s always a challenge, whether you’re a superintendent, school board member, a teacher, or an interim commissioner of education, to try to keep the focus and the majority of your attention on what moves us forward with student learning.
Q. In recent years there have been a number of retirements in the department, which has been a tremendous loss of experience, expertise and institutional memory. How has the department handled that challenge?
A. In the summer of 2007 we had quite a bit of turnover and several new people coming in, including three new associate commissioners and a new deputy commissioner. But all of these folks came with school district experience and have shown success in their roles in school districts. Those folks have a year under their belts, they have learned a lot and are great contributors. We are also facing quite a few retirements this year in the department and I think one of the most important things we can do is search out, recruit and hire the best people we can who have experiences that make a real difference for students in Kentucky.
With the budget cuts and having the challenge to replace persons as they retire, it is one of our major challenges because the people we have really make a difference although they have so much to do and with less staff. It’s critical that the new staff that we get on board have a short learning curve and are able to hit the ground running.
Q. Because of retirements, attrition and budget reductions, the department has had to streamline its programs. How have these reductions affected services the department can offer?
A. Over the last seven years I have seen a series of budget reductions in the department of education. In fact, when I came here in 1991 we had over 900 employees and now we’re down to around 640, which includes around 220 in our Kentucky School for the Blind and School for the Deaf.
We have seen a reduction in staff and yet over the years, we have had bills enacted
that require us to do more and more. The good thing about working here is that
we have a lot of dedicated people doing everything they can to help school districts to succeed.The challenge has been that we are facing the reality that we can’t do it all. The last few cuts have seen us take a hard look at what we must give up, at what we can no longer do. That is a gut-wrenching process because when we get a call or e-mail wanting folks to do things, we want to help others, we want to do whatever we can. But we find ourselves in a position of trying to broker help from others and have found it very challenging sometimes to provide the direct services that we are asked to do.
Q. What is the department’s greatest need in terms of continuing to move students and schools toward proficiency?
A. I would say our greatest need is for more resources to enable highly skilled educators and other well-trained staff to be able to assist lower-performing schools and districts, especially the ones that have been low-performing for years. We need them to be able to go in and implement strategies we have found to be effective in high-performing schools and school districts.
That would be the greatest need because we know from early examples in Kentucky that getting students to proficiency is doable regardless of the challenges that are faced with certain students or certain areas of the state. It is doable, and we would like the resources to be able to provide more direct services in those lower performing schools and districts.
Q. How do you see the state of education in Kentucky today?
A. I feel great about what Kentucky educators and everybody involved in the process, including local school board members, have been able to accomplish since 1990. Kentucky used to rank near the bottom in a number of indicators. Just about a month ago, the Kentucky Long-Term Policy Research Center issued a report that showed that although Kentucky ranked 36th in the nation in per-pupil spending, the state ranks as high as eighth nationwide in the area of cost-effective educational spending. In other words, we are doing a lot with the money we have. With already tightened belts, we are making efficient use of the money we have. When you look at the indicators – NAEP, CATS, NCLB - Kentucky students have made significant gains in learning since the ’90s.
Folks are really focused, working hard and producing results and I feel good about it. I think our challenge is to continue and in some cases increase the momentum, and one of the biggest things we can do to accomplish that is to ensure there are adequate resources.
FRANKFORT --Three Kentucky education groups are backing Gov. Steve Beshear's plan for a special legislative session later this month on public employee pension reform.
In a joint announcement Tuesday, the Kentucky Association of School Administrators, the Kentucky Association of School Superintendents and the Kentucky School Boards Association supported the Democratic governor's proposal to begin to overhaul the state's retirement systems in a possible session to begin June 23.
"This endorsement followed assurances by the governor's office that an issue of paramount importance to local school leaders -- any changes in the retirement system in which classified school employees participate -- will be thoroughly studied for action at a future time and will not be part of the proposed special session this month," the groups said in a statement.
The groups said their endorsement is also contingent on having "a place at the table -- which has not been the case so far." ...
It’s frequently a tough balancing act between conflicting community priorities and the desire to maximize instructional days before critical assessment testing. And it can leave local leaders feeling boxed in.
"I’m furious about it. I’m just livid," said Bowling Green Independent board Vice Chairwoman Deborah Williams of a state education department directive to change the district’s traditional two-week spring break schedule. "In my opinion, they’ve overstepped their bounds again." ...
...The Department of Education lists 12 testing periods for 2007-08, starting in September for on-demand writing and running through the Kentucky Core Content tests next spring. But a 2006 state law requiring all high school juniors to take the ACT has created problems for a few districts, including Bowling Green.
In an e-mail to Superintendent Joe Tinius, interim Education Commissioner Kevin Noland noted that Kentucky was given only two days for ACT testing in 2008, adding that district assessment coordinators surveyed favored March 11 – right in the middle of Bowling Green’s traditional spring break.
"We implemented the alternative calendar about seven years ago. We surveyed our parents and it’s five to one who want the calendar with a two-week break in the fall, at Christmas and in the spring," said Williams, the board member. "During the extra week, we offer concentrated remedial courses for those who need it and enrichment for those who want that. That’s much better than staying an hour after school because you have a whole week of intense subject matter for those students who need it.
"This is a matter of local control. To tell us when to have school is just wrong." ...
...Silver Grove Independent Superintendent Danny Montgomery also sees calendar and test timing issues.
"The most important issue we face in developing our calendar is the number of instructional days available before the CATS testing window," said Montgomery. "It is imperative that we find a way to move the testing window into the first two weeks of May. For better or worse, it is much more difficult for everyone to have the same focus after the testing is completed." ...
This from Brad Hughes at KSBA.
This from Brad Hughes at the Kentucky School Board Association.
