(FRANKFORT, Ky.) – The first meeting of Kentucky’s accountability work groups will be July 14 starting at 10 a.m. ET at the Early College and Career Center (EC3), 200 University Drive in Elizabethtown.

The groups will begin work on the design of various elements of a new school accountability system under the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) – the new federal law governing public education. Each group will focus on a specific area of the system.

  • Assessment – will consider how Kentucky’s new accountability system should measure academic achievement for all students.
  • College- and Career-Readiness – will consider how college- and career-readiness should be defined and measured in Kentucky’s new accountability model
  • Educational Innovations – will consider what new and innovative approaches could be integrated into Kentucky’s new accountability model.
  • Opportunity and Access – will consider how Kentucky’s new accountability model can measure equal opportunity for all students to a well-rounded education.
  • School Improvement – will consider how our new accountability model can incentivize continuous improvement for all schools.

All groups will consider overarching themes such as how to close the achievement gap.

Each work group will make recommendations to the Accountability Steering Committee, which will in turn make recommendations on the overall system to Commissioner of Education Stephen Pruitt.

The public will have an opportunity for feedback on the proposed system before it is finalized. The Kentucky Board of Education must approve any changes in the accountability system.

The current timeline calls for the new system to be in place for the 2017-18 school year.