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Introduction
Introduction
In the spring of 2021, Jason E. Glass, Ed.D., Kentucky’s commissioner of education and chief learner, staged a series of stakeholder engagement efforts that led to the formation of the Kentucky Coalition for Advancing Education (KCAE). The statewide coalition is a diverse group of stakeholders that includes families, students, teachers, school and district leaders and community members from across the state. Coalition members engaged in an empathy-driven design process to generate profiles of Kentucky education stakeholders, describing how the current school system is not meeting their needs and what it would look like if it were redesigned to fully meet their hopes and expectations.
Using the data derived from this process, coalition teams wrote reports, one called Education in Kentucky: Current State and Vision for the Future, as well as a guidebook for carrying the work forward in local communities. Connecting all three reports together, a team of coalition members developed a learning agenda, a set of questions that state and local communities need to explore and learn about in order to move Kentucky’s education system from the current circumstances to the future vision.
As local coalitions – called Local Laboratories of Learning (L3)– consider new ways of supporting the core goals of student learning and system improvement, it is important to think about the structures within the current system that may need to be modified or discarded because they may no longer serve either or both of these goals appropriately. To help L3 teams to find focus as they begin their local inquiries, we offer a first set of questions and considerations that surfaced from the listening tour and empathy interviews we conducted as well as dimensions of assessment and accountability. It is expected that this document will be revised and amended over time, as new learnings and new questions arise in the work ahead.
What is a Learning Agenda?
What is a Learning Agenda?
A learning agenda includes a set of questions addressing critical knowledge gaps, a set of associated activities to answer them and products aimed at sharing findings that can be applied to future work. A learning agenda can help teams/organizations/communities:
Test and explore assumptions and hypotheses throughout a design process;
Stay open to the possibility that those assumptions and hypotheses need to be revised and iterated upon; and
Make more informed decisions to make their work more impactful.
Taken from the context of the state coalition, the critical knowledge gap to be addressed is reflected in the distance between the current state and future vision for education in the Commonwealth. The writing team reviewed drafts of the current and future state reports, which are organized by symmetrical stakeholders and headlines. The group asked two big questions based on the systemic themes:
What do we need to collectively learn about in order to get to the future vision?
What questions do we need to ask as a state and explore within individual communities?
These questions also can bring clarity and concrete examples to some of the more abstract ideas laid out in the statements describing the future of education in the Commonwealth. During the June design series of meetings of the KCAE, Brian Gong -- a senior associate of the National Center for the Improvement of Educational Assessment -- urged members of local coalitions to not be too constrained by existing designs for state accountability or assessment. As they proceed through local empathy interviewing, data collection and analysis, and prototyping, local coalition members will want to test the statewide themes and perhaps either tailor them or create new themes that will lead to more clearly focused problem statements and pathways to improve the system locally. Local coalitions are encouraged to use the following questions as they examine existing systems based on their analysis of problems and needs locally.
As local coalitions learn in their work together in the creation of an innovative vision for the future of education, we ask that they consider what measurable goals and expectations should exist at the local level and which of these might also be collected statewide. Kentucky Department of Education (KDE) staff and partners like the University of Kentucky Educational Leadership Program, the Center for Innovation in Education (CIE) and the National Center for Innovation in Educational Assessment also will assist in the overall process. As noted by Brian Gong, coalition members are encouraged to not be self-limiting, but rather address known limits through group problem solving. For example, if a community wishes to deal with social-emotional learning (SEL) goals but recognizes that metrics for SEL learning are not readily available, the coalition may examine emergent approaches to this problem. As they make these determinations, they should also use the Accountability Dimensions included at the end of this document.
How might we use this Learning Agenda?
How might we use this Learning Agenda?
The big questions within the shared learning agenda should start deep, ongoing conversations within local communities and across the state. Exploring those questions collectively should bring clarity to some abstract ideas, like sharpening a camera's focus. This inquiry process may reveal existing practices and conditions that others might learn from, or it may reveal blind spots and latent disagreement among stakeholders.
As local coalition members examine the various themes in the chart for relevance to their specific communities, they will consider how they may deepen their understanding of those themes through empathy interviews and other data gathering processes. As L3 teams move to the prototyping phase of this work, they also will consider how a prototype acts as a hypothesis to answer one or some of these learning agenda questions, with accompanying plans for the kinds of evidence they’ll need to gather to test that hypothesis. Using this workbook, L3 teams will capture how they are connecting local empathy and prototyping processes to the learning agenda. KCAE members and KDE staff can observe these local inquiry processes to identify patterns, potential learning relationships between communities, and implications for current and future accountability, assessment and related policy.
The Learning Agenda: Theme by Theme
The Learning Agenda: Theme by Theme
There are a series of charts in this document that list the current and future state themes in the left column and a series of inquiry questions developed by the statewide coalition writing group in the right column. These, in turn, have been placed under two headings, the first, “Deepening Our Understanding,” and the second, “Analyzing System Conditions.” After the chart, a section called “Dimensions of Accountability” gives a series of nine prototypical dimensions of any educational accountability system, which includes a simple definition and a corresponding enquiry.
Reflections and Journaling
Reflections and Journaling
As you make your way through the L3 work, please consider submitting any reflections or thoughts you have as you go along.
NOTE: your response will be FULLY ANONYMOUS and will be visible to the KCAE and L3 community on this site. Your email WILL NOT be shared.
THEME 1
Learners in the Commonwealth will thrive if we …
Move from “random acts of improvement” to common visions, deep partnership and shared responsibility.
Current State:
Stakeholders believe that everyone is trying and everyone is working hard. Students are trying, teachers are trying, families and communities are trying. School and district leaders and KDE all are working hard on behalf of Kentucky’s students. There is a reverence for education and educators in Kentucky.
Future State:
We envision all stakeholders, representing the incredible diversity of Kentucky, feeling more satisfied by their hard work. Educators, district leaders, families, students and communities have had the challenging conversations required to name a set of common aims and coordinate their shared efforts.
Deepening Our Understanding:
What are the barriers to aligning everyone's efforts toward more impactful change?
What are the conditions necessary to have challenging conversations? What is preventing those challenging conversations from happening now?
What factors are necessary to spark co-creation habits among motivated stakeholders?
How can we come to understand and accommodate the unique situations of all stakeholders to create truly collaborative environments?
Analyzing System Conditions:
In what ways does the accountability system contribute to the current state and/or create barriers toward reaching the envisioned future state? Consider the nine Dimensions of Accountability.
THEME 2
Learners in the Commonwealth will thrive if we …
Replace transactional relationships with reciprocal connections between communities and schools.
Current State:
Schools are a hub of community and they could do more to expand relational trust and public trust more globally.
Future State:
We envision the school building as a place for people to learn together, gather and celebrate. School is viewed as “ours” not “mine,” across lines of culture, language and ability. Each school houses a network of trusting relationships that work together to support the success of students and families. This network has mechanisms for genuine accountability for the creation of a trusting, sustaining and effective culture of partnership. Educators and community members alike understand their shared responsibility for creating a culture of trust.
Deepening Our Understanding:
What do reciprocal connections between communities and schools look like? Are there existing examples to learn from?
What contributes to an "us vs. them" environment between schools and communities?
What can be done to encourage positive relationship building from all stakeholders?
How can relationship building be prioritized as core to the job of school staff and district leadership?
How can each school/district ensure community voices are a part of their decision-making processes? How can we prioritize diverse voices in each community?
Analyzing System Conditions:
In what ways does the accountability system contribute to the current state and/or create barriers toward reaching the envisioned future state? Consider the nine Dimensions of Accountability.
THEME 3
Learners in the Commonwealth will thrive if we ...
Move from “command and control” to “systems of trust and partnership.”
Current State:
The culture of schooling does not sufficiently welcome, foster or facilitate the kind of collaboration that might expand trust. The commitment to efficiency, impartiality and authority get in the way of authentic, learner-centered and community-centered collaboration and partnership.
Future State:
We envision education institutions that close the distance between layers of educational hierarchy and foster true partnerships across the community. All members of the community use leadership practices that foster authentic collaboration and group work among diverse stakeholders in ways that are productive and culturally responsive. Individual strengths and differences are valued as essential to effective collaboration. People closest to the work are empowered to create equitable solutions. All levels of the system take on the responsibility of learning from and scaling great ideas and approaches.
Deepening Our Understanding:
What does the education hierarchy look like? Feel like?
What does authentic collaboration look like? Feel like?
How are explicit and implicit definitions of “expertise” used to disempower the people closest to the work?
What incentivizes the kind of efficiency, impartiality and authority that gets in the way of productive partnership?
Are there examples of leaders who are adept at working with diverse stakeholders?
Analyzing System Conditions:
In what ways does the accountability system contribute to the current state and/or create barriers toward reaching the envisioned future state? Consider the nine Dimensions of Accountability.
THEME 4
Learners in the Commonwealth will thrive if we ...
Respond to inequity with a system that responds to the uniqueness of people and places.
Current State:
Inequities in opportunities and outcomes persist, despite the efforts of students, families, educators, system leaders and communities. These inequities exist along lines of geography, identity, language and ability. It is important to learn more about the root causes of these inequities.
Future State:
We envision a Commonwealth where all members of the community understand that every child and family has a unique story, that each story has both strengths and vulnerabilities, and that these stories do not define everything about who they are and what they are capable of. Communities understand the stories of students and families and acknowledge the tremendous challenges that families and students overcome and the strengths that they bring to their work. They all work together to expand opportunity and eliminate the barriers that have inhibited equitable outcomes.
Deepening Our Understanding:
How do current efforts to "close gaps" ignore or uphold the root causes of inequity?
How does responding to the uniqueness of people and places disrupt the root causes of inequity?
Does a deep commitment to equity mean the purpose of school is more than providing education?
How can we have hard conversations about existing inequities without stakeholders getting defensive or shutting down?
How can we use both quantitative and qualitative data to take into account the lived experiences of our students, families and community members?
Analyzing System Conditions:
In what ways does the accountability system contribute to the current state and/or create barriers toward reaching the envisioned future state? Consider the nine Dimensions of Accountability.
THEME 5
Learners in the Commonwealth will thrive if we ...
Know people as more than statistics and involve them in inquiry about inequities.
Current State:
The system doesn’t really know, see or value each stakeholder as an individual. This was as true for students and families as it was teachers and leaders. There are similar feelings from communities that the system doesn’t adequately see, know or value the aspirations, assets and challenges of their community.
Future State:
We envision hallways and classrooms where young people, teachers and families feel comfortable being themselves, being curious and taking some intellectual risks. Communities, local educators and state officials all maintain persistent curiosity about the root causes of gaps in opportunity and achievement. They continue to learn about the felt experience of inequitable access and to update their vision of what the pursuit of equity means. They make ongoing investments of time and other resources to keep learning and devising and testing new approaches with families, local educators and innovators from around the Commonwealth and beyond.
Deepening Our Understanding:
What does it look like to feel seen by a system? For students, families, communities and educators?
How does the current approach to addressing inequity make students feel like statistics? How does that impact the way students relate to school?
How can we incentivize investments in learning about the felt experiences of students, families, communities and educators?
Analyzing System Conditions:
In what ways does the accountability system contribute to the current state and/or create barriers toward reaching the envisioned future state? Consider the nine Dimensions of Accountability.
THEME 6
Learners in the Commonwealth will thrive if we ...
Share information that builds partners in improvement, rather than targets for “shaming and blaming."
Current State:
While there are significant efforts made to communicate and provide students and their families with data that promotes continued learning, few stakeholders feel that communication and feedback are currently promoting shared understanding, mutual trust and partnership.
Future State:
We envision a shift from a system that tabulates, classifies and blames to a system that uses evidence of learning to foster improvement and shared learning at every level. Districts, schools and teachers feel accountable to students and families for student learning. Families and students receive feedback that is accurate and useful, in modes and languages that meet their needs. They trust the information they receive and see local and state educators as trusted partners.
Deepening Our Understanding:
What does it mean to feel accountable to students and families for student learning?
What makes feedback more meaningful and actionable?
How do current tools, practices and platforms inhibit our ability to effectively communicate student progress?
Are there existing assessment practices and processes that are more student- and family-centered?
What constitutes effective lines of communication between stakeholder groups?
How can external stakeholders become involved in the creation of a communication system that works for them?
Analyzing System Conditions:
In what ways does the accountability system contribute to the current state and/or create barriers toward reaching the envisioned future state? Consider the nine Dimensions of Accountability.
THEME 7
Learners in the Commonwealth will thrive if we ...
Create conditions where everyone can fail and improve by learning from one another, instead of competing.
Current State:
The current approach to state and federal accountability and assessment sends a message of distrust, breeds competition and plays a powerful role in making stakeholders feel like numbers or cogs in a machine that is ultimately accountable to state and federal entities.
Future State:
We envision a future where teachers use valuable data sources to support each other to improve, with a sharp lens toward disparities in outcomes. We envision teachers who feel trusted enough to be vulnerable with students and families. Teachers invite students and families into conversation about the data and then into partnership where they learn from one another about the best way to support each young person. Schools examine their data, in partnership with other schools, with the same critical eye toward disparities and the same partnership around solutions. Districts partner with other districts and invite families and communities into creative problem solving about how to better serve students’ needs. The state and federal systems support these local efforts and lead the Commonwealth’s equity-focused agenda by facilitating the spread of good ideas, good work and productive partnerships.
Deepening Our Understanding:
How can data collections give a full picture of students and their abilities?
How can data be communicated in a way that is meaningful and actionable for educators, families and students?
What conditions of the current system incentivize competition?
How is it unsafe to fail within the current system? What policies, conditions, practices and mindsets would need to shift to accommodate failure as part of learning?
Analyzing System Conditions:
In what ways does the accountability system contribute to the current state and/or create barriers toward reaching the envisioned future state? Consider the nine Dimensions of Accountability.
THEME 8
Learners in the Commonwealth will thrive if we ...
Go beyond a narrow set of subjects, and create pathways that facilitate individual fulfillment AND collective prosperity.
Current State:
There is a hunger for schools to help students pursue and feel valued in pursuing a broader range of pathways toward professional, civic, financial and personal independence.
Future State:
We envision a future where students, schools and communities understand that individual fulfillment is a component of collective prosperity. Schools regularly partner with communities to support a broad range of professional, civic, cultural and financial learning opportunities that contribute to personal independence and community prosperity.
Deepening Our Understanding:
How can schools provide support for all paths after graduation?
How can students be empowered in finding their unique paths?
Are there examples of schools partnering with communities to provide a range of professional, civic, cultural and financial learning opportunities?
What constrains or incentivizes community partnerships for learning opportunities like these?
How do we understand the relationship between schools and community prosperity?
Analyzing System Conditions:
In what ways does the accountability system contribute to the current state and/or create barriers toward reaching the envisioned future state? Consider the nine Dimensions of Accountability.
THEME 9
Learners in the Commonwealth will thrive if we ...
Make assessments go beyond a snapshot of a child to reflect what communities need to cultivate learning.
Current State:
There is a hunger for local accountability and assessment systems that see a more full picture of each student, and value the investment teachers and school leaders and local boards make in providing relevant, personal and joyful learning opportunities to each young person in their community.
Future State:
We envision a future where communities have developed a vision for student success and community prosperity that expands the pathways to success made visible to students and their families, and inspires deep partnership and a shared responsibility for improvement. Assessment systems help students, communities and schools feel known in their full context and valued for their full range of assets and capabilities. Assessments help educators maintain a deep focus on improving outcomes for those who have been least served without constraining the outcomes we value to those we can most easily measure by standardized tests. The statewide system cultivates and honors local visions for success and local processes for improvement, and supports communities to learn from each other in meaningful ways. The citizens of Kentucky understand the connection and value of the educational system to generating prosperity, and understand the current strength of that relationship.
Deepening Our Understanding:
What do we value as the most important skill(s) students can leave us with? What is most important in today's world?
Who gets to participate in articulating local visions for success?
What assessment practices and processes most authentically support broader definitions of success?
What needs to be common across the state and what can be unique in local systems of assessment and accountability?
How can credibility and acceptance be brought to a new accountability system that uses different kinds of measures and designs?
Analyzing System Conditions:
In what ways does the accountability system contribute to the current state and/or create barriers toward reaching the envisioned future state? Consider the nine Dimensions of Accountability.
THEME 10
Learners in the Commonwealth will thrive if we ...
Don’t go “back to normal” - embrace the hard questions and answer them as united communities.
Current State:
The hardship of COVID has created a strong appetite among stakeholders to reflect on what we have been doing and imagine and move toward a better future.
Future State:
We envision a future where communities have asked the hard questions and included all the stakeholders in answering them. They have moved forward, and not back. . Moreover, they have practiced collaborating with their community and are becoming fluent at the practices of ongoing collaboration and co-creation with the communities they serve.
Deepening Our Understanding:
What leadership dispositions are needed to ask hard questions, reflect and include more voices in the conversation? How are those dispositions similar or different from what the current system identifies and rewards as leadership?
How are we encouraging teachers and schools to be bold and to push for change from the normal? Are we truly empowering them to do things differently?
What might we learn from current policies that include “community engagement” and “family engagement” that often look more like compliance exercises in practice (e.g., Title I and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act)?
How might a system recognize authentic, high-quality community engagement?
Analyzing System Conditions:
In what ways does the accountability system contribute to the current state and/or create barriers toward reaching the envisioned future state? Consider the nine Dimensions of Accountability.
9 Dimensions of Accountability
9 Dimensions of Accountability
During the June KCAE design phase, the statewide coalition considered nine Dimensions of Accountability throughout the sessions. This was done to start member inquiry by creating some distance from current accountability system designs and also to prototype a framework for consideration as new systems are developed. The following dimensions were considered:
Identity: An individual’s sense of self defined by (a) a set of physical, psychological and interpersonal characteristics that is not wholly shared with any other person; and (b) a range of affiliations (e.g., ethnicity) and social roles. In terms of accountability, how does a learner centered system “see” each learner, each family? How does the system interact with learners and families?
Community: A social group whose members have something in common, such as a shared government, geographic location, culture, perspective, profession or heritage. How do schools and districts support and foster local communities and communities of learners?
Comparability: A statistical means used to determine how similar a performance of one person is to another person and how it might be consistently compared. In a new accountability design, what will be seen as comparable? How will it be measured?
Prioritization: A process of determining the level of importance and urgency of an element within the system. In new learning models, what and who will be prioritized? How will local priorities be factored across the state?
Evolution: A process of change that takes place over time. When does a learner-centered system adapt and when does it strive for consistency?
Improvement: The process of enhancing learning in terms of quality and/or quantity. In new educational models, how will system improvement be identified and measured?
Timing: In this context, identifies when performance will be measured. How often and when will system measures be collected?
Consequences: Are actions taken, in terms of rewards or punishments, based on performance? To whom and in what means will there be consequences for system measures?
Stakes: The degree to which there are consequences levied due to performance. What leverage to support improvement and change will be used in new systems of accountability?
Local coalition members are encouraged to use these dimensions as a set of lenses as they think about new systems of assessment and accountability, in concert with the problem-based themes found earlier in the document. The intent is to provide additional perspectives on system design and sharpen focus on what matters as prototypes are envisioned, developed and tested over time.
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