Kansas State Board of Education
District 10, April Newsletter
Commissioner Resigns
Regrettably Dr. Diane Debacker, Commissioner of Education resigned effective May 14, 2014. This came as a complete surprise to me, as well as the entire board. Diane has accepted a position as an advisor to the Director of Education for the United Arab Emirates and will be living in Abu Dhabi. The country is committed to improving its educational system and has hired several individuals who have the credentials to provide insight and leadership to that cause. Diane will continue her duties through the next State Board meeting. Dr. Brad Neuenswander, Deputy Commissioner has agreed to serve as Interim Commissioner of Education. The State Board will begin immediately planning for Diane’s replacement.
The State Board is saddened by the departure of Diane. She has been a strong and effective leader. Diane is respected for her knowledge, communication and leadership skills. The state of Kansas has lost a great leader. I wish her well in her new and challenging position. I have every confidence she will, as she always has, do a fantastic job for the folks in Dhabi.
Confidence in Public Education Friends of Education Awards Program
The Confidence in Kansas Public Education Task Force hosted the Friends of Education Awards Presentation at Mulvane High School on Saturday April 9. The program was very inspiring. Since 1981 the Task Force has recognized outstanding service to public education in Kansas. Recognized are individuals, businesses and organizations that have provided long term contributions and service to the children of Kansas. These individuals and groups have brought positive change resulting in significant impact as recognized by their individual schools and districts. I can’t think of a time when we were in greater need of friends and the honorees recognized were fantastic. The Emcee was Stephanie Bergmann of KNSS Channel 3. She was also presented with the Community Leader Award by the Derby District. And as volunteers are, she was surprised by the award and had agreed to emcee prior to learning about the award. To all the award winners thank you for your dedication and support to the children of Kansas.
Cooking Up Change Competition
I had the pleasure recently to be a judge in a culinary competition sponsored by Cooking Up Change. The competition was held at West High School in Wichita. The sponsoring group Cooking Up Change out of Chicago began the competitions in 2007. The goal of the group is to engage students and the community in a dialog about critical changes in our nation’s meal program. Cooking Up Change brings attention to the challenges of serving fresh, healthy school meals and the need for reform in our school food system. Ten cities across the country will host Cooking Up Change competitions. Some of the cities participating include Houston, Orlando, Los Angles and Memphis. The seven Comprehensive high schools from Wichita, USD 259 were invited to compete. A panel of nine judges, including school district and community members along with me, decided the winner.
Students had to create a delicious and nutritious lunch that could be served in a school cafeteria. The meal had to include one main dish and two sides. All FDA nutrition standards had to be met; there could be no more than six production steps; and the meal could not cost more than $1.50 along with other rules. Each meal was fantastic. In the end West High School was the winner. It was a very difficult decision. The winning team from West travels to Washington DC in June and will compete in the National Finals. They will also have the opportunity to see their meal served in the Congressional Cafeteria along with sightseeing and participating in a Congressional briefing. Plus they received a lot of cool cooking stuff. The Wichita School District will also utilize the recipes in food preparation planning for next school year. What a great way to get students engaged in career opportunities but also to see your recipe as a selection in your cafeteria. For more information please check out the Cooking Up Change website at http://www.healthyschoolscampaign.org/programs/cooking-up-change/. Good Luck to the West High Team as they travel to Washington.
CETE Update
Without a doubt this has been a challenging assessment season. Schools have become accustomed to an assessment experience that is almost perfect. This spring has not even come close to that standard. Some of problems are the result of the new system, some are not. One of the biggest problems that has caused major disruptions is attacks from who knows where, called “Distributed Denial of Service (DDOS). These attacks on the KITE system are designed to overload incoming data requests and shut the system down. There have been multiple attacks and each new one is stronger than the last. Who is doing it and why…no one knows? CETE has contracted with a company that specializes in protecting large data sharing systems and as of today all is operational. One very important fact about that the attack is “it was not an attempt to gather data”. No student records were ever in jeopardy. CTE is continuing to strengthen security and will be working this summer to create and implement what is necessary to avoid the effects of these attacks in the future. Other issues that have surfaced causing distributions include district firewalls that block kite, districts using operating systems that were not approved for KITE support and some STCO or TEST records that had been filled out incorrectly. As of the other day 36% of ELA and 15% of Math Assessments had been completed. Over 146,000 assessments are completed. The system is up and running and barring any attacks or other unforeseen challenges, schools can finish assessments in the next month. The SBOE and CETE will be looking at results and validity issues as the assessment window closes. The SBOE will make the final determination on how assessment data and related information will be used. Please remember these assessments are a practice run. No results will be released that are not valid or meaningful. I encourage all schools to do their best to complete the assessments. Thanks!
Nutrition Standards and Non Nutritious Fund Raisers
After a long debate on the issue of how many non-nutritious fundraisers a school could have in a year, the board recommended for approval next month the following. Schools will be permitted one exempt food fundraiser, per school organization, per semester that does not meet the nutrition standards for all foods sold during the school day. An organization is defined as a school group approved by the local board. The length of the organizations exempt fundraiser cannot be longer than 2 days (there will be a little more talk on this one). The SBOE is required by the FDA to make a determination of the approved number of fundraisers permitted or the default fundraiser number is zero (0). The SBOE would like to make this a local decision but cannot. The boards intent is to establish a liberal policy and then allow districts to pass local policies stricter than the state requirement if they so choose. Feedback from districts and schools has been inconsistent. Many districts have policies already that restrict or prohibit all food fundraisers on school property. Other schools have non- nutritious fundraisers almost every day. My professional stand and recommendation would be 0 non-nutritious fundraisers. However, I can support the direction of the proposed policy. I will caution everyone, the Feds still have the last word and could kick the policy back to us as to liberal. Most states have gone with zero fundraisers. You can still let me know what you think on this. We vote in May.
Licensure update
The legislature included in the finance bill “alternative licensure” opportunities. The bill is actually in some unintended ways sticker than the recommended regulation changes proposed by the SBOE. I won’t go into all the details but tell you that we are proceeding with the changes begun prior to the legislative action. The KSDE will when the bill is signed, begin developing new regulations in the STEM area as required by the legislation. KSDE staff has done an excellent job of insuring that the details of the licensure regulation changes will meet the needs of our districts. It is amazing how many details there really are in licensure. I feel districts will be well served by the final product of the SBOE’s licensure changes.
Funding Bill Passed
I am not going to go into a long discourse on the funding bill. It has not been finalized nor signed. Who knows what craziness will pop up in the final days, when the legislature returns to Topeka? I will say again, “pass a clean bill”! I will also say that regrettably this bill could just be a preview of things to come as the legislature attempts to meet the challenge of the Gannon Decision. We will soon all become very familiar with the Rose Standards. KSDE is putting together a spread sheet that compares the Rose Standards to Kansas College and Career Ready Employability Skills and other relevant standards from Kansas and across the nation. Check the KSDE website in coming weeks for more information.
Innovative Schools Proposal
It was a pleasure to hear the great things happening in the McPherson and Concordia schools districts. Both Randy and Bev provided the SBOE with information on what they have been doing and plan to do as the leaders of the Innovative Schools. The overall reaction of the SBOE was positive. The Board is very excited to see innovation in the schools and stands behind their efforts. But at the same time, the SBOE is faced with the issue of who is responsible for education in the state of Kansas? The message to the schools was to move forward in their efforts and let the external politics play out. The SBOE has always and will continue to support innovative school initiatives as our authority allows. At the May meeting the SBOE will make a decision on how to structure that support for the innovative schools.
Common Core Implementation Capacity Review and Support
The U.S. Education Delivery Institute (EDI), with funding from the Helmsley Charitable Trust, will perform a capacity review of Implementation of Common Core in the State of Kansas. The review is intended to provide a clear sense of quality and effectiveness of the State’s efforts to implement the Common Core Standards and help leaders understand the areas of greatest strengths and challenges in the State’s implementation efforts. A final report will make recommendations as to where the State should focus their efforts in moving forward. Why was Kansas selected for this review? Because of our relationship with the Council of Chief State School Officers, a perceived quality of implementation practices, and because we do things right in Kansas and want to be better. The timeline for the review is being developed and we should know more in the coming weeks.
Thank you to Teachers and Administrators
Please share the message below from the State Board with teachers and administrators. The SBOE appreciates the efforts and commitment of our educators across the state to do what is right for students. Although it is a short message it is a heartfelt message in support and with thanks for all the teachers and administrators have done and been through this last year.
Thank You from the State Board of Education:
While the simplicity of “thank you” is powerful, this school year just two words are not enough. The State Board of Education is extremely proud to commend Kansas educators, administrators and students for their many achievements and for surpassing expectations.
This year, educators in Kansas are working especially hard to implement a host of new initiatives. The Board knows that educators work tirelessly toward the goal of preparing students for better futures. In Kansas, that task is directed by more rigorous standards, coursework and assessments, as well as the vision of better preparing students for college and careers.
Educators recognize what it takes to provide quality education and have supported efforts to address any challenges that arise. It is through this “can do” spirit that Board members remain confident in what the future holds for public education in Kansas. National Teacher Day is right around the corner on May 6. This is a perfect time to acknowledge the contributions educators make, not only in their classrooms, but in their communities as well. There is much to be grateful for in Kansas.
