Despite the challenges that Kentucky educators confront, Kentucky schools and Kentucky students continue to show progress and improvement. An excellent example of this progress is the improvement in Kentucky’s overall rank as determined by the National Education Index. According to this ranking system, Kentucky moved from 43rd in 1992 to 34th in 2005 compared to other states in the nation. The Kentucky Long Term Policy Research Center notes that Kentucky is also high in the national ranking for cost-effective educational spending.
Data from the National Center of Education Statistics shows that there were 683,173 students and 43,371 teachers in schools across Kentucky during the 2006-2007 school year, leading to a 15.8:1 student teacher ratio. This is slightly higher than the 15.5:1 national average. The average salary for teachers teaching in Kentucky in 2008 is $46,417 and Kentucky ranks 11th in the nation for the number of new nationally certified teachers.
Kentucky has several improvement plans in place to improve the educational environment for teachers and students, including an Instructional Support Network. Prospective teachers looking to work in larger school districts may want to consider some of Kentucky’s more populated cities, such as Louisville, Owensboro, Lexington or Bowling Green.
Kentucky Teacher Requirements
The future of teaching in Kentucky is filled with nice things about to happen. The new US president has taken an interest in public education and plans to implement changes that are designed to increase the quality of learning experiences in the classroom
New proposed presidential plan ideas have included better pay for educators, longer classroom hours to help with learning, and an increase in advertising campaigns designed to attract better public school funding. With better pay, better learning conditions, and a chance for better funding, public education in Kentucky will be better in the future.
As our ‘No Child Left Behind’ era is fading into the history books, exciting new roads are opening up to all who are teaching in Kentucky. College incentives programs are already in place to help in attracting qualified people into the Kentucky teaching industry. Adding additional resources for teachers to utilize in the future is timely and necessary to the success of public education in this country.
Kentucky has internal problems related to teachers being available in the state. Like in other areas of the country, when public education is not producing enough BA degree holders to enter into the career of teaching, qualified educators must be imported into the state to fill classroom needs. Qualified teachers are in high demand today, and this demand will continue into the future to create job security for educators in Kentucky.