By Kate Lochte
http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/wkms/local-wkms-875326.mp3
Murray, KY – This Monday, Kentucky Commissioner of Education Terry Holliday told Kentucky School Superintendents their school systems' commitments to the state's Race to the Top strategies are key to the Phase I grant proposal due January 19. Kentucky seeks Race to the Top funding from the U.S. Department of Education for improving standards and assessments, developing great teachers and leaders; and turning around the bottom 5% of lowest-performing schools. Kate Lochte has more about the evolution of standard setting and teacher development.
Bob Sexton is executive director of The Prichard Committee for Academic Excellence -- an independent, non-profit, citizens' advocacy organization which came together in 1983, seven years before Kentucky's Education Reform Act became law. Original standards were suspended by this year's Kentucky's Senate Bill 1.
Sexton explains:
Senate Bill 1 demands new, deeper academic standards. At the same time states were coming together working on new standards in reading and math. Our standards are similar to these. Setting standards and expectations is just the first step. The content must be taught well so it pushes the emphasis to the quality of teaching.
The National Association of Governors is also behind the Common Core State Standards Initiative. The Gates Foundation is in the game, having given the National Parent Teacher Association a million dollars to start getting parents excited about it. Prichard Committee director Sexton says timing is good for these new standards.
There was agreement that there were too many expectations some systems thought KY standards were too high or too low. It was time to revisit, and you'd think this would be needed over time any way. No Child Left Behind standards caused confusion when they were imposed in addition to Kentucky Standards.
Prichard Committee member Ben Cundiff agrees that No Child Left Behind standards mandated in 2001 resulted in confusion-- and more.
There were lots of standards, disparate efforts to improve or normalize or standardize the criteria. When No Child Left Behind came in some people felt that states could dumb down the results. National or international standards would take the spin on the numbers out.
Setting new national or international standards necessarily demands that teachers re-evaluate what they're doing and how the students are learning. Balanced assessment is the buzz phrase for Prichard Committee recommendations in this area.
Teachers need to meet the standards, develop new coursework, have access to state data, work in instructional communities of like minded teachers, time to work together, have access to outside resources, and we're not doing this now. It would require building structures of doing more, possibly working more, longer days or school years .would need more funding
Next week, hear what Kentucky State Senator Ken Winters forecasts for the Commonwealth's new Task Force on Education, of which he's a member, and how it will dovetail its work with the Kentucky Department of Education's Race for the Top proposals and other emerging changes to our educational systems.