Supplemental Educational Services
Under the Title I, Part A of the No Child Left Behind Act (Elementary and Secondary Education Act – ESEA), students whose family income is low and who attend schools that do not make adequate yearly progress (AYP) for three consecutive years may receive supplemental educational services. "Supplemental educational services" are defined by the United States Department of Education as "tutoring or extra help provided to students in reading, English/language arts, and math. This extra help can be provided before or after school, on weekends, or in the summer." The No Child Left Behind Act states that these services must be of high quality, research-based and specifically designed to increase the academic achievement of eligible children.
States are responsible for identifying eligible supplemental service providers (SSPs). Parents choose the SSP for their children from among the providers approved by the state for their school districts. In response to these new requirements, the Kentucky Department of Education has established objective criteria to select SSPs for the state-approved list. The state is currently accepting applications for potential new SSPs. The state must update the list of approved SSPs on an annual basis and must provide a list for school districts of the approved providers in their geographic areas.
School districts are required to arrange for the provision of these supplemental education services and must provide parents with information on the availability of supplemental education services, the identity of approved service providers and, at a minimum, a brief description of the services, qualifications and demonstrated effectiveness of each provider. For additional information, please go to Supplemental Educational Services.
Mathematics and Science Partnerships
Kentucky's Mathematics and Science Partnership program is designed to improve the performance of teachers and students in the areas of mathematics and science. The Kentucky Department of Education likely will award seven grants of $200,000 per year for two years, with a possible third year contingent upon evaluation, project success and impact on teacher pedagogical content knowledge growth and student achievement. The Request for Application and Call for Reviewers are available at Mathematics and Science Partnerships RFA.
Marker Papers – Phase II
The Kentucky Department of Education is beginning Phase II of Marker Papers development. The Kentucky Marker Papers are instructional samples intended to show competency in writing across the grade levels, subject areas and categories of writing. The goal of this project is to complete the current Marker Papers set and add sets to include reflective, technical and analytical writing samples. We need content area samples as well as English/Language Arts samples. We would like to invite Kentucky teachers and students to submit samples of writing given the particular grade level needs indicated on the call for submissions invitations. The deadline for submission is May 7, 2007. For more information, please go to The Kentucky Marker Papers (P-12).
Preparing for CATS
Many are asking about strategies to ensure a "good faith effort" related to the administration of KCCT. Districts are looking for resources to help them establish a policy or set of procedures and guidelines that provide students, teachers and parents with information they need to be successful on the state assessment. As you consider the most effective way to motivate all stakeholder groups to give a good faith effort to do their best on the assessments, go to ISN Refined Core Content for Assessment Materials and view the "Good Faith Effort" documents for each group (students, teachers and parents).
Quotable Quotes
“Everything I teach is unimportant if kids aren’t learning it.”
Martha Wissler