The Kentucky Department of Education will host a virtual technical assistance session open to vendors whose mission is to provide design, consulting and policy services to local education agencies (school districts) to assist them in making transformational change.

This session will be open to any education vendors who would be interested in learning more about the Local Laboratories of Learning (L3) work, expectations for participating vendors and the application process. Following the session, attendees will be provided a competitive application in order to be considered as a potential member of the L3 Partner Collaborative.

The session will be held virtually via Microsoft Teams at 1-2 p.m. ET on Nov. 3. Email Sarah Snipes if you are interested in attending the technical assistance session.

Local Laboratories of Learning
The heart of this initiative is to move the conversation about learning, assessment and accountability from the state and federal systems to the local level. Local coalitions will be created that mirror the radically inclusive membership of the Kentucky Coalition for Advancing Education and will be focused on a design process that looks at what the local community sees as the “profile” of their local graduate. What does the local community believe their graduates need?

Beginning in the fall of 2021, these local coalitions will begin their design process with the intent to co-create – with the state – a new equitable, learner-centered education system. These local coalitions will be the L3s. Each one of these L3s will be co-led by the superintendent of the local school district and a prominent community leader (i.e. mayor, county judge or Chamber president). They will be supported by the Kentucky Department of Education (KDE), the Center for Innovation in Education and the University of Kentucky’s Next Generation Leadership Network.

L3 Partner Collaborative
As an additional level of support for the L3s, these local coalitions should have at their disposal the support of leading education partners from around the country. These partners will provide design, consulting and policy services to school districts to assist them in making transformational change.

The concept is one of a collaborative or clearinghouse of partners. This collaborative will include a web presence that provides an information page for each partner and their areas of expertise. As the L3s identify needs during their design and prototyping process, KDE will work with the partners to match partners or a combination of partners to address the needs of the school districts.

This collaborative also can be thought of as a clearinghouse for providers. Each approved partner would receive a small amount of funding upon approval. Then as needs arise, funds would flow to the partners identified to meet a specific need. KDE would require the submission of a short application to ensure there are a diversity of partners that covers a spectrum of services, such as:

  • Innovative Assessment Design
  • Innovative Accountability Design
  • Innovative Instructional Design
  • Innovative Learning Credentialing Design
  • Community-Based Partnerships Design
  • Innovative Professional Learning Design<
  • Equitable Learning System Design
  • Innovative Policy Design

Email Sarah Snipes if your organization is interested in attending the L3 Partner Collaborative technical assistance and informational session.