By Education Commissioner Terry Holliday

At the August Kentucky Board of Education (KBE) meeting, my annual evaluation was completed. Over the past month I have seen that many local boards and superintendents are completing the same process. The KBE has also expressed an interest in local board evaluations.

Over the past two years I have mentioned the issue of superintendent evaluations on numerous occasions at speeches and in my weekly blogs. This is a perfect time for local boards and superintendents to look carefully at the goals and measures for superintendent evaluation and local school board self-evaluation of key processes.

I would strongly recommend a couple of components that will be included in my evaluation. My evaluation for the 2011-12 school year will continue to include relationship building as evidenced by district/school visits and connections with the General Assembly. Also, my 2011-12 goals will include specific measures for student achievement.

The AFGR should increase to 78 percent, and the college/career readiness rate is to increase to 40 percent. Every superintendent and local school board chair signed the Commitment to College and Career Readiness that provided a trajectory for reaching our state goal of 67 percent of graduates college/career ready by 2015. I hope those specific targets will be used for superintendent and local school board goals.

Over the past few months we have been promoting strategies to help reach these specific targets. One strategy is college/career advising, and specifically, we are promoting Operation Preparation week. Another strategy is a required strategy of targeted interventions. We hope every 9th grader, 11th grader and high school senior who did not meet EXPLORE, PLAN or ACT benchmarks is being provided with targeted interventions to ensure college and career readiness.