The first public draft of the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) is now available at the NGSS website http://www.nextgenscience.org/. The standards will be open for public comments through June 1. Individuals who wish to provide comments on the public draft are encouraged to review the Framework for K-12 Science Education or the Framework report brief on the National Academy of Sciences website. 

Grant Applications Due May 24th.

Click on the following link to review the Requests for Applications. 

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The Kansas State Department of Education has submitted its ESEA Flexibility Request for waivers from certain provisions of the No Child Left Behind Act to the U.S. Department of Education. We’re excited about the proposed changes which
shift the focus from making Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) to preparing students to be college and career ready by the time they graduate from Kansas high schools.

Thank you to everyone who provided input and feedback in developing the request. The U.S. Department of Education will conduct a peer review of each State’s submission in late March and then work with the states regarding any changes that need to be made. Later this spring, KSDE will host webinars and send information to the field to help in understanding the flexibility request. Questions may be directed to waiver@ksde.org. 

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Discipline reports for local school districts and the state are now easier to find.  Just look for "Discipline Reports" under the most requested topics drop down box on the KSDE homepage, or on the Data, Media and Reports page.  By following those links, you can get information on in-school and out-of-school suspensions and expulsions by incident type.  The discipline information is available at the building level by accessing K-12 reports under quick links on the School Finance page.  Find the school you're interested in under the "schools" tab and choose the discipline report under the school statistics. 

Final regulations amending the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) have been published in the Federal Register. Effective Jan. 3, 2012, the regulations offer greater flexibility to states to share data that can be helpful in judging the effectiveness of educational programs, while maintaining safeguards to student privacy. Learn more about FERPA and the regulation changes at the USDOE’s Family Policy Compliance Office website. 

Kansas educators can gain easy access to a variety of free digital resources through the Kansas State Department of  Education’s Open Education Resources website. Open Education Resources (OER) provides links to digital textbooks, E-books and thousands of free online books, as well as links to resources for the visually impaired. All of the resources on OER are in the public domain and can be customized and modified to fit individual needs, or combined with other materials. These resources are ideal for teaching, learning, research and more. Check out the Open Education
Resources webpage today!
 

Kansas Educator Evaluation Project
Updates and information regarding this project can be found here. 

http://www.ksde.org/Default.aspx?tabid=2583#waiver 

The newly redesigned K-12 reports provides information for any
county, school district, or school in the state of Kansas. 

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