Kentucky Education Commissioner Terry Holliday will appear before a congressional panel in Washington Thursday. The hearing is titled “No Child Left Behind: Early Lessons from State Flexibility Waivers.”
Commissioner Holliday will discuss Kentucky’s experience in applying for and implementing a waiver from certain requirements of the No Child Left Behind Act. Kentucky was one of the first states granted a waiver by the U.S. Department of Education in February 2012. Under NCLB, progress for public schools was primarily measured using scores from standardized reading and math tests. Kentucky’s new assessment model will measure a school's progress using a combination of test scores, achievement gaps, student progress, career- and college-readiness benchmarks and graduation rates.
Commisioner Holliday writes in a blog post, “As I prepare for my testimony to the Congressional committee, I will emphasize that in Kentucky we have not backed up on our push to close achievement gaps. Closing achievement gaps remains the moral, economic and civil rights issue of our times and every educator in Kentucky is committed to helping all children reach college and career readiness.”
Holliday will testify in front of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions. The ranking member is Tennessee Senator Lamar Alexander. Kentucky Senator Rand Paul also serves on the committee.
