|
Dear Colleagues,
Tomorrow is the Kentucky Teacher of the Year ceremony in Frankfort! The nine 2025 Kentucky Teacher of the Year Teacher Achievement Award winners will be honored during the ceremony and among these finalists, one will be named the 2025 Kentucky Teacher of the Year, who will then represent the state in the National Teacher of the Year competition.
The ceremony will begin at 10 a.m. ET. If you are available, I encourage you to tune into the Kentucky Department of Education Media Portal and watch the celebration live.
I look forward to being a part of this year's ceremony and celebrating these educators on their achievements and thanking them for the impact they have made on their students, families and communities. I am honored to have an opportunity to express my gratitude to all of you and our teachers, who dedicate their days to helping our children and ensuring the next generation is well educated.
As superintendents, your educators and staff look up to you for guidance and support. That’s one of the many reasons it’s important to celebrate their achievements inside the classroom and the difference they are making in their students' lives.
I know many of you remember what it was like to be a classroom teacher and we have all experienced the good and bad days that can come with that role. I want to encourage you to remember the impact you have on your educators and administration.
Our teachers have a significant role to play in the lives of our children across the state. We are almost a month into this new school year, so I encourage you to take this opportunity to lift up your teachers and administrators by commending them for the hard work and sacrifices they make to ensure the next generation is well educated.
With that being said, I would like to thank each of you personally for all the hard work and support you show daily to those in your districts. As we work together, we are creating a brighter and more successful future for the children of the Commonwealth.
This is not just a once-a-year celebration, but a chance for us to reinforce what being a teacher is all about and the lasting impact education can have across the state.
Thank you for being …
All In,
Robbie Fletcher
Commissioner of Education
School Report Card Collection/Approval Tool Opening Delayed
The opening of the School Report Card (SRC) collection and approval tool is being delayed. The schedule has tentatively been revised to open the school data entry and School Profile Report tools first on Sept. 18, with the approval tool opening approximately two weeks later. Actual dates will be shared with district assessment coordinators (DACs) and SRC contacts once they are known. Associated training will be available for the new tools.
As a reminder, the collection and approval tool will be different for 2024 than in prior years. The BrightBytes platform is no longer used. AnLar is the new vendor developing the SRC collection and approval tool and public dashboards for 2024.
This delay does not impact the release of assessment and accountability data sets tentatively scheduled for Oct. 3. Previous communications and resources are available on the School Report Card Suite Resources webpage. Training resources will be added when they are available.
Additional Guidance on New Reporting Requirements Under House Bill 6
House Bill 6 (2024) established new reporting requirements for school districts. The bill requires each local board of education and each school to prominently display information about their students’ most recent performance on the Kentucky Summative Assessment (KSA).
The Kentucky Department of Education (KDE) has previously provided spreadsheets that included 2022-2023 student performance data for schools and districts to post by Aug. 1. This allowed timely compliance with the bill and provided an opportunity for districts to format websites in advance of the public release of 2023-2024 student performance data.
Based on an initial review of school and district websites, KDE suggests district staff make the following checks and corrections if needed:
- Check the district website and every school website to verify that the required student performance percentages have been posted. Some have not.
- Verify that links to detailed results direct viewers to the correct location (School Report Card page for 2022-2023 data).
- Confirm that websites include the student performance data by level (as presented in the spreadsheets provided to district assessment coordinators by KDE).
- Each level (elementary/middle/high) must be displayed individually. For example, the website for a district with all levels should include a Proficient in Reading percentage for the elementary level, a Proficient in Reading percentage for the middle school level, and a Proficient in Reading percentage for the high school level.
Combining percentages from all levels into a single Proficient in Reading percentage for the district is not technically appropriate for Kentucky’s current level-based system.
Ensuring that formatting is correct for the 2022-2023 data will allow for quick, accurate updates when 2023-2024 data is released.
National Suicide Prevention Month
September is Suicide Prevention Awareness Month, a dedicated time to come together with collective passion and strength around a difficult topic. We can all benefit from honest conversations about mental health conditions and suicide because just one conversation can change a life.
Suicide is a major public health concern. More than 47,500 people die by suicide each year in the United States; it is the 10th leading cause of death overall and the second leading cause for people ages 10-34.
The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) has declared Sept. 8 as national 988 Day. 988 Day is a national initiative dedicated to raising awareness about the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline and for emphasizing the importance of mental health and suicide prevention. For more information, including how to promote 988 Day, please visit the SAMHSA website.
Kentucky Youth Data
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Youth Risk Behavior Survey, which is completed every two years, shows that in 2023, 18.6% of Kentucky high school students seriously considered attempting suicide, and 8.6% of Kentucky’s high school students attempted suicide in the previous 12 months.
988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline
Since its inception in July 2022, 988 has received more than 9 million contacts. When people call, text or chat 988, they will be connected to trained counselors who are part of the existing Lifeline network. These trained counselors will listen, provide support and connect them to resources if necessary. In the past year, 988 has expanded to provide specialized services for veterans, Spanish speakers and members of the LGBTQI+ community.
Kentucky Specific Resources
Available Training
The Kentucky Department of Education, along with the Department for Behavioral Health and Intellectual Disabilities, offer Sources of Strength training for schools throughout the state. Sources of Strength is a best practice youth suicide prevention project designed to harness the power of peer social networks to change unhealthy norms and culture, ultimately preventing suicide, bullying and substance abuse.
For information on Sources of Strength training, please contact Sheila Barnard.
Youth Mental Health First Aid teaches adults how to identify, understand and respond to signs of mental health and substance use challenges among children and adolescents ages 12-18.
Mental Health First Aid for Adults teaches people how to recognize signs of mental health or substance use challenges in adults ages 18 and older, how to offer and provide initial help, and how to guide a person toward appropriate care if necessary.
Those interested in more of these free training opportunities should contact Elizabeth Freeland.
Accepting Applications for Diagnostic Review Team Members
The Kentucky Department of Education (KDE) and Cognia are accepting applications for diagnostic review team members to serve during the 2024-2025 school year.
The Cognia diagnostic review process is a performance-driven approach that relies on data from student performance, stakeholder feedback, classroom observations and a review of documents, artifacts and school practices.
Diagnostic reviews yield a comprehensive analysis of an institution in an extensive report intended to energize and guide continuous improvement planning for underperforming schools/districts.
All diagnostic review team members must have experience or expertise in the following areas:
- School or system administration with a specific emphasis on instructional leadership such as superintendent, principal, instructional supervisor, director of curriculum and instruction, assessment, special education, etc.
- Leading or supporting turnaround/ improvement initiatives at the school, system or state department levels.
- Familiarity with the analysis and use of data as a driver for improvement.
Diagnostic review team members are required to complete specialized training. While there is no compensation for participating as a diagnostic review team member, all expenses associated with travel for an onsite visit will be reimbursed by Cognia.
If you are interested in serving in this capacity, please begin by submitting your contact information on the diagnostic review team member interest form.
We will send next step information to support you through the training process. We will have multiple training options available throughout the next few months in preparation for reviews scheduled for the 2024-2025 school year. If you have questions, please email the Cognia team.
School-Based Mental Health Professional Use of Time Survey Due Nov. 1
Per KRS 158.4416(3)(f), superintendents must report to the Kentucky Department of Education (KDE), no later than Nov. 1 of each year, the number of school-based mental health service providers, the position held, placement in the district, certification or licensure held, the source of funding for each position, a summary of the job duties and work undertaken by each school-based mental health service provider, and the approximate percent of time devoted to each duty over the course of the year.
This School-Based Mental Health Services Provider Professional Use of Time Survey has been created by KDE so that each school district's superintendent can fulfill this requirement.
At the link provided, there is a "Read Me First" tab which gives instructions on how to best complete this process. An instructional video has also been created to assist school districts in completing the Use of Time Survey. Please submit your spreadsheet to the Use of Time Survey SharePoint site.
For technical questions or assistance, please contact Leslie McKinney. If you require clarification or have any questions regarding the survey, please contact Michelle Sircy.
|
