There is danger looming

I am constantly amazed at the terrific job that Kentucky educators are doing. In spite of numerous budget cuts and dwindling resources, Kentucky educators are leading the nation in the focus on improving student college- and career-ready rates.

This week, I had the pleasure to attend a meeting in Seattle, Washington that was sponsored by the Gates Foundation. This convening was a cross-state collaboration of Louisiana, Kentucky, and Colorado. State representatives from Tennessee and New York were also in attendance. Kentucky educators were highlighted in numerous sessions. Boone County teacher Chris Crouch helped kickoff a general session that focused on implementation of common core standards. Numerous Kentucky Department of Education staff presented on the great work of our Unbridled Learning strategic plan. Kentucky was well represented by several superintendents, principals, teachers, the Kentucky Education Association and the Prichard Committee for Academic Excellence.

It was very rewarding to hear about great progress in other states and refreshing to hear that other states also are facing challenges. This convening reinforced for me how important it is that educators have time for sharing and learning with other educators. Whether it is a Professional Learning Community (PLC) at the school level or a national convening, learning from other educators is critically important if we are to improve student learning outcomes.

I am thankful to be in Kentucky during a time of great progress in focusing on student learning. Another highlight recently was the huge success of the Blitz to 96 campaign. As of this writing, more than 100 districts have raised the dropout age to 18.

The eyes of the nation are certainly on Kentucky; however, there is danger looming. Without additional funding and resources, our educators in Kentucky will soon burn out and student learning will suffer. As we get ready for the 2014 General Assembly, my number one priority is to share this concern with legislators. At a minimum, I will be pushing for restoration of funding to 2008 levels. Our children and educators deserve this investment.

Our results are striking; the more our education outcomes improve, the more our economy in Kentucky can grow.  I hope readers will join me in this push to restore education funding to 2008 levels or higher.

TELL Kentucky

As we wrap up the 2013 Teaching, Empowering, Leading and Learning (TELL) Kentucky survey, I want to thank the coalition of partners who supported the survey. I also want to thank Governor Beshear for his support and vision for TELL Kentucky.

The 2013 TELL Kentucky survey was a huge success. We had more than 42,000 teachers and principals respond –more than 83 percent of school-based certified staff in the state. In addition, more than 90 percent of our schools reached the 50 percent response rate required to receive a feedback report.

Now the hard work begins. It is extremely important that school councils and principals, school boards and superintendents, review the results from the survey and make plans on what to celebrate and what to improve. We are honored that many of our partners in Kentucky have developed tools to help councils, principals, superintendents and school boards review the data and put the results to use for school improvement. For more information on available resources, please check out the web site www.tellkentucky.org.

Sometime this summer, the Kentucky Board of Education will also review the survey results and the Kentucky Department of Education (KDE) will work with our partners to celebrate successes and plan statewide strategies to address needed improvements. KDE will also conduct research on which survey domains most strongly correlate to improving student achievement.

It is my hope that all of our partners will join together in using the results of the survey to push for additional resources and support for classroom teachers and principals. Our Kentucky educators have done tremendous work in the last few years. With the implementation of common core standards, assessments, accountability and professional learning, we have asked educators to do much more with a whole lot less. As we approach the General Assembly budget session in 2014, it will be a tremendous asset to say that according to more than 42,000 teachers in Kentucky, we need the following …

When I came to Kentucky in 2009, Phil Rogers who was then the Executive Director of the Education Professional Standards Board and Mary Ann Blankenship with the Kentucky Education Association approached me to garner my support for the TELL Kentucky survey. As a former superintendent in North Carolina, I used the working conditions survey that is the basis for TELL Kentucky, so I knew firsthand how important it is to determine teachers’ and principals’ views about their working conditions. Having worked with the survey for more than 10 years, I am very confident in the following statement – Ensuring great working conditions for educators ensures great learning conditions for students!

Again, thank you teachers, principals, superintendents and all of our partners for your support of the TELL Kentucky survey and the data it generates that is so critical for improving education in our state.

Taking Stock of Unbridled Learning Results

The Unbridled Learning accountability results have been out for a few days now, and we are seeing lots of articles, board presentations, parent workshops and discussion about the accountability results.

Early reports seem to focus on the overall drop in proficiency (which was predicted) and the new emphasis by the state to provide a percentile rank for schools and districts. However, there has not been much discussion about the significant increase in the percentage of graduates who are college- and career-ready. This is somewhat disappointing, since college and career readiness is the underlying principle for the accountability model and was the key requirement from 2009’s Senate Bill 1.

Other key issues we are hearing about include the usefulness of the tools provided. While there are massive amounts of data in the new School Report Card, schools are reacting very positively to the data being in one place and the user-friendly nature of the School Report Card. The report card gives a quick and easy snapshot of performance of schools and districts and also provides a multilevel, complex view of the components that make up the overall score for schools and districts. 

The percentile rank system has been well received by most, since it provides an easy way to understand how your school/district performance compares to other Kentucky schools. This percentile system is similar to what parents receive from testing reports. Parents may not understand the test score from the state or national test; however, they do understand and want to know how their child's performance compares to other children across the state and nation.

The release of the accountability model has also given the Kentucky Department of Education (KDE) an opportunity to receive constructive feedback on concerns with the model. Among these concerns are:

• complexity of the system
• science and social studies scores -- too high, compared to math and reading
• comparisons with national assessments
• understanding student growth
• understanding student gap group results
• perceived lack of consequences for low-performing schools

KDE will share these concerns and others as we present the Unbridled Learning accountability results to the Kentucky Board of Education (KBE) at the December board meeting. Most of these concerns can be addressed by clarification of the model and how the results are reported.

There will be those that call for immediate action to address concerns. I want to close with some of the state and national issues that will certainly impact any immediate or long-range changes to the model.

The Kentucky Board of Education has certainly stated a clear intent to improve the accountability model as we get feedback from the field. The first issue we must consider is that schools and districts entered the 2012-13 school year knowing the "rules of the game" for accountability, and we should not change the rules in the middle of the game. Therefore, I would recommend to KBE that no major changes be made to regulations governing the model until we have at least two years of data from the model. Also, we are governed by the federal Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) waiver, and any changes to our accountability model would require federal review. Finally, all states are hoping for  reauthorization of ESEA (No Child Left Behind), which most certainly will impact the Unbridled Learning model.

As we close out November, parents across Kentucky now know if their child is on target to be college- and career-ready. From 3rd grade through 12th grade, every student and parent has the information to know the status of a trajectory to reach college/career readiness by graduation. This information provides students, parents and educators with the information needed to take action to ensure more of our students reach college/career readiness and have a positive impact on the economy of Kentucky.

Educational Progress Worth Celebrating

Sometimes when we’re in the midst of the hard work of improving schools, it is easy to forget how far Kentucky has come.

The state – all of us – has invested in better schools in the past two decades. And the investment is paying off in students who are better prepared than they have ever been.

Over the past 20 years, Kentucky has moved to the middle of states in academic achievement. We’re continuing to move upward. At the same time, other states that didn’t focus on schools like we did have moved steadily downward.

Kentucky’s progress is worth celebrating. Our educators deserve considerable praise for their effort, as do our elected leaders for staying the course on better schools.

But that course is getting tougher. While our students have been achieving far more, and while they look better when compared to students in other states, the rest of the world has not stood still. Indeed, students in a number of other countries have been achieving at far higher rates than students in the United States.

The world for our students is much different than it was just a few years ago. To be competitive for today’s jobs, young adults will have to command as much knowledge and skills as their peers not just in other states but those in other countries.

Today’s economy is global. What happens around the world – from energy prices to interest rates to technology breakthroughs – affects us quickly here. The Kentucky coal that used to be sold in our region now moves across the world; indeed, a new deal will ship $7 billion of Kentucky coal to India.

These days, the best predictor of individual economic success is the quality of his or her education. None of us has lived in a time where education has been so important, not just to individuals but also to communities and states. At least in Kentucky, we have come to understand and act upon that reality. This is why the state has adopted higher academic standards for our students and new tests to measure their progress.

Our goals have increased to reflect that new international reality. Instead of demanding proficiency in just the basics of education, we’re now expecting to get students to be ready to keep learning beyond high school; to have the knowledge and skills that make them ready for college or today’s workplace.

Our students are as smart as any in the world, and we are now expecting more of them. We didn’t do it arbitrarily. We did it because these are the standards of the world and we want Kentucky students to be competitive.

Now that we’ve released the first results from our new tests, we’re seeing that we have a ways to go. The numbers of students who had been distinguished or proficient went down. This isn’t because they aren’t making progress, it is because we are measuring them against higher standards. We’ve raised the height of the basket, lengthened the football field, made the golf course longer, pushed back the outfield fences.

It would certainly be more enjoyable for me to keep the tests the way they were and see more Kentucky students get higher scores. It also would be wrong. We do our students no favors when we tell them they are ready to succeed in the world when they are not.

And we want them to succeed.

We expected the test scores to be lower, and we’ve been saying so. But the scores are jarring nevertheless to students and their parents, to teachers and principals, to taxpayers and to elected officials.

The new test scores can’t be compared to the old ones; they measure different things.

But we know that we are making the kind of progress that matters – more of our students are leaving high school better prepared to succeed in the world. Our remediation rates in higher education are getting lower. Our ACT scores are steadily moving upward. We have moved increasingly closer to the national average, and I suspect we will surpass it in a few years if we continue to stay focused.

The scores we’ve released this week are lower than we want, but readiness is going up. And that is something Kentucky should be quite proud of.

Getting Ready for the Numbers

The work done over the past three years by legislators, staff at the Kentucky Department of Education (KDE), teachers, administrators, school staff, students, parents, community members and education partners will start to bear fruit soon. Next week at the Kentucky Board of Education meeting, I’ll share some estimates of state-level performance connected to the Unbridled Learning assessment and accountability system. School districts are reviewing their data closely, and in a few weeks, district- and school-level data related to the system will be released publicly.

This work began before I accepted the post of commissioner of education, with the passage of 2009’s Senate Bill 1. From the very earliest discussions and plans for a new system, a primary goal was to involve as many groups and individuals as possible and to communicate the work broadly. I believe these efforts have been very successful.

Although it’s a challenge to communicate information about new test scores and accountability categories before we have data in hand, we’ve engaged in a series of activities over the past 12 months to reach out to the audiences that will be impacted by and interested in the data.

I and other KDE staff have visited the state’s educational cooperatives and presented information on the upcoming data release. We’ve produced parent-friendly brochures and FAQs on the system and shared those widely. KDE’s flagship publication, Kentucky Teacher, has featured assessment and accountability in many stories. Our advisory groups have included discussion about the new system on their agendas. I recently hosted a webcast targeted at reporters and editors who will be covering the results of the new system.

Behind the scenes, KDE staff are involved in projects like designing the new School Report Card, which will be our primary vehicle for sharing the new data. Cross-agency teams are ensuring that staff in each office is kept up to date on the latest developments related to Unbridled Learning. We’re even redesigning the agency’s website to make it easier for visitors to find information.

We realized early on that KDE could not communicate about this ongoing work without the help of our partners, who have contributed their time, staff and energy to sharing information.

The Prichard Committee’s ReadyKentucky initiative, the Kentucky Chamber of Commerce’s summer speaking tour, the chamber’s Business Leader Champions for Education initiative, the discussions at the state’s educational cooperative meetings, the Kentucky School Boards Association’s (KSBA’s) video on how to talk to the media about test scores and accountability, and the work in our school districts to prepare local communities and media outlets for the coming data release have been vital to spreading the word about the Unbridled Learning system.

All of this is in preparation for what will be the start of a new era in Kentucky public education; a time during which we will focus on the ultimate goal of college and career readiness for all students. These data are crucial to planning and improvement – for our schools, districts and this agency – and providing information about what it all will mean is a shared effort.

Finding Excitement and Focus Throughout Kentucky’s School Districts

One of my goals as commissioner is to visit all 174 school districts in Kentucky. To date, I have visited 150 districts and over 400 schools. My target date for completing all visits is December 2012.

During the past few weeks, I have visited schools and districts from east to west and north to south. The excitement level is very high during the opening weeks of school. During my visits, it is important for me to talk with administrators, teachers and students about what is working and what is not working with regard to implementation of our Unbridled Learning strategic plan. This blog provides a few highlights of my recent visits.

The Unbridled Learning vision of every child proficient and prepared for success has reached classrooms across Kentucky. In talking with students, parents, business leaders and educators, the vision of ALL students graduating with the skills needed to be successful in college and career has captured the imagination and actions of individuals across the Commonwealth. Educators, parents and business leaders tell me that they understand the vision and think it is the right one for the future of our state and the future of children. Career and technical educators are very excited about being part of the vision, and schools and districts are integrating career and technical options with academic programs.

When I visit schools, I enjoy talking directly with teachers. What I am hearing from teachers is support for the Common Core Standards. Teachers of language arts are especially excited about the increasing rigor of writing and research. Also, they are excited about the increase in the use of non-fiction materials. Math teachers strongly support the math standards; however, they are concerned about the learning gaps that students have and feel that it will take 3-4 years to close those gaps and see significant progress on assessments. Science teachers are very interested in the new science standards that have been recently developed for review. Social studies teachers are anxiously awaiting new social studies standards. Every teacher I have talked with at the high school level supports the new end-of-course assessments and strongly support student accountability for the assessments.

Educators are very concerned about a couple of things. The major concern is continued budget cuts. In the face of whole-scale education reform, our state budget has not funded textbooks and resources for four years. Professional development has been reduced from $25 per pupil to less than $4 per pupil. Increasing costs of health care and pensions have had an impact on local funding. Educators also are concerned about the results from the new assessments. They support the assessments, but are worried that parents and community members will not clearly understand the significant change in the results.

The visits to schools and districts are important strategies. By listening to teachers, administrators, parents, students and the business community, I can bring back to the General Assembly, education department and the Kentucky Board of Education the “realities” that our teachers are facing. I am humbled every time I visit a school by the positive and “can-do” attitude that I find. It is indeed an exciting and challenging time for education in Kentucky. Hats off to all our educators, and best wishes for a successful school year

Changing the Way Educators Learn

For this week’s blog entry, I asked Associate Commissioner Felicia Cumings Smith to author a piece about professional learning. Felicia’s staff in the Office of Next-Generation Learners is keenly aware of the need to rethink the way Kentucky educators engage in training and learning to support their students and ensure their success.

As Kentucky continues to lead the nation with its college- and career-ready agenda, it cannot deny the critical role that professional learning plays. Being selected by Learning Forward as the Demonstration State for Implementing the Common Core Standards has enabled us to elevate the discussion related to professional learning and begin to analyze what steps are needed to support educators becoming more effective in their teaching and learning practices.

A report -- Transforming Professional Learning in Kentucky: Meeting the Demands of the Common Core State Standards -- authored by Linda Darling-Hammond (Stanford University) and Barnett Berry (Center for Teaching Quality) offers a look into the professional learning policy landscape in our state. Several recommendations deserve our immediate attention as we seek to ensure that all students have access to highly effective teaching, learning and assessment practices that will prepare them for college and career success.

In particular, the following suggest shifts in practice for a systems approach to professional learning for Kentucky educators:

1.      creating a “culture change” around professional learning — particularly with use of time during and beyond the school day; accessing/capitalizing on internal expertise; and focusing more on learning than on complying with a time requirement for professional development hours

2.      ensuring there is coherence and integration of professional learning systems — between higher education and P-12 (transition, remediation, preparation, professional learning/recertification)

3.      developing a clear vision of professional learning and growth that translates into practice for all (ultimately, ensuring equity in students’ access to effective teachers, leaders, and learning experiences)

The aforementioned document may be found on the Kentucky Department of Education’s website here. The work of the Professional Learning Task Force, which is comprised of individuals representing teachers, administrators and partners, is referenced throughout.

As Kentucky continues to build momentum for meeting the state college and career readiness goals, professional learning and educator effectiveness will be foundational to these conversations.

Felicia Cumings Smith, Associate Commissioner

Office of Next-Generation Learners

Digital Learning in Kentucky

Kentucky was one of the early leaders in virtual learning. Today, we are struggling to find the appropriate methods for funding, support and innovation.

Over the past two years, we have been working first through the Transforming Education in Kentucky task force and now through an “innovative pathways to graduation” committee to define how we can create more opportunities for students and teachers to engage in digital learning.

Our work in Kentucky is being informed through the Digital Learning Now report that was a collaborative project of former Florida Governor Jeb Bush and former West Virginia Governor Bob Wise. We have been utilizing the services of a consulting firm – OpenEd Solutions – to develop key recommendations for policy and budget decisions. The consulting firm is conducting an analysis of current digital learning conditions in Kentucky and will host a Digital Summit on September 7 in Lexington to further develop a final report. The final report will then be presented to Kentucky Board of Education and key legislators for action in the 2012 session.

This week saw some exciting potential for the future of digital learning in Kentucky. In a joint press conference held at Woodford County High School, Governor Steve Beshear, University of Kentucky President Eli Capilouto, Kentucky Educational Television Executive Director Shae Hopkins and I announced the launch of the Kentucky on iTunes U site. This free source provides access to numerous teacher- and student-friendly sites that provide unlimited opportunities for digital learning.

Also, it was exciting to witness the deployment of a 1:1 iPad solution in Woodford County High classrooms. Students and teachers demonstrated exciting new opportunities for digital learning. Superintendent Scott Hawkins and his team are to be commended for their innovative work. Woodford County joins many other Kentucky school districts with similar 1:1 projects and a focus on innovation.

Our partners at the UK P20 Innovation Lab and the Center for the Advanced Study of Technology Leadership in Education (CASTLE) are stretching our thinking for the future. Also, a group of 16 school districts is partnering with us through the Stupski Foundation and Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO) to design the next generation of schools and learning opportunities.

The energy, interest and creative abilities exist in Kentucky to create the national model for digital learning. Stay tuned for the final report from our digital summit.

Great Partners

Over the past few weeks, Kentucky Department of Education (KDE) staff have presented on several occasions at conferences sponsored by our partners.

In late June, we had the opportunity to present to the Kentucky Association of School Superintendents (KASS) summer conference. Thanks to Executive Director Wilson Sears and the KASS board for their collaboration and support of TELL Kentucky and our Unbridled Learning strategic plan. KASS and the regional cooperatives are extremely important in implementing the Common Core Standards.

Last weekend, we had an opportunity to address the Kentucky School Boards Association (KSBA) summer conference. Our many thanks to Executive Director Bill Scott and his great staff for their focus on TELL Kentucky and Unbridled Learning. KDE staff put together a great session that provided school board members with up-to-date information on the KDE and Kentucky Board of Education (KBE) initiatives.

This week, numerous KDE staff had the opportunity to present to the 43rd annual Kentucky Association of School Administrators (KASA) summer conference. I had the pleasure of addressing the group at the opening session. KASA has changed its logo to focus on next-generation learning and leading, which is very much aligned with the KBE focus on next-generation learning. Executive Director Wayne Young and his excellent staff are strong supporters of the implementation work for our Unbridled Learning and TELL Kentucky initiatives.

I was very impressed with Wayne Young’s “top ten” presentation that he does annually at the conference. One of the most impressive presentations I have heard in many years came from Manuel Scott. Manuel was one of the students documented in the movie Freedom Writers. Manuel’s message was very motivational. He speaks for the many children in our nation’s schools who have no one to speak for them or to listen to them. He praised the administrators for what they do every day for children, but also challenged the group to make a difference for even more children.

In case readers are interested in presentations that I make to partners, you can access those presentations on my Web page. Our partners in Kentucky are extremely important if we are to reach our vision of every child proficient and prepared for success. We are very privileged to have such great partners in Kentucky.

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!

TELL Survey Garners High Response, Roadmap for Future

This week, KDE released the results from the first teacher working conditions survey, or TELL (Teaching, Empowering, Leading and Learning) Kentucky survey. Readers may be interested in viewing the data at www.tellkentucky.org.

At that link, readers will find the state results, district results and school-level results. We are very excited about this release of data, since more than 80 percent of Kentucky’s teachers and principals responded to the survey. Kentucky had the highest first-year participation rate of any state that has utilized the survey.

So… now that we have the results, what happens next? We are working with our partners to provide support and training on how schools, districts and state leaders can use the results to change policy and practice at each level. The Kentucky Board of Education will model how to use the results at a work session on June 7. The board will review the results and receive recommendations from our Working Conditions Coalition. The board will prioritize the recommendations for the budget and legislative agenda for the 2012 session of the General Assembly.

We are very excited that our partners are supporting training and coaching for teachers, principals, district staff and school boards on how to utilize the results of the survey. We hope that school boards will build capacity to include in superintendent evaluation process how the results are used to prioritize policy and budget decisions at the district level. We also hope superintendents will use the results in principal evaluation process to prioritize process changes at the school level. Also, we hope school-based councils will utilize the results in collaboration with the principal to prioritize changes in school-level policy and budget decisions.

We strongly recommend that the results of the survey NOT be utilized for any personnel evaluations or decisions. We strongly recommend that how leaders utilize the results to create improvement plans should be part of personnel evaluation procedures.

While we have had phenomenal success in the implementation of the survey, the actual value now comes with the actions taken to improve working conditions in our classrooms, schools and districts. Improved working conditions will mean improved learning conditions for our students. Improved working conditions will mean lower teacher turnover rates and reduced costs for human resource processes. Improved working conditions will mean improved learning results for our students. Thanks again to all of our partners in this important work.

Innovation in Kentucky Schools

This past week, the Kentucky Department of Education (KDE), along with the Council of Chief State School Officers, Stupski Foundation, University of Kentucky and Centre College, sponsored an event that focused on Next-Generation Learning.

What is Next-Generation Learning?

It’s defined as a personalized system of education that prepares each child for life, work and citizenship in the 21st century.

Next-Generation Learning includes critical attributes such as:
1. personalized learning
2. comprehensive systems of learning supports
3. world-class knowledge and skills
4. performance-based learning
5. any time, anywhere opportunities
6. authentic student voice

An example I used at the conference may help readers get a little insight into what this might look like in schools of the future.

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It’s 7:30 in the evening, and our student -- we’ll call him Alex -- enters his bedroom to begin his nightly homework. Alex is a 15-year-old sophomore in high school. He’s a pretty typical kid: on the soccer team and a struggling trumpet player (as a former band director, I can tell you he’d improve if he’d only practice), and he’s a member of the Key Club. Alex also is a member of four different Learning Teams that constitute his academic schedule.

Okay, time for homework. Alex sits down at his desk, boots up his computer, opens a Web browser and logs into his education portal. Each of his Learning Teams, as well as his extracurricular activities, has a dedicated section on his portal’s homepage that includes a news feed, calendar, photos, video and message board capabilities.

Alex clicks on his NorthFace Learning Team in the Science section. It is one of five interdisciplinary, multi-age teams in the school that has been “hired” by NorthFace to analyze various materials for use as the bottom of a backpack. NorthFace has provided specs, swatches and possible designs. Each team has one semester to complete its analysis and provide feedback to the company.

In consultation with the Lead Teacher, the team is exploring various chemical compounds that could be used on the fabric to increase its durability and water resistance. As a sophomore, Alex needs to meet state Chemistry Standards, so he has been appointed Chem Lead and is responsible for leading tomorrow’s discussion and backgrounding his team on the various chemical options, along with predictions on what would work best. Alex’s teacher has uploaded a set of videos, articles and narrated presentations that cover polymers, chemical bonds and the rest of the matter, plus links to websites for further reading. Alex starts reading and analyzing, and completes his presentation to the team.

Alex also finishes several other learning-based objectives for his other teams that night.

Since he completed a project last week, Alex needs to develop or join another team to fill up his schedule. Before he goes to bed, he reviews his online competency chart that lists the skills and standards he has mastered, along with those he still must complete. He clicks on the school’s Project Blog that lists available projects, including a narrative abstract, a description of each participants’ role and the expected competencies or content that the student will need to master in order to be a successful part of the team. He highlights a few projects in which he is interested.

Alex checks his online resume to make sure it is updated with his latest skills and competencies from the teacher gradebook. He sets a reminder in his handheld computer to “interview” with each Project Lead during “hiring” time tomorrow morning.

As Alex arrives at school the next day, he pulls out his mobile device and opens the “hiring app,” which gives him the Project Lead’s name, picture and location in the school’s common area of each project he highlighted the night before.

He meets Rosa, who’s project is designing and building the set for the upcoming play. She scans the barcode on his ID card, and his online resume pops up on the computer. They review it and discuss the project.

She is looking for someone to spearhead the design and draft construction plans. He is interested in applying his algebra and geometry knowledge. Rosa thinks Alex is a little short on experience, but agrees he could serve as assistant designer if she can find a suitable upperclassman to be the designer. Alex adds the project to those he will discuss with his advisor later in the day.

As you can see, the Next-Generation Learning experience is rich with learning, knowledge and skill-building that will prepare Alex and other students like him for what’s ahead.

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To learn more about the conference and to view the presentations, click on the URLs below.

· Video and audio: mms://video1.education.ky.gov/On-Demand2010/NGLS_9-7-2010.wmv
· Downloadable audio podcast: http://media.education.ky.gov/video1/On-Demand2010/NGLS_9-7-2010.mp3

Look for much more in coming months as we develop our innovation continuum in Kentucky.