(FRANKFORT, KY) – Members of the Kentucky Department of Education’s (KDE’s) State Advisory Council for Gifted and Talented Education (SACGTE) gave input on the agency’s strategic plan and dashboard during their meeting on April 24.
Susan Strange, strategic plan program manager at KDE, gave information on KDE’s strategic plan for 2024-2029 and KDE’s Strategic Dashboard.
The dashboard shows eight goals for helping improve education throughout the state. Five of those goals are customer or stakeholder-focused. Those goals are to reimagine assessment and accountability, reduce chronic absenteeism, improve early literacy, improve early numeracy and expand recruitment of qualified educators.
The other three goals are internal to improving KDE. They are to improve customer satisfaction, improve organizational process awareness and build leadership capacity.
Strange asked council members for feedback on the dashboard, including how they would use it and whether there’s anything they would suggest including in the dashboard. She gave an example of possibly including district spotlights that feature districts doing exceptional work in a specific area related to the objectives on the dashboard.
Council member Sade McKnight, a principal representative, said she thought district spotlights would be a great idea to showcase what goes on in different areas and believed that her district could use the dashboard to align their goals.
“I think (district spotlights) would be something that would be wonderful to showcase progress across the state,” McKnight said. “Looking at this dashboard, I think that it’s extremely helpful. I’m in (Jefferson County Public Schools) and the district provides us specific goals; … I’m assuming that the district derives their goals from the state. But I certainly see myself using this with my team just so that we can maybe be a step above since we have access to the information.”
Council member Jessica Hastings, a parent representative, said she thought the data was helpful and asked how parents of gifted and talented students can use the dashboard.
Strange said that she would use the dashboard to connect the priorities of the state to where local schools stand. For example, parents could look at their school’s report card and compare it to the state’s goals in different areas.
“(I would) maybe even start looking at some of those resources that the state provides and then say, ‘Does my district use these or could they use these?’” Strange said. “Then maybe be an advocate for trying to help the district implement some of those resources.”
In other news:
- Council members approved the list of their three main priorities for 2026-2027 with minor changes to the language from the previous year. The priorities are parent/legal guardian engagement and transparency, awareness and opportunity, and teacher and school support.
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