Committee moves responsibility for teacher-program evaluation to EPSB in HB 251

FRANKFORT — The Kentucky House Postsecondary Education Committee on Oct. 12 passed House Bill 251, a cleanup measure that designates the Education Professional Standards Board as the primary entity responsible for evaluating educator preparation programs and for reporting those evaluations to the Legislative Research Commission. Representative Emily Callaway, sponsor of HB 251, presented the bill and said the change aligns evaluation responsibility with the board that oversees education preparation programs.

"This language would change the responsibility from the council on postsecondary education in collaboration with EPSB to EPSB as the primary party for that evaluation," Representative Emily Callaway said. She told the committee the change mirrors expectations placed on EPSB in other literacy and numeracy alignment work.

The bill was described as a technical cleanup tied to last year’s Kentucky Numeracy Counts bill, which required educator-preparation alignment with K–12 numeracy efforts and an evaluation report to the Legislative Research Commission. Callaway said making EPSB the primary evaluator aligns the work with existing oversight for educator-preparation programs.

After brief discussion the committee moved to a roll-call vote. A majority of members voted in favor; Chair Tipton cast the chair’s aye. The committee reported the bill with a favorable recommendation to the full House.

The committee record indicates the change is intended to align EPSB’s existing oversight responsibilities with statutory evaluation and reporting requirements coming out of recent literacy and numeracy initiatives. The bill summary in the committee packet points readers to page 4 for the specific statutory edits.