Full Description
Empowering leaders at each level of the implementation of improvement processes is essential if public schools are to survive moving forward. The story of Kentucky's continuous improvement can be evidenced from the Kentucky Education Reform Act (KERA) of 1990, and the intensive systems work since 2009 outlined in Senate Bill 1 and amended by House Bill 176 (2010). Even with a significantly different governance and support approach outlined in Senate Bill 1 (2017) by aligning federal statute regulation and initiatives, state statute and regulation, state school board goals, local school board policies and school improvement plans, a consistent message of expectation is clarified for schools and classrooms. Key core work processes aligned behind those policies lead to systems that can be flexible and adjust to the political and economic climates that surround the work of learning without total disruption of the system. The use of transparent design and common instruction while monitoring quality tools is making a recognizable difference. Funding from the sometimes-maligned School Improvement Grant (SIG) process from the United States Department of Education and work with key partners enables the establishing of sustainable systems for continuous improvement in the areas of planning, use of data, fiscal management, student support, and teacher support owned by leaders at each level of implementation. The pertinent data and reports, the human story, the tools used, and lessons learned are a continuous improvement story into sustainability which will resonate with all who lead in education at any level reaffirming that we can do this!
Contents
Forward- Terry K. Holliday, PhD former Kentucky Commissioner of Education
Preface
Acknowledgements
Introduction
Part I. A National Context and How Sustainability Can Be Built and Measured
Chapter 1: A Perspective on Status of Low Performing Schools Intervention
Chapter 2: The Empowering Information and Data
Mass Insight
District 180 School Data
TELL Survey
National Recognition
Part II. The Kentucky Reality of Designing, Deploying and Monitoring Systems
Chapter 3: The Backstory. State Legislation
Chapter 4: Needs Assessment, Research, Visionary Leadership, A Plan
Chapter 5: From Theory into Action - Two Stories
Part III. Strategies and Tools to Empower for Sustainability
Chapter 6: State Strategies and Support
Technology Platform
Diagnostic Review Process
Alignment of Federal/State Laws and Regulations with Requirements
30-60-90 Day Planning
The Art of System Questioning/Data Questions
Professional Learning Communities
Use of PDSA Improvement Process
Special Two-Way Partnerships
Chapter 7: Building a Culture of Continuous Improvement Through Application of Quality Tools
Part IV. Case Studies and Lessons Learned with Continued Challenges
Chapter 8: Case Studies
A small rural high school and a district without capacity to support it
Two rural school districts with re-starts
A large urban traditional high school
The largest district in the state with the most priority schools
Chapter 9: Lessons Learned with Continued Challenges
Appendices
Sustainability Plan Example30-60-90 Day Plan Example A Guide for Using the Data QuestionsPLC Tools/TemplatesPDSA Examples-State multi-year, District and templateQuality tools-plus/delta and linkage examplesHUB School informationGlossary: The Letters Unscrambled
Bibliography
About the Authors
