On Oct. 24, 1965, Thomas Woods-Tucker became the youngest of 11 children and the first to be delivered in a hospital. It didn’t take long for Woods-Tucker to face the world he was born into – Cotton Plant, Ark., in the thick of the civil rights era.
Less than 24 hours after his birth, the doctor who delivered Woods-Tucker and nurses came into the hospital room to inform Ernest and Rena Woods-Tucker that they and their two-month premature and just under 4-pound baby would have to leave. Other families were uncomfortable with their presence.
Three superintendents from around Kentucky and the leaders of their local health departments compared COVID-19 experiences during the Oct. 13 Special Superintendents’ Webcast. All agreed that close cooperation between schools, health authorities and local officials are essential to controlling outbreaks.
Kentucky Commissioner of Education and Chief Learner Jason E. Glass said the atmosphere of COVID-19 decision-making was chaotic at first, as there was much about the disease that was not understood. The situation has moved into a more complex phase as different strategies are tried and people share information, he said.
The Kentucky Department of Education released annual School Report Card data on Oct. 14, as required by statute and under the federal Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA).
Due to Kentucky’s COVID-19 Assessment Waiver Request to the U.S. Department of Education, the majority of state testing and accountability calculations for the 2019-2020 school year were suspended. This resulted in limited assessment and no accountability data.
The mission of GoTeachKY, an initiative of the Kentucky Department of Education, is to ensure that all students across the Commonwealth have equitable access to effective educators. GoTeachKY seeks to recruit the next generation of teachers in Kentucky, helping remedy the critical teacher shortage that affects every state in the U.S.
Ambassadors were selected from a pool of applicants across the state who answered the call for teachers interested in supporting the initiative and helping promote the teaching profession.
