Kentucky Department of Education

The system of Leadership Networks in Kentucky has been designed to support the quality implementation of the requirements set forth in Senate Bill 1 (2009).

A unit of study is a cohesive and intentional plan for teaching and learning developed to address content standards in a meaningful way.

The Kentucky Department of Education worked in teams to develop Characteristics of Highly Effective Teaching and Learning as supports focused on the instructional core.  The teams looked at the research that establishes these characteristics and have organized them around five components: learning climate; classroom assessment and reflection; instructional rigor and student engagement; instructional relevance; and knowledge of content.

The Combined Curriculum Document (CCD) is a resource created by the Kentucky Department of Education to show the connection between the Academic Expectations (what students should know and be able to do as a result of their school experience), the Program of Studies-now known as Kentucky's Core Academic Standards (the minimum required content standards students shall be taught to meet the high school graduation requirements), and the Core Content for Assessment Version 4.1 (the content that is appropriate to be included on the state assessment).

The appendices for the Common Core Standards for English Language Arts & Literacy in History/Social Studies, Science, and Technical Subjects are intended to accompany the Kentucky Core Academic Standards and provide supplementary readings and material to support the implementation of the standards.

These materials should be used to support teachers' understanding of the assessment implications with the addition of DOK to the Core Content for Assessment.

Core Content for Assessment version 4.1- represents the subset of Kentucky Core Academic Standards (KCAS) content that will be included on the state assessment (K-PREP) for Science and Social Studies. This content is designed for use with, not instead of, Kentucky's Core Academic Standards.

During the 2010-11 academic year, schools and districts will begin to implement the Kentucky Core Academic Standards for mathematics and English/language arts. In order to assist with the transition to these standards, the Kentucky Department of Education (KDE) has produced a crosswalk resource that will present the alignment of Common Core State Standards, those standards used to develop the Kentucky Core Academic Standards, and the current Kentucky standards found in the Program of Studies. While developing this crosswalk, KDE staff members used a tool and process designed by Achieve, Inc.

In July 2006, Senate Bill 130 was passed by the Kentucky legislature. The bill amended KRS 158.6453 to include the provision that “no later than the 2007-2008 school year, and each year thereafter” the Commonwealth’s assessment program shall include a high school readiness examination in grade 8, a college readiness examination in grade 10 and the ACT college admissions and placement examination in grade 11. These three examinations — EXPLORE, PLAN and ACT — comprise the Educational Planning and Assessment System (EPAS).

The COMPLETE set of deconstructed standards for English Language Arts is now available! These were created collaboratively by teachers and leaders across the Commonwealth. Please note that these deconstructions have been reviewed, edited, and revised based on feedback from internal and external reviewers.

New… KDE’s “How To Develop a Standards-Based Unit of Study” manual has been revised. The 2008 manual contains a revised unit template, information about the components of a unit and lesson plan, sample lesson plans, and a downloadable word document template.

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The Kentucky Core Academic Standards (PDF) were adopted by the Kentucky State Board of Education in June 2010. The KCAS contains content formerly in the Program of Studies (2006) for all content areas, except in English Language Arts and Mathematics. The ELA and Mathematics standards in KCAS are now the Common Core State Standards.

Kentucky’s system of Leadership Networks is designed to build the capacity of district leadership teams throughout the Commonwealth to fully implement the requirements of Senate Bill 1 (2009). The network design was formed around the following assertions:

In March 2009, Kentucky’s General Assembly passed Senate Bill 1. Passage of this bill requires the design and development of a state-level model curriculum framework.

Schools and courses must use these codes for the upcoming school year. It is important to utilize the codes correctly to meet federal and state reporting requirements.

The centerpiece of Kentucky's education reform effort is its vision of what students should know and be able to do as a result of their school experience. Every aspect of the reform movement is designed to promote student attainment of these goals and to measure our progress in helping them to do so.

The primary tasks of the Core Advisory Team will be to

• Support and maintain the network vision throughout the Commonwealth,
• Offer guidance and advice around the systemic framework for each years’ meetings, and
• Analyze implementation/evaluation data of the Leadership Network system to inform practice.

The COMPLETE set of deconstructed standards for Mathematics is now available!  These were created collaboratively by teachers and leaders across the Commonwealth.  Please note that these deconstructions have been reviewed, edited, and revised based on feedback from internal and external reviewers.

Published in two volumes, Kentucky's Curriculum Framework provides direction to local schools and districts as they develop curriculum. It offers further explanation of the academic expectations, suggestions on teaching and learning strategies, and multiple resources to assist with the development of curriculum and units of study.

Volume I of Transformations in a browser format.