Kentucky Commissioner of Education Robbie Fletcher
As we kick off 2025, the Kentucky Department of Education (KDE) will continue building off the momentum we have gathered on several different initiatives. We will need your input on many of the projects we are working on to make sure we are moving forward with the best options for our children.
Assessment and accountability reform has been a top priority for the department, and we will continue efforts to create a new framework that is more meaningful to our students and communities. The Kentucky United We Learn Council has done a tremendous job fostering conversations about innovative approaches to measuring student success with a wide variety of community stakeholders.
As part of our continued effort to incorporate as many voices into this process as we can, we are planning a series of town halls across the state in January. I hope these town halls will be a space for myself and leadership to listen and learn from educators, students, families and community members on what they would like to see come from this framework. More details, including dates and locations, can be found on the Assessment and Accountability Prototype Resources webpage.
Your input is valued and important as we work together to build a prosperous Kentucky for all. I want to emphasize how much we want to hear from you to ensure at our assessment and accountability system is meaningful and accurately reflects the skills our students need to find success in their lives.
Beyond these town halls, I will say the work being done through the Kentucky United We Learn Council excites me for the future of education in the Commonwealth. Members have been adapting to the feedback they have received on various prototypes they have developed and are narrowing down what Kentuckians really want to see in the new assessment and accountability framework. I have had numerous conversations about the impact this work will have on our students, our educators and our communities, and I couldn’t be more optimistic about where our progress is taking us.
Another one of my own personal priorities as commissioner is the Support Education Excellence in Kentucky (SEEK) funding program, a system that has been around for more than three decades now. The SEEK funding program is a formula-driven allocation of state-provided funds to local school districts. It includes funding for transportation costs and special needs students as reported by districts.
When I began my tenure as commissioner last summer, I had several conversations about SEEK and specific parts of it, including transportation funding and Tier 1 funding. Because of these conversations, we decided to host a roadshow with members of KDE’s Office of Finance and Operations to break down the funding formula and discuss how local issues impact formula inputs and overall funding.
SEEK becomes more effective as we put more funds into it, and thankfully, lawmakers have boosted funding to the program in recent years. There are certainly many issues with the program though and potentially some areas to change with SEEK. We are dedicated to hearing from you about these issues and listening to the issues affecting each district, because each part of Kentucky has its own unique challenges to overcome. We hosted a couple of these roadshow events in December and the conversation was lively, so I hope and expect that to continue.
Our partners at Kentucky’s education cooperatives have truly been gamechangers for us with these meetings, agreeing to host them and take part in the conversations that are critical for their communities, and we are beyond thankful for them.
We are also thankful for you and the voice you bring to the conversations we are having about how to best serve our students and our families. KDE plans to work together with our districts, schools and communities on as many projects as possible in the future. Even though we often serve in a regulatory role, we produce the best results when our work is done in partnership with you.
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