Kentucky: Incorporating best practice into teacher professional development

Came across an oldie-but-goodie (okay, not so oldie but still a goodie) in terms of teacher professional development, including in literacy. Kentucky 2009 S.B. 1 requires that K-12 professional development programs be made available to teachers based on teachers needs (rather than areas of interest that do not necessarily address student needs), and must include:

• Strategies to provide continuous progress
• Providing differentiated instruction
• Assessment literacy
• Integrating performance-based student assessment into daily classroom instruction.

The legislation as it previously stood permitted but did not mandate professional development in phonics. The 2009 amendments recast this passage to require that professional development programs (again, not just for primary grades teachers, but for K-12 teachers and based on need) include "instruction in reading", including not just phonics but also phonemic awareness, comprehension, fluency and vocabulary.