Dear Colleagues:
In a three-day special session last week, the General Assembly passed a much-needed relief bill that will begin to aid our districts impacted by the historic flood, which the governor signed Friday afternoon. The bill allocates over $200 million for disaster relief, including $40 million to KDE for school cleanup, repair and wraparound services. The bill also includes up to 15 student attendance days to be waived and expands the use of remote instruction for our students and emergency leave for educators in our flood-impacted districts.
We know much more remains to be done to get these schools and districts whole again and we will continue working with the legislature to share your voices and your needs. And we’ll continue having superintendent huddles as long as they are needed so you can share your progress and what kinds of resources you still need.
I also want to welcome back students in Breathitt and Perry counties, who both started classes today. It’s been a big challenge for some of our flood-impacted districts to get started with the new school year, and a few are still working out final details of how and where they can start. I just want to thank all our superintendents and let you know how proud KDE is to work alongside you.
For those of you whose districts were impacted, the courage, compassion and dedication to your staff and students has just been amazing to see. Even working through your own grief, you have consistently put your families first. Your buildings have served as shelters and become distribution centers, and you have helped deliver meals – even when roads were almost unpassable. You, like your dedication, just don’t stop.
And for all our other superintendents, the kindness and generosity you have shown on our superintendent huddles has made me so proud to be an educator. From our western Kentucky superintendents who have served as mentors, to the many superintendents who have offered desks, textbooks and other supplies, it just demonstrates how we are all one education family. From the bottom of my heart, thank you.
And finally, as you may have heard by now, KDE has been awarded $3 million over the next four years to support the continued development of United We Learn, the bold new vision for the future of public education in Kentucky.
The funding, made available through the 2022 Competitive Grants for State Assessments program from the U.S. Department of Education, will help advance innovations to move the state’s assessment and accountability system toward a competency-based education model.
Over the past year and a half, we have heard that Kentuckians are ready for change in their education system, especially when it comes to assessment. We have heard loud and clear the frustration of students, parents and from you and your teachers about the current assessment and accountability system. You all want their students to be seen as more than just a test score, and this grant will help drive the innovation that stands behind the United We Learn vision.
KDE’s next steps are to establish the Kentucky United We Learn Council – which will be an intentionally diverse and representative group of students, families, educators, business and community leaders – to create cohesive local and state systems and build an innovative statewide competency-based education model. KDE will continue to include input from many different stakeholder groups like the Kentucky Student Voice Team, the Prichard Committee and the University of Kentucky Center for Next Generation Leadership. You’ll be hearing more about the council and its work as it progresses.
Kind regards,
Jason E. Glass, Ed.D.
Commissioner and Chief Learner
Update on School Report Card Timeline
The School Report Card (SRC) data entry and approval periods are being extended to Sept. 30. The Kentucky SRC Data Approval and Collection Tool will remain open for schools and districts to enter collection data, review and approve data for an extra two weeks in the Overview, Education Opportunity and Transition to Adult Life domains.
The School Profile Report data must still be entered into the collection tool and per Senate Bill 1 (2017), the signed report must be on file at the central office and be available upon request by Oct. 1. This is a statutory date that KDE cannot change.
Tentative dates for the 2022 School Report Card release are:
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Thursday, Oct. 13: District embargo opens
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Friday, Oct. 14: Media embargo opens
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Monday, 17: KDE media opportunity mid-day; embargo ends 11:59 p.m. ET
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Tuesday, Oct. 18: Public release
The SRC timeline and highlights of 2022 reporting changes are posted on the KSIS SRC Resource webpage. The Data Approval Tool User Guide also is available and can help guide new users through the SRC collection, review and approval process.
2022-23 Comprehensive Improvement Planning for Districts and Schools
Improvement planning for the 2022-2023 academic year is underway. As we use the experiences and lessons learned from the past couple of years, proven systems and processes will continue to support quality teaching and learning. A collaborative process involving multiple stakeholders is essential to identifying priority needs and the resources and actions to best address them.
The Kentucky Department of Education (KDE) will continue to use the Cognia Comprehensive Improvement Platform (CIP) and the 2022-2023 diagnostics are now available. Schools and districts must develop an improvement plan annually and therefore, you must begin new diagnostics. When creating and completing your diagnostics within the CIP, please ensure that the correct level (system or school) and current year are chosen.
The process and timeline for comprehensive school and district improvement planning outlined in 703 KAR 5:225 remain unchanged, but there have been a few changes within the phases as outlined on the Comprehensive Improvement Planning webpage. While comprehensive improvement planning is a continuous process and plans may be reviewed and revised at any time, the timeline identifies the diagnostics included in each phase of the planning process and their statutory due dates.
We hope you will join us for the Continuous Improvement Summit Sept. 26-27 at the Central Bank Center in Lexington to learn more about improvement planning and continuous improvement.
For additional information about the CIP, contact Marsha VanHook. For more information regarding improvement planning, visit the Comprehensive Improvement Planning webpage or email Ruth Swanson.
AP Exams Fees for the 2022-2023 School Year
The state of Kentucky is excited to announce financial support for students taking Advanced Placement (AP) exams during the 2022-2023 school year.
The College Board charges $88 per standard fee exam and $136 per standard fee exam for Advanced Placement Capstone™ exams (AP Seminar and Research), however, the state is paying the majority of these costs for all students. See below for highlights from this story about AP fees on the Kentucky Teacher website:
- The final fee for any AP exam (including AP Seminar and AP Research exams) for fee-reduced students is $0 during the 2022-2023 school year.
- The final fee for any AP exam (excluding AP Computer Science Principles (CSP) and AP Computer Science A exams) for standard-fee students is $10 per exam, or $19 per exam if the school does not forego its $9 rebate during the 2022-2023 school year. This rebate is optional for all AP programs.
- The final fee for an AP CSP or AP CSA exam for any public school student in Kentucky is $0 during the 2022-2023 school year.
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