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More than 2,000 Kentucky educators attend academic standards learning labs


Kentucky Teacher

More than 2,000 teachers and school administrators attended Get to Know Your Standards Learning Labs conducted across the state by Kentucky Department of Education staff.

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The events were designed to provide teachers with a stronger understanding of the implications of building standards-based instruction and assignments that align with Kentucky’s new revised academic standards.

Full day events held in Hopkinsville, Louisville, Grayson and the Lexington provided attendees a look at the standards and a deep dive into data about how rigorous standards can be a key tool in closing the state’s achievement gap.

“Rigorous academic standards set the bar for where kids need to go and make a huge difference in a student’s learning. It’s a game changer,” said Brittany Jacobs, a partner with TNTP, which provided the opening keynote session in Lexington.

Jacobs highlighted the recently released TNTP report, “The Opportunity Myth,” which found that students are spending more than 500 hours per school year on assignments that weren’t appropriate for their grade and with instruction that didn’t ask enough of them – the equivalent of six months of wasted class time in each core subject.

The results of these less-than-rigorous assignments, she said, can have disastrous results for students when they exit high school.

“Kentucky’s newly revised academic standards, if implemented and taught properly, could be transformational for students across the state,” said KDE Deputy Commissioner and Chief Academic Officer Amanda Ellis. “These learning labs are just the first step in rolling out the standards and ensuring that teachers and administrators are equipped to provide the rigorous learning environments that our students deserve.”

If you missed the learning labs, you still can access all of the materials from the event sessions via a Google drive. You also can explore the standards at kystandards.org.

Contact the standards team with any questions regarding the newly adopted standards or the standards revision process.


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