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Dear Colleagues,
It’s hard to believe that summer is coming to an end and a new school year is just around the corner for our students and staff. This is a bittersweet time for me as I will miss the excitement and fresh start of being in a district, however I am looking forward to supporting each of you this year from a different seat as commissioner of the Kentucky Department of Education (KDE).
I have a couple of things to share from KDE this week. Available on the KDE State Grants webpage are the corrected Career and Technical Education (CTE) Supplemental Funding allocations.
As previously communicated, an internal review of the Fiscal Year 2025 CTE Supplemental Funding allocations identified a calculation error in both the 60% allocation based on full-time equivalent enrollments (FTEs) and the 40% allocation based on incentives as demonstrated by four high-quality indicators:
- CTE dual credit;
- Industry certifications or an end-of-program assessment;
- Attaining concentrator status, which is two credits transcribed in a single pathway; and
- Successfully completing a CTE work-based learning experience.
The total amount of state financing, $70,063,400, remains the same as the initial data KDE provided. This amount includes the allocations for high-quality indicators ($28,025,360) and FTEs ($42,038,040). However, the number of total state-weighted FTE and total state high-quality indicator values have been corrected, resulting in new total state-weighted FTE and total state high-quality indicator values.
Please be on the lookout for an email to each of your districts to receive updated contracts with the corrected district allocations for your required signature and budget completion as quickly as possible.
We appreciate your patience and understanding during this process. I assure you that the department is working as quickly as possible to correct this mistake and is committed to providing support to all your districts and efforts behind high-quality CTE instruction and programming.
Last week, you should have received the released individual student assessment results for the Kentucky Summative Assessment (KSA) and Alternate Kentucky Summative Assessment (AKSA) provided by the KDE Office of Assessment and Accountability, in collaboration with Pearson.
The following reports are available in Pearson Access Next (PAN):
- Combined Kentucky Summative Assessments School Listing (District level);
- Kentucky Summative Assessment District School Listing Data File (District level);
- Kentucky Summative Assessments School Listing (School level).
To access reports, please refer to our resources on the Kentucky Portal under Pearson Access Next Guidance Documents, where you will find the PAN Navigational Instructions. This guide will help you obtain access, navigate and provide an understanding of the results and setups.
As a reminder, the KSA and AKSA student data may be shared with teachers and administrators who have an educational interest in the student.
KDE does not require that districts have teachers sign an Embargoed Data Non-Disclosure Statement for this data, but it is important to remember that the data available in PAN is individual student data and individual student data should never be released to the media or shared publicly.
I encourage you to take some time with your educators and administrators to look over the results and examine the areas in need of focus while also celebrating positive reports. The reports can be shared with students and parents when the Individual Student Reports are ready in paper form in late September.
All In,
Robbie Fletcher
Commissioner of Education
2024-2025 Comprehensive Improvement Planning for Districts and Schools
Improvement planning for the 2024-2025 academic year is underway. A collaborative process involving multiple stakeholders is essential to identifying priority needs and the resources and actions to best address them.
The process and timeline for comprehensive school and district improvement planning outlined in 703 KAR 5:225 remain unchanged 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.
The Kentucky Department of Education (KDE) continues to utilize the Cognia Continuous Improvement Platform (CIP), and the 2024-2025 diagnostics are now available. Schools and districts must annually review, revise and develop an improvement plan and therefore must complete new diagnostics.
When creating and completing your diagnostics within the CIP, please ensure that the user works within the correct dashboard (district or school) and creates the correct level of diagnostic (system or school). While there are no new diagnostics this year, minor revisions have been made. Please be sure to choose the current year’s version.
2024-2025 will also be a transition year for trauma-informed plans. Pursuant to KRS 158.4416, each local board of education must develop a plan for implementing a trauma-informed approach in its schools.
Senate Bill 2 requires that the trauma-informed plans be reviewed and updated annually, incorporated into the annual Comprehensive District Improvement Plan (CDIP) and submitted to KDE. This process should be included as part of your improvement planning.
Districts are strongly encouraged to use the template developed by KDE to ensure their trauma-informed plans address all the required components identified in KRS 158.4416. More information on requirements as well as the Trauma-Informed Toolkit can be found on KDE's Trauma-Informed Practices website.
A survey, due Nov. 1, will serve as a temporary collection for 2024-2025 school year and the plan will be incorporated into the CDIP process in the Cognia platform for the 2025-2026 school year. For more information, please contact Christina Weeter, division director in the KDE Office of Continuous Improvement.
We hope you will join us for the Continuous Improvement Summit on Sept. 23-24 at the Central Bank Center in Lexington to learn more about improvement planning and continuous improvement.
For additional information about the CIP, contact Veronica Boller. For more information regarding improvement planning, visit the Comprehensive Improvement Planning webpage.
Title I, Part A Carryover Waiver
Section 1127(a) of the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) places a carryover limitation on Title I, Part A funds. No more than 15% of the funds allocated to a district for any fiscal year may remain available for obligation for one additional fiscal year.
Districts must ensure at least 85% of the 2023-2024 school year (FY 2024) Title I, Part A funds (Project 310K) are obligated for activities that occur no later than Sept. 30, 2024. As stated in Section 1127(c) of ESSA, this carryover limitation does not apply to districts that receive less than $50,000 in Title I, Part A for the fiscal year.
Section 1127(b) of ESSA allows the state to waive this carryover limitation if:
- It determines a district’s request is reasonable and necessary; or
- Supplemental appropriations for this subpart become available. Districts may apply for this waiver once in a three-year period.
Any district wishing to request a carryover waiver for 2023-2024 funds may do so no later than Sept. 30 by submitting an email to David Millanti. The email must:
- State the district requests a waiver of the 15% carryover limitation;
- Contain the reason for the excess carryover; and
- Describe its plan for effectively using carryover funds.
Questions may be directed to David Millanti or your district’s Title I, Part A consultant. Additional information about the carryover limitation is available in the Title I Carryover Information document and the April 2023 Title I Webinar.
National ESEA Distinguished Schools Program and Application for Category 1, 2 and 3
The National Association of ESEA State Program Administrators (NAESPA) – formerly the National Title I Association – selects examples of superior, federally-funded school programs for national recognition through the National ESEA Distinguished Schools Program.
Each year, states can identify up to two Distinguished ESEA Schools in three possible categories:
- Category 1: Exceptional student performance and academic growth for two or more consecutive years
- Category 2: Closing the achievement gap between student groups for two or more consecutive years.
- Category 3: Excellence in serving special populations of students (e.g., homeless, migrant, English Learners, etc.).
The Kentucky Department of Education (KDE) is now accepting applications for schools for Categories 1, 2 and 3. Schools may apply for recognition in only one category, and anyone interested in applying should fill out the National ESEA Distinguished Schools Program application. The application must be signed by the school principal and district superintendent and submitted by the deadline of Aug. 15.
If selected as a finalist, KDE staff will conduct a site visit to interview the principal and selected staff.
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