The sixth meeting of the Interim Joint Committee on Education was held on Monday, November 17, 2008, at 1:00 PM, in Room 149 of the Capitol Annex. Senator Vernie McGaha, Presiding Co-Chair, called the meeting to order, and the secretary called the roll.
Present were:
Members: Senator Vernie McGaha, Co-Chair; Alice Forgy Kerr, Gerald A. Neal, R.J. Palmer II, Tim Shaughnessy, Johnny Ray Turner, and Jack Westwood; Representatives Mike Cherry, Hubert Collins, Jim DeCesare, Ted Edmonds, C. B. Embry Jr., Bill Farmer, Tim Firkins, Jim Glenn, Derrick Graham, Jeff Greer, Jimmy Higdon, Charles Miller, Harry Moberly Jr., Marie Rader, Tom Riner, Carl Rollins II, Charles Siler, Dottie Sims, Alecia Webb-Edgington, Ron Weston, and Addia Wuchner.
Guests: R. Larry Taylor, Leah Ellis, Ray Corns, Michael Miller, and Frank Rasche, Kentucky Department of Education; Adrienne Gilbert, citizen; Rhonda Caldwell, Kentucky Association of School Administrators; Cindy Heine, Prichard Committee for Academic Excellence.
LRC Staff: Audrey Carr, Janet Stevens, and Lisa Moore.
Senator McGaha asked for approval of the minutes of the October 13, 2008, meeting. Upon a motion by Representative Sims, seconded by Representative Siler, the minutes were approved by voice vote.
Representative Edmonds briefed the committee on the meeting of the Subcommittee on Elementary and Secondary Education. He said the subcommittee met and heard discussion related to the extended school services program, commonly known as ESS. He said every school district is provided funding to operate an ESS program for students who are having academic problems in one or more of their core classes. The ESS program allows struggling students to be given extra instructional time outside their regular class time.
Representative Edmonds said that in December 2006, a research agenda was approved for the Office of Education Accountability (OEA) that included a review of the state’s ESS program. While OEA staff observed a number of schools using ESS funds in ways proven to increase student academic achievement, they also observed schools using funds in ways that have not been proven to raise student achievement. He said a major conclusion of the study is that the current ESS program is fragmented and lacks focus. The report suggests that a more structured ESS program should be followed to reach the maximum benefit for students and that the Kentucky Department of Education (KDE) should take a stronger administrative role that helps schools and districts link data, resources, and best practice.
Representative Edmonds said the KDE staff presented a response to OEA’s review and gave a brief summary of the actions taken by KDE to address the recommendations. They explained proposed changes to existing administrative regulations that will strengthen the program.
Representative Edmonds said the KDE staff reported that elementary schools use Title I funds together with ESS funds to help struggling students. However, since most high schools do not receive Title I funds, they depend on ESS funds to provide students with this extra help. He noted that cuts made to the ESS budget will result in a potential decrease of approximately 90,000 students served in the current school year, as compared to the number served in the 2007-2008 school year.
Representative Rollins said the Subcommittee on Postsecondary Education reviewed reports on how various institutions of higher education are coping with revenue shortfalls. The subcommittee heard from Dr. Richard Crofts, Interim President, Council on Postsecondary Education; Dr. Kumble Subbaswamy, Provost, University of Kentucky; Dr. James Votruba, President, Northern Kentucky University; Dr. Michael B. McCall, President, Kentucky Community and Technical College System; and Dr. Mary Evans Sias, President, Kentucky State University.
Representative Rollins said the reports reflect the challenges to and the creativity of the universities and colleges as they attempt to maintain high quality programs, facilities and staff during times of economic fluctuation and unpredictable revenue sources. He said these issues impact on affordability, access, and program choice for students.
Representative Rollins said the most common cost containment strategies reported are: reduction of faculty and staff positions through attrition; implementation of a hiring freeze; reorganization of university administrative functions eliminating or combining roles and functions; delaying the addition of planned new programs and courses; and restrictions on staff travel and conference attendance.
Representative Rollins explained the options that some universities are implementing to offset the current financial situation. These options included: salary freezes; faculty layoffs; and reducing the number of academic program and course offerings, which limits the students’ schedule flexibility. He noted the reports suggest that many of these measures negatively impact the morale of staff and the ability of the institutions to maintain a stable dependable workforce.
Representative Rollins noted that some institutions have implemented some type of efficiency strategy. This includes: locking in fuel contracts; delaying facility maintenance schedules; reduction of mailing and printing costs; utilization of web-based technologies and eliminating printing of textbooks; outsourcing printing and copying services; and terminating residence hall telephone services and using Voice Over Internet Protocol system. He said these strategies represent a significant financial savings, but the reports suggest that continued investment in technology systems will be necessary for some of these strategies to be effective over time.
Chairman McGaha accepted the reports on behalf of the committee with no objections.
Chairman McGaha introduced Ms. Elaine Farris, Deputy Commissioner, Bureau of Learning and Result Services; Dr. Ken Draut, Associate Commissioner, Office of Assessment and Accountability; and Ms. Rhonda Sims, Director, Division of Assessment Support, KDE. The panel from KDE reported to the committee on the 2008 test scores for the Commonwealth Accountability Testing System (CATS), No Child Left Behind (NCLB), and ACT; and gave a progress report of the Task Force on Assessment and Accountability.
Mr. Draut began the PowerPoint presentation by defining the state and federal accountability systems in Kentucky. He noted that the federal NCLB accountability requirement has annual measurable objectives that include the percentage of proficient and distinguished students in reading and mathematics and targets for all students and populations of sufficient size. He said other academic indicators in NCLB include CATS classifications in elementary and middle school and graduation rates in high school. He also said NCLB requires a participation rate to test 95 percent of all students and populations of sufficient size and Kentucky meets that goal every year.
Mr. Draut said the CATS state testing system has an academic index that includes the percentage of novice, apprentice, proficient and distinguished students in seven content areas. The nonacademic indexes in CATS includes attendance, graduation rates, including retention and dropouts, and transition to adult life. The ACT high school index also requires administering the PLAN in grade 10 and the ACT in grade 11 for all students with each accounting for 2.5 percent in the accountability index.
Mr. Draut discussed the NCLB annual measurable objectives and the starting points and yearly targets of the percent of students enrolled for a full academic year and scoring proficient and distinguished. He noted Kentucky met 20 out of 25 target goals in 2008, which equals 80 percent of its target goals. A detailed table is included in the meeting folder located in the Legislative Research Commission (LRC) library.
Mr. Draut said based on the NCLB public release on August 5, 2008, 820 schools met 100 percent of NCLB adequate yearly progress goals, which is 70.9 percent of all schools. Other figures reported included: 89.0 percent of all elementary schools met 100 percent of goals; 44.4 percent of middle schools met 100 percent of goals; 33.3 percent of high schools met 100 percent of its goals; and 103 out of 175 school districts, 58.9 percent, met 100 percent of NCLB adequate yearly progress goals. He also discussed the summary of tiers and consequences for Title I schools and districts.
Mr. Draut discussed concordance in CATS reporting in Kentucky. He said multiple changes to CATS in 2007 required a statistical process to link data from the old system used in 1998-2006 to the new one established in 2007-2008. He said concordance is a statistical process used to establish the link. The concordance table relates the scores on similar assessments by lining up the percentile ranks. A school’s adjusted score does depend on the rank order of other schools in Kentucky. The concordance table set in 2007 established the link between old and new CATS accountability index scores. He said the same table was used for the last time in 2008, and content area and individual student scores were not adjusted.
Ms. Sims explained the growth chart for Kentucky. She said schools have different starting points, but all schools have a goal to reach 100 in the accountability index. She noted 594 schools are meeting their goals, 537 schools are progressing toward their goals, and 26 schools are in the assistance category. A detailed adjusted accountability index calculated with the concordance table at each level of elementary, middle, and high school is available in the meeting folder in the LRC library.
Ms. Sims said elementary school students score higher on the CATS test with middle and high school students performing lower on the CATS assessment across the entire Commonwealth. She also said female students tend to score higher than males and African-American and Hispanic students score the lowest in the academic index. She noted that the KDE will continue to work to close the achievement gaps in the test scores among these different sub-groups of students.
Ms. Sims said other items in the 2008 disaggregated academic index show that free and reduced lunch students score lower on the CATS than students who are not approved for free and reduced lunch. Students with English proficiency score higher than students identified with limited English proficiency. Finally, students with no disabilities score higher than students identified with a disability, while students receiving accommodations for their disability score higher on the test than students who receive no accommodations for their disability.
Mr. Draut explained the distribution of scores for the PLAN and ACT tests in 2007 and 2008. He said the scores are placed in ranges of novice low, novice medium, proficient and distinguished and then a formula is used that creates the index for the ACT and PLAN. He said the score range percentages establish a starting point for the high school ACT academic index. Kentucky has an average ACT index of 73.8 in 2008.
Mr. Draut said the composite score for Kentucky juniors completing the ACT is 18.3. He said the ACT provides college ready benchmark scores for the core subject areas of English, mathematics, reading, and science. He said 46% of Kentucky students are meeting the ACT benchmark score in English; 20% in mathematics; 33% in reading; 15% in science; and 10% of Kentucky students are meeting all four ACT benchmarks. African-American and Hispanic students are scoring lower than Caucasian and Asian Americans on the ACT, which is following the scoring trend in the CATS testing.
Mr. Draut said transitioning from 2008 to 2014 will include a data review and appeals process with revised Kentucky Performance Reports posted in the fall of 2008. A new growth chart will be created from the nonadjusted 2007 and 2008 accountability indices and the new growth charts will be released in late 2008.
Representative DeCesare asked if the percentage numbers on the NCLB annual measurable objectives chart were reflective of actual scores or yearly targets of percentages of all participants. Mr. Draut said the percentage numbers are goals.
Representative DeCesare asked for an explanation about the scale used in the Kentucky Performance Report in accountability cycle 2008. He noted the 2008 biennial goal is 85.0 percent, and this is a concern as meeting the target goal of 85 on a scale of 0-140 is equivalent to 60 percent, which is not even a passing grade in the classroom. He said even if the biennial goal is moved up to 100, this is still on the borderline of receiving a passing grade in the classroom. He feels this scale sets up Kentucky’s students to achieve mediocrity and Kentucky needs to strive to do better for its students.
Mr. Draut said he receives similar concerns about the scale of 0-140 from school staff. He said points are distributed in the CATS system to students identified as novice, apprentice or proficient, and students reaching proficiency are given 100 percent of the points. Students who reach distinguished receive a bonus of 140 points. He noted that the goal for Kentucky students is reaching the proficient level, while reaching distinguished is considered a bonus that very few students can meet.
Representative DeCesare said the CATS scores determine accountability for the schools and not individual students. He is anxiously awaiting the findings of the Taskforce of Assessment and Accountability and hopes their recommended changes will be implemented promptly as 2014 is rapidly approaching and Kentucky is not on target to meet its performance goals for students.
Representative Sims asked if teachers are teaching students the content of the CATS test questions in the classroom. Ms. Farris said some teachers probably do design their instruction around the assessment, but she would not call it teaching to the test. It makes good instructional sense for teachers to align their instruction along with their assessments.
Representative Sims asked if there were more dropouts before or after the implementation of the Kentucky Education Reform Act (KERA). Ms. Farris said data indicates the dropout rate has decreased since KERA.
Representative Sims asked if KDE kept data to reflect how many students have to take remedial courses upon being accepted into college. Ms. Farris said KDE does not have that data at this time as there is no longitudinal data available from Kentucky colleges to its high schools. She said KDE is working to find a way to begin collecting the data as the information is critical for the Commonwealth. Mr. Draut noted that KDE is currently beginning a P-16 data effort initiative to link college data back to secondary, middle, and elementary schools. When the system gets into place, it should provide KDE with the data of how many students need remedial courses upon entering college.
Representative Graham said the previous commissioner of the KDE had said the state board could reevaluate the number of days and the number of tests that Kentucky junior high school students are being tested. He asked if the KDE is still evaluating whether or not some of the junior year assessment can be moved to other years or eliminated.
Ms. Farris said there is on-going discussion about how much and what grade levels to administer student assessments. Representative Graham asked if there was any movement towards changing the assessment in the junior year of high school. Mr. Draut said there are a testing expert and a small group looking at the ACT and the KCCT to see if there are common items that can be merged to ease the testing burdens on students.
Representative Graham suggested moving an assessment to the high school freshman year since there is no evaluation currently in place. He also believes the junior year is too late to find problems and students need to be tested entering into high school in order to access and apply appropriate interventions. He said a new evaluation system should be put in place because students are suffering from test fatigue in their junior year. Ms. Farris said high schools are looking at testing students in their freshman year to ensure the curriculum and courses are meeting their needs in high school.
Representative Webb-Edgington asked if the dropout numbers being reported in Kentucky are accurate. Ms. Farris said Kentucky’s definition of calculating dropouts differs from the national definition. Mr. Draut said school districts are implementing a total student information system called Infinite Campus, which will provide consistency and accurate data concerning student dropouts.
Representative Webb-Edgington asked what the current definition is for a dropout. Mr. Draut said the dropout rate is calculated year-to-year by the number of students who leave school during the school year and how many have returned to school the following year. He said if a student has not returned to school by October 1st the following year, he or she is considered a dropout. He said the graduation rate follows a cohort of students from 9th through 12th grade. NCLB actually uses the graduation rate to track dropouts.
Representative Webb-Edgington said African-American children score 20 points below other children on state standards and asked what KDE is doing to close this achievement gap. Ms. Farris responded that a concerted effort is being made to track individual student progress. She said all high, middle, and elementary schools are being asked to provide individual plans for improvement for each individual student in their school. She said customized strategies are being developed to improve learning for all Kentucky students. She is aware that there is a large achievement gap for Kentucky’s African-American and disability students. She feels the key to closing the gap is to provide equal access to the core curriculum for all students. She is asking leadership within schools to ensure that there is an accountability system in every school and every classroom and that all children are held accountable to high expectations and standards.
Chairman McGaha asked what Kentucky’s dropout rate was the past year as calculated by CATS. Mr. Draut said 2.2 percent. Senator McGaha asked what Kentucky’s graduation rate was as calculated by NCLB, which is evaluated over a four-year period. Mr. Draut said it was 82 percent.
Senator Westwood asked why Kentucky uses the dropout rate instead of the graduation rate formula that NCLB utilizes. Mr. Draut said the dropout rate is used for CATS and the graduation rate is used for NCLB. Senator Westwood asked if NCLB allows states to use the dropout rate that Kentucky uses. Mr. Draut said they do not. Senator Westwood feels CATS should follow the NCLB guidelines instead of having two different numbers that are dramatically different. Ms. Farris said it is a state decision and KDE will discuss the issue.
Senator Shaughnessy asked for clarification about all students not having access to core content classes. Ms. Farris said students with disabilities and African-American students are often not enrolled in classes that are teaching the core content on a regular basis. She said they may be in self-contained classrooms or they may have been pulled out of those classes to have lower level types of content taught. It also can depend on the school and the resources available to provide teachers and offer a sufficient number of courses for all students. Ms. Farris said it is a local school decision on what type of classes to offer at each school.
Senator Shaughnessy asked if KDE has a breakdown of ACT scores among students who have completed core content curriculum and those who have not. She said KDE has not looked at this component, but they have looked at ACT standards and aligned those with Kentucky’s standards.
Senator Shaughnessy said he is very concerned that 90 percent of Kentucky high school graduates are not ready for college according to the ACT guidelines. Mr. Draut explained that is the percentage of students who do not meet all four benchmarks under the ACT criteria in English, mathematics, reading, and science.
Ms. Sims clarified to Senator Shaughnessy that the 90 percent pertains to Kentucky high school juniors who are taking the ACT, and not high school graduates. Senator Shaughnessy said this statistic is alarming and Ms. Farris agreed. She said there are 56 assist teams working with high and middle schools across the state to prepare students for college. Focus of the assist teams is to help schools provide a support system and get students in intervention programs at least by tenth grade. She noted that research has proven that courses selected and rigor of the classes is more important to student learning than what score they make on a test. She also said Kentucky has received several grants to offer AP classes in more schools and expose students to the rigor they need to be successful.
Senator Shaughnessy said he is a big proponent of the AP program. He noted that if teachers and school personnel are not directing students into the core curriculum courses, then they certainly are not directing them into the AP curriculum. Ms. Farris said it is a challenge and a subject that needs to be discussed in the middle and high schools across the Commonwealth.
Representative Moberly said he is disappointed in these results and wants to know what KDE’s strategy is to fix it. He said Kentucky has made progress since the implementation of KERA due to the hard work of Kentucky teachers and educators, but there is still much work to do in the disaggregated academic index. It is evident Kentucky will not meet its goals in 2014 if improvement is not made.
Ms. Farris said KDE is working with the Kentucky Board of Education who has voiced similar concerns with the assessment results. She said the biggest challenges and the most concerted effort will be focused on improving middle and high schools across the Commonwealth. She said more accountability will be placed on individual students and the types of programs and courses needed in schools to improve student performance.
Representative Moberly said there absolutely has to be more collaboration between the Council on Postsecondary Education (CPE) and the KDE. He said colleges and universities must become involved with the public school system or college readiness will not improve. Ms. Farris said KDE is working with CPE, the Education Professional Standards Board (EPSB), and some university deans to determine future policy and changes that need to be made in Kentucky classrooms. She said they are also discussing teacher preparation at the college level.
Senator Neal said he is almost speechless and is depressed by the results. He realizes that it is a national trend for elementary schools to outperform middle and high schools. He asked if the achievement gaps in Kentucky were also indicative of national trends. Ms. Farris said the achievement gaps in student performance in Kentucky do mirror national data.
Senator Neal asked if there is trending data within the KDE to track if the achievement gaps are narrowing. Mr. Draut said KDE sees achievement gaps closing and all student scores going up, but not fast enough. He said since 1995, all student groups have improved on test scores, but not fast enough to meet the goals in Kentucky.
Senator Neal asked if demographic information had been analyzed to determine the profiles of schools that produce these particular results. Ms. Farris said KDE has that information and Senator Neal asked that the information be disseminated to committee members.
Senator Neal asked if there are schools in the state that are doing a good job of closing the achievement gaps with their students. Ms. Farris said there are some, but there are more schools that have done a very good job with closing the achievement gap with children living in poverty and children not living in poverty. She said fewer schools have been able to close the achievement gap with African-American students, although some elementary schools have done a good job. She will identify the model schools and get the information to Senator Neal.
Senator Neal would like to see what types of methodologies the schools are using that are having more success closing achievement gaps among student populations in comparison to the profile of the school. Ms. Farris said the Blue Ribbon Panel Commission has compiled this type of information and she will get it to committee members. Chairman McGaha asked Ms. Farris to deliver the information to the Education Committee staff and they will distribute it to the members.
Representative Riner asked what percentage of Kentucky’s junior students with learning disabilities applied and received extra time for taking the ACT test. Mr. Draut said they would get the information for him.
Representative Riner asked who is responsible for helping students with disabilities make application to the College Board to receive the extra time. Ms. Sims said each school that administers the ACT follows a process that identifies a test supervisor, a back-up test supervisor, and a test accommodations coordinator. She said the test accommodations coordinator would be the person to complete the necessary paperwork to qualify students to receive extra time on the ACT.
Representative Riner said there is a child psychologist in Jefferson County that has worked with students with disabilities for the past 30 years, and she has been very unsuccessful in obtaining the students extra time to complete the test. The average child psychologist ends up writing 14-18 page reports before extra time is granted. He said it takes a real advocate pushing to get these students the help they need and this has been a real problem for decades. Ms. Sims said if Representative Riner will give her the specifics, she will follow-up with the school and get some assistance.
Representative Graham believes ACT has a guideline that students must have documented in their individual education plans that their disability requires extra time for testing prior to arriving to high school. He also believes input is needed from postsecondary education in order to help design the curriculum to have students prepared for college upon graduation. He reiterated that high school juniors are fatigued from testing when they take the CATS test and do not have an incentive to take it seriously.
Senator McGaha asked Representative Graham if he is suggesting implementing a form of student accountability. Representative Graham said most students feel that they should do well on the ACT because it directly affects in they get into college or not. He feels KERA needs to be reevaluated to see what is working and what is not, and make needed adjustments in the system. He also mentioned the technology advancement that has occurred since KERA.
Senator McGaha announced that due to time constraints the OEA report on Special Education in Kentucky would have to be heard in another meeting. He said if the committee meets in January, he hopes to have OEA on the agenda to give them ample time to share the findings of the report. He also said he has received very positive comments about the report.
Representative Rollins asked why the benchmarks were set so high for science and mathematics. Mr. Draut said the ACT college readiness benchmarks are set by the ACT company based upon comparisons of students who take the ACT in high school and what kind of grades they are making in college a few years later. Representative Rollins asked if Kentucky had any voice in determining the benchmarks, and Mr. Draut said it was strictly the vendor that determines the numbers. Representative Rollins said the benchmarks in science and mathematics seem to be pretty high and the nationwide ACT scores in science and mathematics are well below these benchmarks of 22 and 24. He believes it is wrong minded to indict Kentucky because of not meeting the benchmarks and says it wrong to report that 90 percent of Kentucky students are not receiving an adequate education because of not meeting the benchmarks. He also reminded the committee that the ACT test is designed for seniors, and Kentucky’s students are taking the test a year ahead of time. He said he reminds students that the ACT they take their junior year is practice, and the test they take in the senior year is the pivotal score because more coursework has been completed. He said Kentucky juniors who take the ACT should only be compared to other juniors completing the test nationally, and any other comparison skews the results.
Representative Miller said Kentucky places more emphasis on testing in schools than providing solid education programs. He discussed the advanced program versus the advanced placement program and said good education programs drive student scores higher. The advanced program consisted of elementary, middle, and high school students and was very successful. He said advanced placement only caters to the very elite students and Kentucky needs to focus on improving education for all its students. He also said vocational programs are crucial to the workplace and many of these programs are being eliminated in the schools.
Representative Wuchner said it is time for dramatic reform of the reform. She said the CPE indicates that 35 to 78 percent of Kentucky students enrolling into college need two or more remedial courses. She said stronger language needs to be directed from the General Assembly to require better communication between postsecondary and secondary education.
Representative Collins said more improvements need to be made in the testing window within schools. He said after students complete testing in the spring, they lose motivation to learn for the rest of the school year. He also said students that miss school due to a lot of snow days are at a disadvantage because they do not get the same number of instruction days as other groups, and probably score lower on the assessments. He would like to find solutions to make testing schedules equitable in all schools.
Representative Glenn said the tracking program in the high schools can determine what courses students are allowed to take. He said specific tracking programs can prohibit a student from taking an Algebra class, but this student will still be tested on Algebra on the ACT. Ms. Farris said most schools across the Commonwealth are moving away from tracking systems within schools. She said there are prerequisites or policies within schools that can unintentionally give students access to only certain classes.
Chairman McGaha asked about the eighteen percent increase in the on-demand writing scores. Mr. Draut explained the increase was due to new standards being implemented in on-demand writing for 12th graders. He explained the change brings the system in-line with the changes that occurred between elementary and middle schools in 2007. Chairman McGaha said the 2006-2007 data is not included in the handout and it is hard to see that connection.
Chairman McGaha said the adjusted accountability index calculated with the concordance table was 82.2, and asked if the KDE calculated the number without using the concordance table. Mr. Draut said he would get the information to him.
Chairman McGaha asked Ms. Farris to provide the committee with a progress report of the Task Force on Assessment and Accountability. Ms. Farris said the task force was charged with reviewing Kentucky’s public school assessment and accountability system (CATS) to ensure that it meets the best interests of Kentucky’s public school students. The four goals of the task force are as follows: to keep the trend line from 2008-2014 intact with no major changes; to consider modifying arts and humanities, writing portfolio, on-demand writing, and alternate assessments; to generate a list of potential changes to be considered after 2014; and to develop a legislative package and submit for consideration during the 2009 General Assembly.
Ms. Farris said members were selected to the task force from letters that were sent to major stakeholder groups asking them to choose an individual to serve on the task force. She also said the President of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives were asked to select legislative representation. A complete listing of the members of the task force is provided in the meeting materials located in the Legislative Research Commission (LRC) library.
Ms. Farris said there were a total of seven meetings, ending in November, to allow for the preparation of legislative proposals for the 2009 General Assembly. She gave a brief summary of each of the meetings. The summary is located in the meeting materials in the LRC library.
Ms. Farris said recommendations from the Task Force on Assessment and Accountability include the following: expand a pilot program evaluation model for assessment of the arts; encourage formative assessments; work toward concise standards and balanced assessments; and provide teacher training and preparation related to assessment.
Ms. Farris said Commissioner Draud plans to establish a work group to discuss and make recommendations for the assessment program for 2014 and beyond. She said an Arts and Humanities Program Evaluation will be submitted to the Kentucky Board of Education for possible inclusion in their legislative agenda.
Representative Graham asked why classroom teachers were not included on the task force. Ms. Farris said teachers were represented on the task force by the Kentucky Education Association. Representative Graham felt that actual classroom teachers should have been a part of the task force. Ms. Farris said teachers will be included in the work group that is being formed who will actually be doing the hands-on work.
Chairman McGaha informed the committee that resolutions had been prepared for Senator Brett Guthrie and Representative Milward Dedman who are leaving the committee. Upon a motion by Representative Collins, seconded by Representative Sims, the resolutions were adopted by voice vote.
With no further business before the committee, the meeting adjourned at 3:15 p.m.