The Measures of Quality is a local accountability system developed by Fleming County Schools, as a member of the Kentucky Department of Education’s L3 Coalition. Fleming County Schools is one (1) of the first seven (7) school districts selected to create, pilot, and lead the work around designing and implementing a graduate profile and a local accountability system. The concept of a local accountability system is nothing new; however, the system designed by Fleming County Schools in partnership with Cognia, is groundbreaking work, by all definitions.
As educators, educational leaders, and practitioners in one of the most exciting and demanding times in the history of public education in Kentucky and throughout the nation, the Measures of Quality go further than most local accountability systems. For nearly a decade, Fleming County Schools and Cognia have partnered to transform learning within the school district, with a laser focus on continuous improvement. It should come as no surprise that once again; continuous improvement is embedded into the district’s strategic local accountability work.
Through the district’s extensive work around understanding high-performing organizations across multiple sectors, the Measures of Quality not only focuses on student growth and learning, but also on the quality of the: learning environment, systematic processes across the district, and engagement of stakeholders. With the understanding that student success is a result of many factors, the Measures of Quality evaluates the quality across the district, with a focus on improving student access, experience, opportunity, and outcome.
Using national and international performance standards for high-performing organizations created by Cognia’s extensive research, a focus on local accountability takes on a new meaning. Local accountability is not solely about reporting and sharing data and information with stakeholders. It should also be about engaging stakeholders in meaningful ways throughout the accountability and quality improvement process. The Measures of Quality does not just report data. It is also a process, a collection of systems, that includes continuous improvement, process management, and a high level of transparency throughout.
In the spring of 2022, Fleming County Schools piloted the Measures of Quality process with remarkable success. Though successful, through this piloting journey, school, and district administrators also experienced setbacks, obstacles, and detours. In other words, they grew themselves, while also improving key quality indicators throughout the district. The experiences from the spring positioned the district to make key improvements to the local accountability system. By partnering with Cognia, tools, and processes used by the district have a rich research base and data collection, analysis, and display which are more efficient, streamlined, and targeted toward quality of the overall environment and process of learning throughout Fleming County Schools.