Nearly 400 education administrators and teachers gathered in Richmond last week for the Central Kentucky Education Cooperative's first EDUCON conference.
The goal of this gathering was to help instill best practices for educators to use in Kentucky's classrooms. David Morris is the associate director of CKEC.
He said there still some serious hurdles schools have to deal with.
“Teacher attraction and retention, that's partly the purpose of the conference, to make sure teachers understand their value, understand what the profession is, and really understand the ins and outs of it.”
He said that isn't the only problem they are facing. Food insecurity is still a serious problem. He said it is difficult to teach kids when they're hungry, but the Community Eligibility Provision is helping.
“That's been a huge push in allowing students to eat for free, they can't really learn if they aren't fed and have housing and those types of things. So we think this is very viable for them to make sure that they have those basic needs met so they can enter the classroom ready to learn.”
Morris said one of his organization's top priorities is improving teacher recruitment and retention. He said it is important teachers understand their value and fully understand the ins and outs of their profession.
Morris said efforts at the state level to help attract and retain teachers in Kentucky are having a positive effect. He said making sure teachers are fully prepared in the standard subjects is essential to help Kentucky students catch up to neighboring states.
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