Commissioner's Monday Message

Jan. 30, 2023

Dear Colleagues:

This morning, members of the Coalition to Sustain the Education Profession met in the Capitol Rotunda to unveil the coalition’s recommendations for teacher recruitment and retention. The coalition is driven by a steering committee comprised of approximately 20 individuals in leadership positions from key economic and political entities in the Commonwealth, including myself and Kentucky Board of Education Chair Lu S. Young.

Although I couldn’t attend the event due to prior engagements, I want to say that I support the recommendations included in the report. Their recommendations include:

• Conduct a comprehensive study of the state of education in Kentucky to provide in-depth and actionable data regarding teacher compensation and benefits; teacher working conditions; perceptions of the teaching profession among teachers, high school seniors and the community; challenges regarding student behavior and attendance; and revenue and fiscal equity issues among Kentucky school districts.
• Address teacher certification and qualification issues that impede teacher recruitment.
• Establish financial incentives to aid in statewide recruiting and retention efforts that can be used to both retain current teachers and attract new teachers.
• Create a single “Be A Kentucky Teacher” portal for teacher preparation, recruitment and application.
• Mandate that every school district implement a teacher recruitment and induction system and provide noncompetitive grant funding to support the effort, comprehensive mentoring for new teachers, and a Tenure Review Committee to ensure that teachers meet high standards of performance and undergo career guidance prior to receiving tenure.
• Develop a marketing plan to communicate to all Kentucky audiences the impact and importance of Kentucky educators and public education, including an expansion of GoTeachKY to every Kentucky school district.

I am pleased that such a diverse group of Kentuckians has come together to see where we as a state can make improvements in both how we attract and retain new educators. Kentucky, like all states, is facing some significant challenges when it comes to ensuring all students are taught by highly qualified educators.

I’ve been sounding the alarm about the shortages in our educator workforce for some time now – including a presentation to the Interim Joint Committee on Education last summer – because teachers are the linchpin in our educational system. While policymakers and our experts at KDE can talk about instruction, it is the tens of thousands of teachers who walk into their classrooms every day who actually deliver that instruction. They give of themselves every day, every week, every month and every year to help each student in their classrooms gain the skills they will need to pursue their dreams.

This report, I hope, is just the first step along the path to making education a more attractive and more sustainable career in Kentucky. While the coalition produced this report, it will take a collective level of will of all of the state's residents to make the report’s recommendations begin coming into reality. Whether we have that will to take the steps necessary to improve the health of the educator workforce will – in no small part – help determine how successful we are as a state in the future.

Kind regards,

Jason E. Glass, Ed.D.

Commissioner and Chief Learner

Progress Monitoring, Online Posting and Phase Four Diagnostics

The last phase of the comprehensive district/school improvement plan process includes the vital process of progress monitoring. Continuous improvement planning requires careful monitoring, which ensures the needs of learners are met and that student outcomes are positively impacted.

During phase four, districts and schools may choose a flexible and customized approach to monitoring and implementing the comprehensive improvement plan. During this phase, districts/schools should collect both input and outcome data and ask themselves several key reflective questions regarding their plan:

• Are the planned strategies and activities being implemented as intended?
• How do we know?
• Are our strategies and activities meeting the needs of learners? 
• How do we know?
• Will we adjust or stay the course?

Pursuant to 703 KAR 5:225, comprehensive district improvement plans (CDIPs) and comprehensive school improvement plans (CSIPs) must be posted online. CDIPs must be posted to the district’s website, while CSIPs must be posted to each school’s website. With phase four diagnostics yet to be completed, it is important to follow local policy regarding the timeline for posting and remember to include any attachments referenced in a diagnostic.

See below for additional information on what should be posted for each improvement plan:

District’s Improvement Plan:

• Continuous Improvement Diagnostic for Districts

• Executive Summary for Districts

• Needs Assessment Diagnostic for Districts
• District Assurances
• Comprehensive District Improvement Plan (including the Goal Building Template)
• Superintendent Gap Assurances
• Professional Development Plan for Districts

School’s Improvement Plan:

• Continuous Improvement Diagnostic for Schools

• Executive Summary for Schools

• Needs Assessment for Schools
• School Assurances

• Comprehensive School Improvement Plan (including the Goal Building Template)
• Professional Development Plan for Schools

Phase Four Diagnostics

Phase Four of the continuous improvement planning process includes three district-level diagnostics and a school-level diagnostic that each are due May 1.

The continuation of learning plan will support the district in designing and implementing a plan during times when nontraditional instruction may be needed in order to prevent a loss of learning. This diagnostic will describe the plan for the following school year. For questions regarding the Continuation of Learning Plan, please contact Steve Kissinger or David Cook at the Kentucky Department of Education (KDE).

The English learner plan for districts (Lau Plan) diagnostic supports the district’s commitment to ensuring that English learner (EL) students can meaningfully participate in the district’s educational programs and services. It outlines the affirmative steps taken by the district to overcome educational barriers that impede equal participation by English learner students in their instructional programs. For questions regarding this district level diagnostic, please contact KDE’s Neil Watts.

The final diagnostic is the professional development plan for both schools and districts. Each school and district must design a professional development plan that supports their efforts to meet the goals established in KRS 158.6451 and addresses the priorities identified in their local needs assessment. The 2022-2023 professional development plan will be implemented in the 2023-2024 school year and incorporated into the improvement plan for that year. For questions regarding the professional development plan, please contact KDE’s Renee Yates.

KDE Review of Improvement Plans

Pursuant to 703 KAR 5:225, the Kentucky Department of Education (KDE) is tasked with reviewing Comprehensive School and District Improvement Plans (CSIPs and CDIPs). During the review process, KDE staff provide feedback through a rubric to assist schools and districts with improvement planning to ensure plans are developed and implemented effectively. This process of monitoring enables schools and districts to ensure compliance with state and federal regulations and focus on ways to develop more effective programs through collaboration and self-evaluation.

A CDIP/CSIP rubric appropriate for all districts and schools can be found on the Comprehensive Improvement Planning webpage. For schools that have been identified for Targeted Support and Improvement (TSI), a CSIP rubric with a TSI Addendum that addresses the additional TSI improvement plan requirements has been uploaded to the TSI webpage.

CDIP/CSIP reviews for selected institutions will begin Feb. 6, 2023. For additional information regarding the rubric or review process, please contact Marsha VanHook.

Read At Home Plan Guidance Now Available

Beginning in the 2023-2024 school year, if a student’s rate of progress toward proficiency in reading needs accelerated interventions as demonstrated by the results of an approved universal screener and reading diagnostic assessment, the local school district shall provide the families of such identified kindergarten through grade 3 students with a Read At Home plan (KRS 158.305). This is per Senate Bill 9, the Read to Succeed Act.

To help districts effectively implement Read at Home plans in collaboration with families, the Kentucky Department of Education (KDE) has partnered with the Kentucky Collaborative for Families and Schools to develop guidance for ensuring high-impact, research-based family engagement best practices for relationship-building and two-way communications. This guidance can be found in the Read At Home Plan Guidance document.

More guidance around read at home supports and parent resources will be published this spring.

For more information, email Christie Biggerstaff, the Kentucky Department of Education’s director of early literacy.

New Resource – OSEEL Monitoring Brief

The federal Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) requires state educational agencies (SEAs) to monitor IDEA compliance by local educational agencies (LEAs), also referred to as local school districts (34 CFR 300.600). SEAs also are required to report annually the performance of each LEA located in the state on the targets in the state’s performance plan (34 CFR 300.602).

In applying for IDEA funding, Kentucky’s commissioner of education assures the U.S. Department of Education that the Kentucky Department of Education (KDE) will monitor and enforce the requirements of IDEA. This assurance assists Kentucky in securing over $178 million in IDEA funding that flows to Kentucky’s school districts.

To comply with these federal requirements, the commissioner’s assurances and to avoid jeopardizing the IDEA funding, KDE’s Office of Special Education and Early Learning (OSEEL) leads or participates in different federally prescribed monitoring activities to identify and correct noncompliance. OSEEL’s Monitoring Brief provides information regarding each of these monitoring activities.

For more information, email Carol Ann Morrison.

Participation in Illegal Passing Survey

The National Association for State Directors of Pupil Transportation (NASDPTS) and the Kentucky Department of Education (KDE) will be conducting the annual Illegal Passing Survey. KDE will report the total number of passes statewide to NASDPTS.

It is very important to have as many districts as possible participate. Participation last year was very low and does not accurately reflect the issue in the Commonwealth.

If a district cannot participate with all their buses, please consider having a portion of the buses participate. This information is not only for the national survey, but also for inquiries received regarding stop arm cameras and laws by legislators, and by the media and students.

School buses remain the safest way for students to get to and from school. However, student riders are most vulnerable when they are outside the bus and in the “danger zone.” Since the COVID-19 pandemic, student and motorist behavior has changed, and having a current measurement of illegal passing of stopped school buses is important.

On Wednesday, April 19, we are asking that volunteers be on each of your district’s school buses and observe and report any instances of motorists illegally passing the school buses using the forms that have been sent to directors. This survey should be done during each of the runs for the day. The total number of illegal passes for each district will be tallied and reported to KDE and nationally.

Volunteers should be reliable students, monitors, teachers, parents, etc. Even drivers that have no illegal passes on the day of the survey should turn in their form to ensure accurate data. If your district is unable to participate on that day but would like to choose a different day, please complete it by May 1 and enter the date into the survey.

Once the data is collected from each bus, enter the compiled data into the online survey no later than May 1. If you are unable to participate or have concerns about the survey, email Elisa Hanley or call (502) 564-5279, ext. 4406.

Grants Available to Accelerate Literacy of Primary Students

The Kentucky Council on Postsecondary Education (CPE) is offering grants of up to $55,000 to support colleges of education in implementing the Kentucky Reading Project for Read to Achieve.

The Read to Achieve grant program supports teachers in implementing reading intervention programs and evidenced-based instructional strategies that address the diverse needs of primary students (K-3) reading at low levels and needing accelerated learning. The Kentucky Reading Project is an approved professional learning opportunity in the 2022 grant cycle.

The grant will fund proposals from public and private colleges of education through a competitive award process to build the capacity of K-3 teachers currently participating in the KY RTA program. Training will be focused on structured literacy practices and the use of valid and reliable universal screeners and diagnostic data for informing reading instruction and intervention.

CPE anticipates awarding eight grants to individual institutions. The anticipated effective date of contracts resulting from this Request for Proposals is April 1-June 30. To be eligible, colleges of education must respond to this by the deadline of Feb. 17, 2023, at 4:30 p.m. ET.

The Kentucky Read to Achieve program was created under Senate Bill 19 in 2005 with the goal of supporting schools in implementing a reading diagnostic and intervention program to address the needs of struggling readers.

Extracurricular Events Are Not Acceptable Reasons to Use NTI Days

KRS 158.070(8) highlights the acceptable reasons for non-traditional instruction (NTI) days and also reminds districts of the requirement that NTI days be for health or safety reasons, be approved by the commissioner of education. and that there be a continuation of learning on the days in question.

The statute reads:

“Notwithstanding any other statute, each school term shall include no less than the equivalent of the student instructional year in subsection (1)(f) of this section, or a variable student instructional year in subsection (1)(h) of this section, except that the commissioner of education may grant up to the equivalent of ten (10) student attendance days for school districts that have a nontraditional instruction plan approved by the commissioner of education on days when the school district is closed for health or safety reasons. The district's plan shall indicate how the nontraditional instruction process shall be a continuation of learning that is occurring on regular student attendance days. Instructional delivery methods, including the use of technology, shall be clearly delineated in the plan. Average daily attendance for purposes of Support Education Excellence in Kentucky program funding during the student attendance days granted shall be calculated in compliance with administrative regulations promulgated by the Kentucky Board of Education.”

The Kentucky Department of Education is unable to approve the use of NTI when the school district is closed for reasons other than health or safety. District closure for the purpose of the district participating in an extracurricular event, such as a state athletic tournament, is not a closure due to health or safety. If schools need to be closed on days to allow certain groups of students to attend an extracurricular activity, then the district must determine how to make up the student attendance day.

Applications Open for Nonvoting Student, Teacher Members of KBE

Applications are open for nonvoting student and teacher members of the Kentucky Board of Education (KBE).

To be considered, teacher applicants must: be employed on a full-time basis by a Kentucky public school district; in a position for which Education Professional Standards Board (EPSB) certification is required; not be employed in an administrative role; and reside in Kentucky’s 1st Congressional District.

For the student member position, applicants must: be enrolled in a Kentucky public high school; be a junior in good standing on July 1, which means a sophomore at the time of application; and reside in Kentucky’s 5th Congressional District.

The KBE has 15 members. The governor appoints 11 voting members: seven representing the Supreme Court districts and four representing the state at large. The additional members – the president of the Council on Postsecondary Education, the secretary of the Kentucky Education and Labor Cabinet, a high school student and an active elementary or secondary school teacher – serve as nonvoting members.

Applications are due by March 6. To apply, complete the student application form or `teacher application form. For more information, email Kentucky Department of Education Director of Education Policy Meredith Brewer.

Buster Bynum Scholarship

The Southeastern States Pupil Transportation Conference (SESPTC) is making a one-time $2,000 scholarship available to one student in Kentucky. To be eligible, a student must be a high school senior, have a parent or guardian employed in the public school pupil transportation field for at least the past three years (since Jan. 1, 2020), and be planning to attend a postsecondary educational institution in 2023.

Completed applications should be submitted to the local district’s supervisor/director of transportation or the local district’s scholarship selection committee chairperson. Each district must determine its own date for students to turn in their applications in order to get them to the Kentucky Department of Education (KDE) by April 30.

Each district will select a local winner and submit the winning application pupiltrans@education.ky.gov.

Applications can be found on KDE’s Buster Bynum Scholarship webpage.

Upcoming Training Opportunities

Please help promote the upcoming Feb. 7 training opportunities to help your district maximize funding, create scheduling efficiencies and easily use data for local decisions and actions. Training will include sessions on the following topics:

• Maximizing Your District’s Funding: Tips for home hospital virtual and performance-based setup, limited English proficiency students, T-codes, at-risk, enrollments and more;
• Insights: Introduction of new dashboards to easily explore Early Warning System indicators, including assessment, attendance, classroom performance and stability data;
• Assessment Data Visualization Dashboards: Introduction of new Tableau views for ACT College Readiness and K-PREP-Kentucky Summative Assessments in the Data Analysis Portal; and
• Scheduling Center and Staff Planner: Introduction of new tool to help prepare for 2023-2024 school year.

Visit the Kentucky Department of Education’s KSIS Training webpage to see the complete Kentucky Student Information System (KSIS) Infinite Campus mid-year training agenda, online registration, and information about effective instructional leadership act credit.

KDE Requests Nominations for Supportive Responses to Substance-Involved Youth

The Kentucky Department of Education (KDE) and the Kentucky Department for Behavioral Health, Developmental and Intellectual Disabilities (KDBHDID) are working with the national Center to Improve Social and Emotional Learning and School Safety to identify a handful schools in the Commonwealth that are using positive, equitable and inclusive responses to students involved with substances. “Substances” refers to drugs, alcohol or tobacco and “involvement” includes possession, distribution and use.

Research and practice show that such responses – as opposed to exclusion and punishment – are more likely to result in protecting students’ opportunity to learn by avoiding exclusionary practices and improving student connectedness and engagement, reducing racial gaps in school discipline and ultimately promoting higher rates of academic achievement and lower rates of substance use, school absenteeism and early sexual initiation.

When these “bright spots” schools are identified, interviews with the adult leaders will be recorded to learn more about their effective, evidence-based practices for positive, equitable and inclusive discipline responses. The project’s goal is to disseminate promising practices which other schools and districts may then adapt and implement for their own learning communities. Over time, these recorded interviews may be supported by online professional learning opportunities and other companion materials.

Please nominate schools that you believe are doing exceptional work to provide positive, equitable and inclusive responses to substance-involved youth. Project leaders will follow up with those school leaders to gather their initial responses to key questions about their work, including the details of their prevention practices, who those practices intend to serve, who is involved in offering them, how they prioritize equity and how they know the practices are working.

Please submit your nominations using this form by Feb. 10. You may submit as many nominations as you would like.

For more information, email Christina Weeter (KDE) or Vestena Robbins (KDBHDID).

TRS Board of Trustee Nominations Now Open

The Teachers' Retirement System (TRS) Nominating Committee is accepting nominations for two separate open seats on the TRS Board of Trustees: one lay trustee and one active teacher trustee.

The lay trustee must be a person who is not a member of the teaching profession and who does not contribute to or receive an annuity from TRS. The active teacher trustee must be an active participant in TRS who currently is employed in a Kentucky public school system and contributing to TRS.

All nominations must be submitted through the 2023 TRS Trustee Nomination portal and will be accepted until 5 p.m. ET on Feb. 13. Nominees may self-nominate or be nominated by another person. Nominees for the active teacher trustee position will be verified as participants of TRS.

The nomination form requires that you upload a recent resume and a recent headshot, which will be used if you are selected to be on the ballot. Please also provide the contact information for two personal references.

All nominees who meet eligibility requirements will be reviewed by the TRS Nominating Committee at their meeting on Feb. 18. The committee will select two candidates for each seat who will be placed on the ballot. Both seats are currently occupied by incumbents who are eligible for re-election.

Voting for candidates for the TRS Board of Trustees will occur during April and May.

Those receiving this at KSB and KSD, please make sure all employees receive it. Also, ATC principals are asked to forward it to their staffs.

Please send your questions, comments and suggestions on the Monday Message to Jennifer Ginn by 10 a.m. Friday to be published in the upcoming week.