(FRANKFORT, Ky.) – During the annual Continuous Improvement Summit in Lexington on Sept. 20, the Kentucky Department of Education (KDE) recognized six schools, one district and one educational cooperative for best practices.

Commissioner of Education Stephen Pruitt publicly recognized the winners and presented each with a $500 check that can be used toward school improvement.

“We have some great work going on in our schools and districts,” Pruitt said. “Continuous improvement is about finding more effective and efficient ways of doing things and that’s exactly what these educators have done. We don’t have to reinvent the wheel, but need to take the opportunity to learn from each other,” he said. “We appreciate the initiative taken by our winning educators and their commitment to finding ways to improve student learning.”

Those recognized along with their best practices were:

  • Southern High School: Literacy Across the Content
  • Perry County Schools: District Calibration Walkthroughs-Creating Next Steps
  • Frederick Law Olmsted Academy North: Collaboratively Improving Learning Targets and Common Formative Assessments to Improve Academic Response to Intervention
  • Bullitt Alternative Center: Positive Transitions in the Alternative Setting
  • Franklin Simpson High School: Walkthrough Data Used for Continuous Improvement
  • Hopkins County Central High School: Stop, Drop, and Walk
  • Northern Kentucky Cooperative: Regional Professional Learning Communities (PLCs)
  • Seneca High School: The PLC Process…Aligning Standards, Targets and Assessments

Any Kentucky teacher, school or district may submit a best practice to KDE for consideration. A team of content experts reviews the submission against standards for school improvement and rates it Beginning, Developing, Proficient or Advanced. Feedback is provided to strengthen the submitted initiative and accepted practices are added to the Best Practices website for others to access as a means of improvement.

“The Best Practices website is a way to share work that not only recognizes those engaged in it, but also allows others in the state to learn from it and improve their practice in support of student learning and college/career-readiness for all of our students,” Pruitt said.

To date, more than 150 best practices that cover varying areas of school operations have been posted to the website. These can be accessed by going here, and searching “Best Practices.”

More than 600 educators attended the 2016 Continuous Improvement Summit, which is sponsored by AdvanceED Kentucky in cooperation with the Kentucky Department of Education.