KSDE Weekly

Feature Story

Posted: Oct 17, 2024
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From a young age, Rolanda Root has loved art. In fact, she remembers arriving early to kindergarten and drawing while she waited for her classmates to arrive. 

“Art provides an outlet and peace,” she said. 

Root teaches 2-D art (drawing, painting, etc.) at Pittsburg High School, Pittsburg Unified School District 250. In her fifth year at the school, Root teaches alongside Rebecca Lomshek, who teaches 3-D art (sculptures, ceramics, pottery, etc.) and said their art classes are full.  

“Our enrollment shows (the students) really enjoy the art program also,” Root said.   

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Posted: Oct 17, 2024
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Kansas school administrators and staff are entrusted to provide a safe and healthy learning environment for approximately 500,000 Kansas students. America’s Safe Schools Week, running from Oct. 20-26, 2024, is an opportunity to review or enhance districts’ crisis plans.  

In honor of America’s Safe Schools Week, the Kansas State Department of Education encourages each district to set aside time that week to review key safety responsibilities. 

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Posted: Oct 17, 2024
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The Kansas State Department of Education’s (KSDE) information technology staff will be gradually phasing in the Kansas Education Data System (KEDS) as a modernized, more parallel system for student data collection during the 2024-25 school year. 

Over the course of the next few months, KSDEweekly will feature a series of stories about aspects of the migration to KEDS from the current Kansas Individual Data on Students (KIDS) system. 

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Posted: Oct 10, 2024
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Our educators and students continue to work hard to recover from COVID-19, Kansas Education Commissioner Randy Watson said this week when summing up the 2023-24 annual report prepared by the Kansas State Department of Education. 

“We’re progressing in our post-pandemic recovery process,” he said. “That’s the good news. COVID set us back but we’re still on target.” 

More specifically, Watson said incremental progress is being made on one of the Kansas State Board of Education’s goals to move more students out of the lowest level of reading on the spring state assessments. 

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Posted: Oct 10, 2024
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Members of the Kansas State Board of Education received the 2023-24 annual report prepared by the Kansas State Department of Education during the board’s October meeting this week in Topeka. 

Kansas Education Commissioner Randy Watson presented the report to board members, which includes the results of the 2024 state assessments in reading and math.  

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