Education Commissioner Terry Holliday I wanted to share with you two reports that the Interim Joint Education Committee recently received that, for me, are of particular importance. The first came from the Advance Kentucky team, which provided an evaluation report for their outstanding program. The Advance Kentucky team utilized the Kentucky Center for Education and Workforce Statistics to [...]
Education Commissioner Terry Holliday Scholastic recently released some early results from the third edition of Primary Sources, a survey of more than 20,000 teachers across the nation. The early release highlighted three major findings concerning teachers’ views on the Common Core State Standards, which in Kentucky are called the Kentucky Core Academic Standards. Here are the key findings. [...]
Education Commissioner Terry Holliday Last week, we released the Unbridled Learning assessment and accountability results from the 2012-13 school year. We have some really positive news. Our cohort graduation rate is 86.1 percent which places us among the top states. Our college- and career-ready rate is 54 percent which is 20 percent higher than our 2010 baseline. It [...]
Education Commissioner Terry Holliday As I noted in my column last month, the 2013-14 school year is going to be a busy one with many new and continuing initiatives. Since that column ran, two reports have been published that underscore our work in two areas – teachers (their training, professional learning and their working conditions) and state education [...]
Education Commissioner Terry Holliday The 2013-14 school year is upon us, and one thing is certain: It’s going to be an exciting and busy school year for Kentucky public school students, educators and parents. Many new and continuing initiatives will require the time and attention of the Kentucky Department of Education (KDE), school districts, schools and educators. All [...]
Education Commissioner Terry Holliday The recent “Diplomas Count” study certainly gave us something to celebrate in Kentucky. The Kentucky graduation rate for the Class of 2010 (the most recent data available for this report) was 77.2 percent – better than the national average of 74.7 percent. Kentucky ranked third in the nation for most improvement in the graduation [...]
Education Commissioner Terry Holliday Education Commissioner Terry Holliday recently had a column published in the Cincinnati Enquirer in which he discusses the link between Senate Bill 1 and the Kentucky Core Academic Standards. This is a longer version of that column. Our goal in Kentucky is to provide students in our state with a world class education that will prepare them for [...]
Education Commissioner Terry Holliday The 2012-13 school year has been a busy one for Kentucky public education. Educators have undertaken a number of initiatives and realized some major achievements as we work to transform schools into vibrant, engaging and innovative places that equip Kentucky’s children with the knowledge and skills they will need to succeed in a 21st-century [...]
Education Commissioner Terry Holliday All in all, the 2013 session of the General Assembly was a very productive session for education. The major initiative of the Governor, First Lady and the Kentucky Board of Education was the passage of the graduation bill. This bill allows local school systems to raise the dropout age from 16 to [...]
Education Commissioner Terry Holliday Throughout the commonwealth, educators are working diligently and with a sense of urgency to ensure ALL Kentucky’s students are college/career-ready when they graduate high school. They know it is an economic imperative not only for their students but also for our state. Together, we have made great strides this past year, as we worked [...]