Making the numbers real

As we looked more closely at numbers from the Unbridled Learning Accountability System this week, there was much to celebrate. School report cards showed more students reached college- and career-readiness, more students graduated, reading and math scores improved at elementary and middle school, and high school Advanced Placement and ACT results are at all-time highs.

This data is great news, but the numbers do not always tell the full story. This week, I had the opportunity to make those numbers real by visiting two school districts.

My first visit was to Floyd County on Monday night. In 1997, Floyd County was among the lowest performing school districts in Kentucky. A state audit labeled the district as a "ship that had lost its rudder." The district went under state management.

Throughout the last six years, Floyd County has undergone a major metamorphosis. The district has moved from one of the lowest performers to one of the top performers in the state –graduation rates and college/career-readiness rates are among the highest in Kentucky – and every school in the district has achieved distinguished or proficient status.

On Monday night, I witnessed a major celebration in the high school gym – every school in the district was represented by students, parents, school staff, cheerleaders, and bands. I have never seen a celebration of academic achievement like I saw in Floyd County on Monday night. Congratulations to the entire Floyd County team, community, school board, and Superintendent Henry Webb. The pride has been restored in Floyd County and the future is very bright.

Also this week, I visited East Carter High School in Carter County. A few years ago, this school was labeled a priority school and was in the bottom 5 percent of schools in Kentucky. With a lot of hard work by students, staff and the community, the school has moved from the bottom to the top 5 percent in the state. College- and career-readiness rates have climbed from 23 percent a few years ago to 94 percent. Graduation rates are approaching 100 percent. It was apparent in visiting East Carter that the pride has been restored not only at the high school but throughout the county.

This dramatic turnaround in a short time is not only something to celebrate, but also an example for other schools about what is possible. It was my honor to recognize East Carter as a new "hub" school for Kentucky. A hub school is a priority school that has made extraordinary improvement -- one that other schools can visit to learn best practices in improving student learning. We also have hub schools in Pulaski County and Simpson County.

As I read press clippings from across the Commonwealth of Kentucky this week, I saw many communities celebrating the improvements in student learning results. What I saw during these two school visits was the real people behind the numbers. I saw pride in the community, the school, the staff and the students.

At the Floyd County event, I heard the Speaker of the House recount the passage of the Kentucky Education Reform Act with a great deal of pride. What Kentucky educators and students have shown since the passage of KERA in 1990, is that Kentucky can compete with anyone. Kentucky educators and students can achieve at high levels.

We know there remains much work to do, however, we need to take time to reflect on the amazing progress made and the impact the numbers have on student’s lives.

The State of Kentucky Education

It’s good to stop every so often to take stock of where we’ve been and where we’re going.

The governor’s recent State of the Commonwealth speech inspired me to reflect on the State of Kentucky Education. The following is an Op-Ed I wrote that highlights our achievements, upcoming work and challenges for the future. I wanted to be sure to share my thoughts with you. So, in the event you don’t see this in your local newspaper, it is the subject of today’s blog.

The State of Kentucky Education

I was heartened by Gov. Steve Beshear’s State of the Commonwealth speech, and his strong commitment to the future of Kentucky’s children. He has consistently supported education, even in difficult economic times, and I am grateful he continues to place such a critical focus on the children of this commonwealth.

I do not take the governor’s support and commitment to education lightly. That is why we are working diligently to ensure ALL Kentucky’s students are college/career-ready when they graduate high school. It is an economic imperative not only for our students but also for our state.

Over the past year, Kentucky has undertaken a number of initiatives and realized some major achievements that underscore our efforts:

• Improved readiness – We made major strides toward our goal of college/career-readiness for all students. The percentage of students who graduated college and career ready jumped from 38 percent to 47 percent in a single year – that translates to more than 4,500 students with a better opportunity to be successful after high school.

• Gains in achievement – Kentucky students showed steady progress on major national tests such as EXPLORE, PLAN and ACT, in many cases scoring above the national average for the first time. More Kentucky students are taking challenging Advanced Placement courses and scoring higher on tests. On the National Assessment of Educational Progress 8th-grade science test, Kentucky students significantly outperformed their peers nationally. According to a report from Harvard University, Kentucky is tied for fifth place nationwide in the improvement of its students’ performance in assessments of reading, mathematics and science since 1992.

• School Report Card – This new online tool allows all Kentucky citizens to easily see how their school or district measures up against others. It provides detailed information on accountability, assessments, school safety, and more. It also provides graphs showing actual performance against annual improvement targets in the areas of proficiency, gap and college/career-readiness. All this data is available at www.education.ky.gov and will equip parents, businesses and communities with information to ask tough questions and demand excellence of their schools and district.

• No Child Left Behind/ESEA waiver – In February 2012, Kentucky was among the first states granted flexibility from some of the requirements of the No Child Left Behind/Elementary and Secondary Education Act. While we are still focused on proficiency, closing achievement gaps, increasing graduation rates and annual progress, the waiver allows funding flexibility and for the state to use a single comprehensive method – the Unbridled Learning: College/Career Readiness for All Accountability System – to determine whether students, schools and districts are meeting state and federal goals.

• Districts of Innovation – HB 37 (2012) allows Kentucky public school districts exemptions from certain regulations and policies in exchange for them creating new, innovative learning environments. By re-thinking what a school might look like, districts will be able to redesign student learning to engage and motivate more students and increase the numbers of students who are college and career ready. KDE will begin accepting applications from districts this spring.

We have made great strides this past year, as we worked to transform our schools into vibrant, engaging and innovative places that equip Kentucky’s children with the deeper knowledge, stronger critical thinking skills and the entrepreneurial spirit they need to succeed in a 21st-century world. But our work is far from done.

• This year we will be implementing a statewide kindergarten readiness screener that will give teachers valuable information they can use to meet student needs and maximize learning from the first day of school.

• Next-generation science and social studies standards that promote 21st-century skills are on the horizon in 2013. And we must remain steadfast in our support of common core standards in English/language arts and mathematics knowing that short-term setbacks in scores will yield more competitive students in the years to come.

• We will continue working to raise student proficiency rates and close achievement gaps between all student groups. While not quite half of our lowest performing schools are showing progress, we must find answers and implement solutions to put those that aren’t on the path to improvement.

• This fall we will be piloting a statewide Professional Growth and Effectiveness System designed to provide educators the meaningful feedback and tools they need to improve their practice and impact student learning in a positive way. This is a critical piece in our overall strategy to advance education in Kentucky.

We have our work cut out for us. Based on the progress I have seen and the efforts I have witnessed as I visit classrooms around this state, however, I remain confident Kentucky educators are up to the task.

Kentucky has made tremendous progress in education in the past several years. Yet, as the governor noted during his speech, 88 percent of Kentucky students attend schools in districts where per pupil spending is below the national average. I, too, share Gov. Beshear’s sense of concern and urgency regarding the need for additional K-12 funding and will continue to encourage Kentucky lawmakers to identify additional revenues for our schools and educational efforts.

The state of education in Kentucky is certain. Our focus and commitment to prepare Kentucky’s children for the future does not waver – it remains stronger than ever.

Poverty: Helping to Succeed vs. Believing in Success

Last week I was struck by the title of a blog entry that I saw on my Twitter account – “The Poverty Myth Persists.” That blog can be found at http://educationnext.org/the-poverty-myth-persists/. What really caught my interest were the first few lines of the blog.

Every time I see a “poverty and education” story I think of the famous line from the New Testament in which Jesus says, “The poor you will always have with you, and you can help them any time you want.”

So, with education. Want a convenient scapegoat for our problems? Poverty. It’s there, it’s handy.

The author, Peter Meyer, makes the case that quite often, educators and politicians blame poverty as the reason why schools in large urban and rural settings are failing to educate children. The achievement gap between students who don’t receive free and reduced-price meals and those who do receive free and reduced-price meals has widened in the last decade. Historically, education has always been seen as the path to the “American Dream.” Education is the great equalizer. However, our ability to provide an education to children in poverty is going in the wrong direction.

As Commissioner of Education, I believe there are two reasons for our inability to close achievement gaps based on poverty. It is either we do not know HOW to help children in poverty achieve at high levels or we do not BELIEVE that children in poverty can achieve at high levels.

If we do not know how, then that is something we can work hard to address. We can engage parents and communities in developing social capital that will help the community to value education and support educators. We can provide professional development to help teachers and administrators understand the challenges of homelessness and poverty. We can provide professional development on how to be more culturally responsive to the needs of students. We can provide resources needed to help children reach success. We know the HOW, and there are many examples of schools all across the nation and world that are helping children in poverty achieve at high levels. If educators make excuses for poverty and do not BELIEVE that children in poverty can achieve at high levels, then there is really nothing we can do other than coach these educators into other professions.

While I do not always agree with the positions of the Fordham Institute or the author of the blog, I thought the blog and articles cited were very thought-provoking. I also was reminded of the wonderful work that organizations like our own Prichard Committee, the Education Trust and the Children’s Defense Fund do in showing the HOW of helping children in poverty achieve to high levels.

The final sentence in the blog was perhaps the most thought-provoking – “Let’s resolve to quit blaming the poor for the poor education they receive.” Indeed, in Kentucky, let’s commit to never blame the poor, but commit to work with parents, communities, educators and government to collaborate on closing the achievement gaps and ensuring that education is the pathway to a brighter future for our children and the Commonwealth.

Kentucky’s Work Banishes the Winter Doldrums

It was my honor this week to represent Kentucky at the White House press conference announcing the states who received the first-round waivers from No Child Left Behind (NCLB). From the announcement of the waiver process in September, the Kentucky Department of Education (KDE) team and partners have worked many hours to prepare and negotiate the waiver and flexibility from the rigid requirements of NCLB. I especially want to thank Mary Ann Miller and staff in the Commissioner’s Office for pulling together all the components of the waiver and editing the entire application. Also, I want to thank Associate Commissioners Kevin Brown, David Couch, Ken Draut, Hiren Desai, Dewey Hensley, Felicia Smith and their staffs for the extra efforts in preparing the waiver application.

The waiver process actually began in April 2009 as KDE and partners began to plan for the implementation of 2009’s Senate Bill 1 (SB 1). The goal from the beginning has been to have one accountability system rather than two -- state and federal. Having two accountability systems was confusing to parents and schools. Also, the federal system began to lose credibility due to the details of NCLB.

Since April 2009, hundreds of meetings have been held with all stakeholders to gain feedback on the key components of SB 1 that also ended up being the key requirements of the NCLB waiver. These requirements are adopting new college/career readiness standards, implementing a more rigorous accountability model, implementing support for teachers and principals, and increasing flexibility with funding.

The NCLB waiver will have an immediate impact in Kentucky. This year, teachers and students are working with the new college/career-ready standards in mathematics and English/language arts. Schools and districts are planning for the accountability measures of college/career readiness, cohort graduation rates, student growth, closing achievement gaps and Program Reviews in arts and humanities, practical living/career studies and writing. Teachers and principals are working to develop new models for teacher/principal effectiveness. Educators are now supported by the Continuous Instructional Improvement Technology System (CIITS) that is the envy of many states. Our partners at the Prichard Committee and Kentucky Chamber of Commerce are helping spread the word about the new standards and accountability system.

Over the coming weeks, we will be working with schools and districts to implement the funding flexibility requirements. This flexibility comes at a very important time. State budgets for education have been reduced, and schools/districts will be looking at ways to redirect existing dollars to address the components of Senate Bill 1.

I am very proud to be education commissioner of a state that is leading the nation in education reform efforts. My thanks to Governor Steve Beshear and the General Assembly for setting the expectations in Senate Bill 1 that provided the path to the NCLB waiver and assured Kentucky’s position as a national leader in education.

“Quality Counts” and Tough Fiscal Realities

Gov. Steve Beshear’s budget proposal for the next two fiscal years contains both bright spots and harsh realities for Kentucky’s public schools. The primary source of state funding – SEEK – would not be cut, but it also will not increase to parallel enrollment growth. The governor’s proposal calls for expanding preschool funding, but school systems would see decreases in other program-area funding.


You can see Gov. Beshear’s budget proposal at http://www.osbd.ky.gov/.

As we steel ourselves for probable funding cuts and shortfalls, it was incredibly heartening last week to receive some positive news in the form of Education Week’s “Quality Counts” issue.

The annual report, which grades all states on key education indicators, showed Kentucky making its highest overall score in the past five years, earning a C+ with 78.6 points (U.S. average, 76.3) and making a dramatic jump in ranking from 24th to 14th overall. Access the full report here.

Education Week uses six indicators to rate a state’s education performance: Chance for Success; K-12 Achievement; Standards/Assessments and Accountability; Transitions and Alignment; Teaching Profession; and School Finance.

As the following highlights show, Kentucky fared well in four out of the six areas, with letter grades above or near the national average:

• A- (ranked 20) for standards, assessments and accountability, compared with the average state score of B
• B- (ranked 5th) for teaching profession, compared with the average state score of C
• B- (ranked 14th) for transitions and alignment, compared with the average state score of C+
• In K-12 achievement, Kentucky scored on par with the average state score of C-, ranking 13th.

The grades and rankings are a testament to our hard-working teachers, administrators, community members and elected officials. But a great deal of the credit also is due to 2009’s Senate Bill 1 (SB 1), which led us to undertake an overhaul of our standards, assessment and accountability system and increase our focus on college/career readiness for ALL Kentucky students.

This legislation set Kentucky on a course to become a leader nationwide, and with the support of Gov. Steve Beshear, legislators, teachers, administrators and parents, Kentucky’s work in school accountability, teacher training, college/career readiness and stronger academic standards is moving us in the right direction.

Certainly, this report validates that. I know as we fully implement our new standards and assessment system, we will see even more positive changes in our schools and for our students.

Are we done yet? No. Not by a long shot.

As the “Quality Counts” shows, Kentucky lags behind when it comes to chances for success for Kentucky students. The state ranks 36th in that area. We recognize that is not where we need to be; it is the exact opposite of what SB 1 mandates – that ALL Kentucky children be prepared to succeed in college or careers.

As I reviewed the 2012 report, I saw some key areas that need improvement, so that in 2013 or 2014 we can celebrate placement in the top ten of all states on the “Quality Counts” report.

For example, Kentucky must improve its 8th-grade NAEP mathematics scores, its high school graduation rate and its Advanced Placement scores. We must reduce achievement gaps for low-income students. We must improve our teacher evaluation system, provide more rigorous training and offer incentives and resources to our classroom teachers. And, we must strengthen our per-pupil funding so that it is within 90 percent of the national average.

That is why it is critical that we move forward implementing the new standards and measures that have grown out of SB 1. Implementing these changes and having them take hold will take time, but we must continue to stay the course if we are to reverse historical underachievement.

I know implementing the requirements of SB 1 will be difficult at a time when we are seeing dwindling resources for instructional materials, Family Resource/Youth Services Centers (FRYSCs), extended school services, professional development and jobs. That is why I have been advocating at three-pronged approach that looks at productivity and efficiency; redirection of dollars; and a call for additional sources of revenue. Kentucky must implement strategies related to these items so that we can improve our standing nationwide.

At the same time, however, I do not want to lose sight of the gains we have made. We should take the time to note and celebrate them. It validates our decisions and work, and it gives us the strength as we move ahead to take on even greater challenges.

Closing the Achievement Gap

NOTE: This posting was originally published in October 2011. It is being posted again in honor of the holiday recognizing Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s birthday.



Last Sunday as I was returning from the airport, I listened to the CNN coverage of the Martin Luther King, Jr. memorial dedication. I listened to President Barack Obama’s remarks as part of the dedication ceremony, and I listened to the entire “I Have a Dream” speech played as part of the dedication.

I could not help but reflect on the past 50 years. As a student in a segregated school until 10th grade, I can vividly remember the activities around integration in our local school system. Then as a college student, I recall traveling with the Furman University band in Washington, D.C. during the riots in the late 1960s. Then as a teacher, I recall the integration of the Gaffney, South Carolina schools and the student walkouts and near-riots related to forced integration.

Throughout my 40-year education career, I have watched our nation and our schools struggle with issues related to integration and helping all children succeed. Our nation began the path toward equity with the Brown v. Board of Education case. One of the cases that was combined into the Brown case came from a school district in South Carolina (Clarendon 3). I visited that school district as part of a team assigned to support the school district in the 1990s. I was saddened to see that not much had changed. The system was still segregated. The public schools were almost 100 percent minority, and white parents sent their students to private academies. The local board was still controlled by local land owners who would not support raising taxes to adequately fund the needs of students.

This system and others were highlighted in a documentary that aired a few years ago called Corridor of Shame. President Obama even highlighted a student who had written about the need for improved schools in this area, and if my memory is correct, there were substantial changes to the school where she attended in a Dillon, South Carolina district.

All of this reflection comes back to a couple of core questions – are we providing equity in access and outcomes for ALL children? Have we closed achievement gaps? These are questions that certainly have clear answers based on the data across the nation and across Kentucky. Look carefully at the achievement gap data in your school and school district. Look carefully at the suspension and discipline rates for minority students in your schools. Look carefully at the percentage of minority students that graduate from high school that are college/career ready, attend postsecondary and graduate from postsecondary. How many minority teachers, principals, superintendents and board members serve in our local school districts?

Almost two years ago, I revitalized the Commissioners Raising Achievement and Closing Gaps Council (CRACGC). This council recently published recommendations to ensure equity in access and outcomes. The recommendations from the council will become a required component for a new group of schools and districts that will be identified as part of our No Child Left Behind (NCLB) waiver request.

This new group of schools will be called “focus schools.” The Kentucky Department of Education will identify those schools that have the largest achievement gaps. These schools will be required to address achievement gap issues through school and district plans. Targeted interventions will increase with each year that the school or district does not meet targets to close achievement gaps.

My biggest fear is that, even with our best efforts through state accountability, a commissioner of education will be writing an article in another 40 years documenting that not much progress has been made ensuring equity of access and outcomes for ALL children.

What will the collective WE do differently over the next 5-10 years? The collective WE must involve communities in addressing poverty and access. The collective WE must address early childhood education, since that is where the gap can best be closed. The collective WE must address jobs and hope in our most challenged communities.

We cannot rely solely on teachers and schools to make a difference (we tried that with No Child Left Behind). We cannot mandate equity. Equity must be a belief that a community holds dear and then takes action to accomplish.

You are part of the collective WE. What will YOU do?

National Assessment of Educational Progress

This week seemed to focus on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), particularly the release of reading and mathematics scores. A few months ago, I was appointed by U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan to fill one of the two chief state school officer positions on the National Assessment Governing Board (NAGB). This board was established by Congress in 1988 to oversee the NAEP assessments and procedures. I am one of 26 members. The membership includes teachers, principals, business, parents, legislators and governors. The group meets quarterly to address the statutory requirements of the 1988 legislation. This group is different than most groups I serve on, because the group is a governing body and not solely an advisory body.

An interesting issue with which the NAGB is dealing is the participation rates of 12th graders. In order to make the 12th-grade assessment more meaningful to students, teachers and school districts, the NAGB is working on linking the 12th-grade results to college and career readiness. This will be very important to Kentucky and the nation as we move our accountability models toward college and career readiness.

Kentucky has seen significant progress in 4th- and 8th-grade NAEP results in reading and math. Kentucky also performs very well in science as compared to the nation. It is great to see Kentucky reading scores in 4th and 8th grades above the national average. Also, it is good to see 4th-grade math scores above the national average and 8th-grade math scores closing the gap to the national average, where we are now only one point below the national average. It is also good to see continued improvement as a nation in both reading and math.

There was certainly good news in the NAEP results; however, there is much work left to do as a nation and a state. My biggest concern for our nation and state is the achievement gaps based on poverty and race. In 4th-grade math for Kentucky, there is a 19-point gap for poverty and an 18-point gap for race. While both of those gaps are better than the national gaps, and we have closed the gaps since 2000, we must redouble our efforts for children in poverty. In 4th-grade reading, the Kentucky gaps are 20 points for poverty and 16 points for race. Again, we are better than the national gaps and have improved since 2000. The 8th-grade gaps tell a similar story.

Readers may want to refer to my October 21 blog for my thoughts on actions we are taking and need to take as individuals and collectively as a state to make progress on closing achievement gaps.

Closing the Achievement Gap

Last Sunday as I was returning from the airport, I listened to the CNN coverage of the Martin Luther King, Jr. memorial dedication. I listened to President Barack Obama’s remarks as part of the dedication ceremony, and I listened to the entire “I Have a Dream” speech played as part of the dedication.

I could not help but reflect on the past 50 years. As a student in a segregated school until 10th grade, I can vividly remember the activities around integration in our local school system. Then as a college student, I recall traveling with the Furman University band in Washington, D.C. during the riots in the late 1960s. Then as a teacher, I recall the integration of the Gaffney, South Carolina schools and the student walkouts and near-riots related to forced integration.

Throughout my 40-year education career, I have watched our nation and our schools struggle with issues related to integration and helping all children succeed. Our nation began the path toward equity with the Brown v. Board of Education case. One of the cases that was combined into the Brown case came from a school district in South Carolina (Clarendon 3). I visited that school district as part of a team assigned to support the school district in the 1990s. I was saddened to see that not much had changed. The system was still segregated. The public schools were almost 100 percent minority, and white parents sent their students to private academies. The local board was still controlled by local land owners who would not support raising taxes to adequately fund the needs of students.

This system and others were highlighted in a documentary that aired a few years ago called Corridor of Shame. President Obama even highlighted a student who had written about the need for improved schools in this area, and if my memory is correct, there were substantial changes to the school where she attended in a Dillon, South Carolina district.

All of this reflection comes back to a couple of core questions – are we providing equity in access and outcomes for ALL children? Have we closed achievement gaps? These are questions that certainly have clear answers based on the data across the nation and across Kentucky. Look carefully at the achievement gap data in your school and school district. Look carefully at the suspension and discipline rates for minority students in your schools. Look carefully at the percentage of minority students that graduate from high school that are college/career ready, attend postsecondary and graduate from postsecondary. How many minority teachers, principals, superintendents and board members serve in our local school districts?

Almost two years ago, I revitalized the Commissioners Raising Achievement and Closing Gaps Council (CRACGC). This council recently published recommendations to ensure equity in access and outcomes. The recommendations from the council will become a required component for a new group of schools and districts that will be identified as part of our No Child Left Behind (NCLB) waiver request.

This new group of schools will be called “focus schools.” The Kentucky Department of Education will identify those schools that have the largest achievement gaps. These schools will be required to address achievement gap issues through school and district plans. Targeted interventions will increase with each year that the school or district does not meet targets to close achievement gaps.

My biggest fear is that, even with our best efforts through state accountability, a commissioner of education will be writing an article in another 40 years documenting that not much progress has been made ensuring equity of access and outcomes for ALL children.

What will the collective WE do differently over the next 5-10 years? The collective WE must involve communities in addressing poverty and access. The collective WE must address early childhood education, since that is where the gap can best be closed. The collective WE must address jobs and hope in our most challenged communities.

We cannot rely solely on teachers and schools to make a difference (we tried that with No Child Left Behind). We cannot mandate equity. Equity must be a belief that a community holds dear and then takes action to accomplish.

You are part of the collective WE. What will YOU do?

Listening to Educators

The Kentucky Board of Education received a summary of the results from the Teaching, Empowering, Leading and Learning (TELL) Kentucky Survey this week. Over 42,000 educators responded to the survey. Kentucky had the largest first-year response rate of any other state utilizing the survey (more than 80 percent).

Board Chair David Karem and several other board members were very clear – “Given the enormous response to the survey, if we do not utilize the data from the survey, then we will make working conditions and morale worse in our schools and districts.”

It is time now to ensure that we not only listen to our educators, but we also enact policies, budgets and actions that will improve the working conditions in our schools. The research is very clear that the working conditions in our schools impact student learning and teacher retention.

The TELL Kentucky survey was developed and implemented by a strong coalition of partner organizations across Kentucky. For a full list of the partners, please go to www.tellkentucky.org. This group did an amazing job of planning and implementing strategies that would ensure strong participation by educators across Kentucky.

The results speak for themselves. The coalition is now hard at work in focusing on how to utilize the results from the survey. The Education Professional Standards Board, Kentucky School Boards Association, Kentucky Association of School Administrators, Kentucky Association of School Superintendents, Kentucky Education Association, Kentucky Association of School Councils and others are hard at working developing training modules and materials for school boards, superintendents, principals, school councils and communities. The Kentucky Department of Education will be working to implement policies and procedures to ensure schools and districts utilize the data to develop improvement plans.

It is our plan to provide the survey every two years and require schools and districts to target improvement areas from the survey results in their school and district improvement plans. We are very confident with the research base that if schools and districts improve working conditions, we will see increases in student learning outcomes, teacher/principal morale and teacher/principal retention rates.

Our educators have told us what they need in the way of support – our job as leaders is to now get busy in providing that support!

Closing Gaps – What Progress Has Been Made?

In 2002, there was much fanfare when the federal No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act was passed. Who could argue with such a lofty goal? The Kentucky legislature was working on similar legislation during that time that eventually led to passage of the “closing the achievement gap” bill, KRS 158.649.

Fast-forward eight years, and let’s see if we have made any progress at the national and state levels.

I recently read a report that compared National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) results in the last four decades. The report documented that we made significant gains in closing gaps during the ‘60s, ‘80s and mid-‘90s; however, we have made little if any gains in closing gaps since the passage of NCLB.

In Kentucky, we also have made some progress; however, the gaps remain very large. For 2010 testing, the combined reading/mathematics proficiency gap between all students and several student groups is as follows:
All to African American – 20 points
All to Limited English Proficient – 22 points
All to Students with Disabilities – 22 points

Regardless of the assessment (ACT, NAEP, Kentucky Core Content Tests, Iowa Tests of Basic Skills), the gaps are usually in the low to mid 20-point range.

While NCLB and the Kentucky legislation set the expectations and require action, I believe we have lost focus over the past few years. Last fall, I reconvened the Commissioner’s Raising Achievement and Closing Gaps Council. This group worked to develop several key recommendations. Those recommendations and brief highlights of our work in Kentucky follow.

Recommendation #1: Provide information about the overall academic and social status of Kentucky schools and districts in a format that is useful and accessible to the general public.
The Kentucky Board of Education is working to implement an accountability and report card model that will include more useful and accessible information to the general public. Recently, KDE released all assessment data and college/career readiness data with the new Open House link on the KDE Web page.

Recommendation #2: Ensure that all students, regardless of race, gender, ethnic background, disability or socioeconomic status, have access to a rigorous curriculum and get the support necessary to be successful in a rigorous curriculum.
With the passage and subsequent implementation of 2009’s Senate Bill 1, we have started the work on this recommendation. Kentucky was the first state in the nation to adopt the Common Core Academic Standards. More than 1,000 teachers and principals are working monthly in a collaborative effort to develop a model curriculum framework that provides suggestions on the supports necessary for student success.

Recommendation #3: Create an environment of high expectations, with administrators, teachers and staff taking ownership for meeting the needs of all students.
This is the difficult recommendation. It is easy to establish the goals, the strategies, the curriculum, the supports and the rewards/consequences. It is quite something else to ensure EVERY district, EVERY school, EVERY classroom, EVERY parent, EVERY communication, EVERY teacher and staff member are committed to high expectations and ownership of meeting the needs of EVERY child.

You can see more details on these recommendations here, at the bottom of the page.

My biggest concern is that we tend to focus on the adults rather than the children. When looking at implementing practices that we know will close achievement gaps, we tend to focus on the reasons the adults are not able to implement the practices, rather than focusing on what the children need. I hope that we can do both, but we need to first focus on the children!

Vision for Education Reform in Kentucky

Governor Beshear will soon be appointing up to seven new members for the Kentucky Board of Education. The Governor also has appointed a Transforming Education in Kentucky (TEK) Task Force to make recommendations prior to the 2011 legislative session. Also, KDE is working hard to implement 2009’s Senate Bill 1 (SB 1), which requires a new accountability system, internationally benchmarked standards, formative and diagnostic assessments, student growth measures, and numerous other far-reaching initiatives.

I have started the process of engaging all advisory councils in the dialogue concerning a new accountability system and strategic plan for the Kentucky Board of Education. The board will hold a strategic retreat prior to its June meeting. The following information is a summary of what I have been proposing to our advisory groups and will provide to the board as a guide for the development of a revised accountability system and strategic plan.

The key to our success in transforming education in Kentucky will reside in our ability to focus on a few goals with a few strategies that are done with precision and fidelity. These few goals will focus on the vision of every child proficient and prepared for success. This vision will be measured by indicators of proficiency, growth and closing gaps among student groups.

Proficiency will be measured by the cohort graduation rate and our comparative position among states. Growth will be measured by the increases in our annual percentage of high school graduates who are prepared for college and career as compared against other states. Closing gaps will be measured by the decreases in gaps for the graduation and readiness rates among student groups in Kentucky as compared against other states.

The ultimate measure for the vision of Kentucky education will be informed by the following measures:
- National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) Proficiency, Growth and Gap rates – 4th- and 8th-grade reading and mathematics
- Educational Planning and Assessment System (EPAS) Proficiency, Growth and Gap rates – 8th-grade EXPLORE, 10th-grade PLAN and 11th-grade ACT

The Kentucky Board of Education will set biannual goals for each of the measures to reach and maintain a top 20 in the nation ranking.

There will be four strategic priorities with specific strategies and annual indicators of progress. These priorities, strategies and indicators are based on federal guidance provided by Race to the Top, State Fiscal Stabilization Funds and proposed reauthorization of Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA). Also, the priorities, strategies and indicators are based on state guidance provided by SB 1 (2009), SB 168 (2002), SB 130 (2006) and other state statutes. The priorities are Next Generation Learners, Next Generation Professionals, Next Generation Support Systems and Next Generation Schools and Districts.

Comments and suggestions concerning this vision for the new accountability system are very much appreciated. We will have community forums and focus groups as part of the Governor’s TEK Task Force in August, and all advisory councils (parents, teachers, business, superintendents, principals, students and others) will have opportunity for input.

Our board has a vision of ALL children proficient and prepared for success. While visions are great, they have no meaning unless you have measures and accountability for those.

Investment in Early Childhood Education Pays Off

While we have a lot of discussion going on in Frankfort about budgets, facilities, jobs, economy and Race to the Top, I don’t want us to forget the best investment we could make in the long term. That investment is certainly education; however, I want to focus this blog on closing the achievement gap through investment in early childhood education.

Our friends at the Prichard Committee have shown through numerous reports that a dollar invested in early childhood can repay the state between $5 and $6 in the long term. Let us not forget the future while we are trying to balance the present.

Researchers have well-documented the achievement gap that exists between advantaged (average and above income) and disadvantaged (poverty-level income) children by as early as age 3. Researchers have documented that advantaged children have a vocabulary of more than 1,100 words by age 3, while disadvantaged children have a vocabulary of 525 words. Parent utterances to their children in advantaged homes average 487 per hour. Parent utterances to children in disadvantaged homes average 178 per hour.

Not only do advantaged children’s parents talk to them more and read to them more, they also provide more encouragement than parents of disadvantaged children. Children in advantaged homes average 500,000 words of encouragement overall and 75,000 words of encouragement from their parents by age 3. Children in disadvantaged homes receive 80,000 words of encouragement overall and 200,000 words of discouragement by age 3. Researchers documented that disadvantaged children not only hear fewer words from their parents, the words they do hear are mostly discouraging words. Researchers further documented that this vocabulary and encouragement difference impacts the children’s IQs. Children from advantaged homes had an average IQ of 117, and children in disadvantaged homes have an average IQ of 79.

All of this research points to one thing – disadvantaged children enter kindergarten at least two grade levels below their advantaged peers. These numbers are based on extensive research and represent averages. Individual parents do make a difference and can certainly create conditions better than or worse than the research averages.

However, schools have to deal with the achievement gap that already exists for children when they enter school. The option of slowing all children down until the disadvantaged students catch up is not one that schools should or will consider. The key to addressing this achievement gap comes from addressing preschool programs and addressing the vocabulary and encouragement gap.

I recently heard a CNN report that California spends more than $45,000 per year for each prison inmate. Most states spend more than $30,000 per year. The research is very clear. If we do not close the achievement gaps with our most disadvantaged students, then the odds of dropping out of school are tripled or even higher. In most of our prisons, the majority of the population are high school dropouts. Let’s connect the dots and invest now in our most precious resource – the children – and save future generations from bearing the burden of ever-increasing justice costs.

Charter Schools and Kentucky

As I began working with school districts and teacher associations to develop support for the Kentucky Race to the Top (RTTT) application, I asked them to keep an open mind about charter schools. In most cases, my suggestion was well-received, and most people did keep open minds toward discussion of charter schools and the issues that need to be addressed.

It quickly became apparent to me that we did not have sufficient time to address the charter school issues AND develop a strong Race to the Top application. On December 7, I informed superintendents, teacher leaders and school board chairs that our RTTT application would not include charter schools.

As most of you know, we were able to pass legislation (House Bill 176) to include four turnaround options for low-performing schools, and among those options we did include the ability for a local school board to contract with an Education Management Organization to run a school. This option should help Kentucky with some of the criteria points in the RTTT application.

The question now becomes – What do we do now? The charter school debate has not ended, it has only just begun. My guiding principle with regard to charter schools or any innovation in education is simple. How will the innovation help students learn at higher levels and enable teachers to meet the needs of more students?

The debate moving forward should not be “do we have charter schools or do we not have charter schools.” We should never force ourselves into a corner of either/or. We should avoid the tyranny of OR and focus on the synergy of AND. There are some possible ways that charter school legislation could help improve teaching and learning in Kentucky. That is the solution we should all be looking for, rather than polarizing ourselves into one corner or the other.

The Kentucky Department of Education will be working with legislators and other decision-makers at the state and local levels to engage in a positive and focused discussion on how school boards could utilize some type of charter legislation to enable schools and districts to remove barriers to teaching and learning.

We should be focusing our questions on how a school board could utilize charter legislation to develop innovative programs that focus on mastery and student performance rather than seat time. We should focus the conversations on how school boards could partner with internal and external groups to utilize charter legislation to address the needs of students who are not achieving in traditional settings. We should focus the conversations on what innovations in technology could be utilized in a charter setting to create next-generation schools.

The common theme in all of these questions is the focus on improving teaching and learning with the support of local school boards. My favorite reminder when difficult issues come up is that we need to focus on the children’s needs and not let the adult needs get in the way of our focus. I have every confidence that Kentucky can have this discussion and, in the end, reach agreement on legislation that is in the best interest of the children.

Closing Achievement Gaps

During my first few months in Kentucky, there have been a number of initiatives spurring me, as Commissioner of Education, to act on certain concerns with education. One of these concerns is the persistent achievement gap in student learning. We have revitalized the Commissioner’s Raising Achievement and Closing Gaps Council. The council met this week and had a spirited conversation about the achievement gap in Kentucky. I wanted to highlight a few of the key learning items from the meeting.

What do the data tell us about the achievement gap?

- We learned that student academic success goes down the longer students are in school. In Kentucky and most states, any measure we look at will reveal that, as students progress through school, the average percentage of those proficient in mathematics, reading, social studies, science, satisfaction, discipline and other areas gets worse.
- We learned that we have reading achievement gaps for students with disabilities as high as 40 percent in high school.
- We learned that we have 20- to 30-point achievement gaps for African-American students in reading and math.
- We learned that Kentucky’s achievement gaps are close to the national average.

This issue was addressed by the Kentucky legislature in 2002 through requirements that districts and schools report achievement gaps, set goals to close achievement gaps and develop plans to close the gaps. The question then becomes, if we report the gaps, if we set goals and we develop plans, which schools and districts have actually closed gaps? KDE does have a process to highlight schools that have successfully closed achievement gaps, and last year, we highlighted 23 schools for their great work. However, we do not have a sufficient focus on this issue. We must confront the brutal facts and create a sense of urgency in the Commonwealth to close achievement gaps.

I will be communicating on this issue through many venues -- through our Race to the Top application, Senate Bill 1 deployment plans, the Kentucky Board of Education’s strategic plan and a revised state accountability model, we will be addressing the achievement gap.

Our council will reconvene in March and begin to develop specific recommendations for communication, accountability and sharing best practices. I have asked the council and the KDE staff not to think of this in the abstract. I have asked them to picture a specific child and focus their work on what they would do if that child were one of those who had a significant achievement gap.

The time for talk and planning are fast coming to an end. We have talked and planned for years without major changes in the results. It is now time for a focus on the children and for the future of our Commonwealth, and that focus will need strong leadership from superintendents and principals and strong support for our teachers. I have yet to meet anyone in Kentucky who does not want all children to be successful. The key is providing the support, resources and accountability to ensure all children reach success.

Black Males Working ... A Model Program

At the Kentucky Board of Education (KBE) meeting this week, there were several awards presented to groups and individuals.

I want to highlight one of the programs doing great work in raising achievement of students and in closing achievement gaps. Black Males Working, a collaborative program of First Bracktown Inc. and the Fayette County school district, received the Samuel Robinson award. This program is an outreach of First Baptist Bracktown and began in 2005 to address the needs of African-American males at Leestown Middle School. Since that time, the program has grown to serve more than 140 students from 11 middle schools and five high schools.

Students in the program must attend a Saturday Academy, maintain a 2.5 grade point average and show improvement in grades and behavior. Also, students must limit TV and video game usage to one hour per night and read 60 minutes per day. Students must turn in all homework and classroom assignments promptly, participate in community service and attend school regularly. They also must be well-groomed daily and maintain good conduct in home, school and community. Parent involvement also is a key component of the program. At the KBE meeting, I met four of the young men involved in this program. They all wore ties and were well groomed. The most impressive features of the young men were their handshakes and their ability to speak clearly and confidently to adults.

This program was developed by retired educator Roszalyn Akins and supported by Roger Cleveland, Ed.D., an assistant professor of educational leadership at Eastern Kentucky University. Rev. C.B. Akins and the members of First Baptist Bracktown play a critical role in supporting the program. Fayette County Superintendent Stu Silberman and the staff of the Fayette County school district have worked collaboratively with the program to provide support and encouragement.

The results of the program have been outstanding. Grades, behavior, test scores and college readiness statistics show the impact of the program. Students have received numerous college scholarship offers from Georgetown College, Morehead State University, Murray State University and Centre College. Recently, the University of Kentucky awarded 20 scholarships to the program.

Kentucky has made progress in improving graduation rates. However, we have much work to do. President Obama and Secretary Duncan have recently announced Innovation grant funds of $650 million available to school districts and non-profit organizations. I encourage local school systems to partner with non-profits similar to the partnership between Fayette County and First Bracktown Inc. and apply for these funds. When we have collaborative efforts such as these, not only do we improve the lives of students, but we also improve our community and state.

For more information on the Black Males Working Program, contact Roszalyn Akins at (859) 231-7042.