KDE Updates:

1)   The following is the text of a communication from Education Commissioner Gene Wilhoit to all superintendents on Aug. 16. It was shared with school communications staff as well, and we thought there may be information in here some board members might benefit from as well.

Subject:        Upcoming KDE Initiatives regarding Technology

Kentucky’s educational system brings many benefits to the state’s public school students, teachers and administrators. To help the system meet current and future needs, the Kentucky Department of Education continuously strives to provide innovative ways to help schools educate and prepare their students for the 21^st century. 

I want to make you aware of a number of statewide instructional and administrative initiatives that involve technology in some way and that are in the beginning stages of implementation. Since they are funded at the state level, these initiatives will provide exciting educational advances with a limited financial impact on school districts.

Two of the projects - the Kentucky Education Network (KEN) and the Instructional Device Upgrade - will shore up the foundation of our technology program. They will provide districts with necessary network communication improvements and an infusion of new instructional workstations and devices that will pave the way for other projects. Those projects, many of which are underway, include:

• Student Information System (SIS), which will enable schools to maintain student information for all state reporting requirements.
   
• Online Assessment, which provides online Kentucky Core Content Test (KCCT) assessments to students in both the regular and special populations.
   
• Kentucky Instructional Data System (KIDS), which will provide the ability to track individual student data over time through a consolidated, statewide data collection and analysis system.  This data warehouse will be used to reform classroom instruction and meet the reporting requirements of the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act of 2001.  When implemented, KIDS will provide information required by educators to make high-quality decisions about student achievement and instruction at individual or group levels, reduce reporting turnaround time and assist teachers in determining the interventions needed for each student to successfully approach the next level of learning.
   
• Individual Learning Plan (ILP), a planning tool that will identify the needs of individual learners over time through continuous assessment. The ILP will provide planning for allocation of learning resources related to individual career and academic interests.
   

In consultation with schools and districts, KDE will guide the planning and implementation of these activities. This joint cross-project planning process will provide KDE’s project teams with the ability to determine the collective and individual impacts of the projects and develop plans for risk management.

Joint cross-project planning provides many benefits.

• The impact on local district operations and staff is acknowledged and managed.
• Local staff has support to plan appropriate ways to allocate resources and make reasonable use of the less-powerful equipment in their schools’ inventories.
• The impact on the instructional process is minimized.
• The efficiencies and awareness of local staff and resources are maximized.
• Local implementation is streamlined to deliver improvements as quickly as possible.
• Coordinated communication updates regarding project status are provided to stakeholders.
• Interoperability between communication, instructional devices and application technologies is increased.
• A collaborative infrastructure is established to develop best practices for current projects and future technology implementations.
   

Your participation in joint cross-project planning is critical to the success of these projects. With your advice and contributions, Kentucky can continue to deliver innovative ways to educate and prepare its students for the future with these new educational initiatives.

Over the next few weeks, I will provide more details regarding specific project involvement and resource requirements. Our collaboration in these projects will guarantee their successful implementation.

2)   TEACHER AWARD DEADLINE EXTENDED

        The deadline to submit nominations for the 2007 Kentucky Teacher Awards has been extended until September 1. Outstanding educators are encouraged to apply.

The awards, sponsored by the Kentucky Department of Education and Ashland Inc., are presented each year to teachers across the state in recognition of their outstanding classroom work. Any full-time school teacher in the state with at least three years of experience is eligible. Teachers may be nominated by themselves, students, parents, teaching peers, principals, superintendents or anyone from the community who has an interest in honoring an outstanding educator.

Nomination forms can be found by visiting the Kentucky Department of Education’s Web site at http://www.education.ky.gov and typing in “Teacher of the Year” in the search bar.

Judging for the 2007 program will take place in late September by a blue ribbon panel of education professionals from around the state. Site visits with nine semifinalists and personal interviews with the top three candidates also will occur in September. On October 13, at the state Capitol, 24 Teacher Achievement Award winners, the Kentucky Elementary, Middle and High School Teachers of the Year and the overall Kentucky Teacher of the Year will be announced. The Teacher Achievement Award winners will receive a cash gift of $500 each; two of the three finalists will receive a cash gift of $3,000; and the Teacher of the Year will receive a cash prize of $10,000, along with an exciting professional development opportunity. The Kentucky Teacher of the Year then will represent the state in the National Teacher of the Year competition.

The Kentucky Teacher Awards program combines the best elements of the Ashland Inc. Teacher Achievement Awards and the Kentucky Teacher of the Year programs. This is the sixth year for this innovative collaboration between private industry and public education.

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