The Kentucky Department of Education (KDE) will provide tools to analyze resource decisions to improve school districts’ operational processes and free resources to invest in the work of Senate Bill 1 through the Performance Excellence Connection Project.

The “Kentucky Best Practices” website is a component of the project, and it will enable school districts to share solutions to common operational issues. Best practices and promising approaches may be submitted by superintendents, principals, finance officers, directors of pupil personnel, district assessment coordinators and others in management roles. These electronic submissions will be reviewed by trained reviewers, then approved submissions will be posted and catalogued so every school and district leader can easily search for successful processes and network with others facing similar challenges.

The website address and more information on how to use it will be released soon.

Also, in collaboration with the Kentucky School Boards Association (KSBA), the Kentucky Association of School Superintendents (KASS), the Kentucky Association of School Administrators (KASA), the Kentucky Chamber of Commerce and the Kentucky Center for Performance Excellence, KDE is planning a one-day conference on “Improving Productivity in Kentucky Schools and Districts” in Louisville on Sept. 9. Every district can send a team of three to the conference, and a school board member may be a member of those teams. National experts will speak on education productivity, and Kentucky education leaders who have submitted best practices for the new website will share approaches that have worked for them. More details on the conference will come soon.