Staff report

The Kentucky Association of School Superintendents (KASS) is launching an initiative designed to strengthen the leadership capacity of the state’s 173 top district administrators.

KASS Executive Director Tom Shelton announced establishment of the “Kentucky Superintendent’s Academy” last week during the KASS annual conference in Lexington.’

The Academy, to be created through a partnership with the National Institute for School Leadership, will involve a two-year program of study based on leadership research from another organization, the National Center on Education and the Economy. Over the 24-month period, participating superintendents will attend 18 days of face-to-face instruction with additional time to be spent on online research and self study.

Up to 50 superintendents are being sought to volunteer for the first class of the academy.

In a statement, Shelton said, “The framework and design for the Academy will stem from the research’s conclusions as to the most critical factors for highly effective schools, examined through global, state (particularly the Every Student Succeeds Act), and local contexts. The expected outcome is that superintendents will plan and begin the coherent redesign (or refinement) of their district’s systemic structures and policies aligned to the research findings and expressed through a comprehensive Action Learning Process.”

In the “Action Learning Process,” superintendents will develop a proposal that is single or multi-district in scope, supported by specifically designed seminars and learning walks in regional schools, reviewed and vetted by peers, state leaders, and national NISL facilitators, developed with the engagement of wider stakeholders for consensus building in the districts and integrated with the district’s overall strategic plan.

Class participants will formally make a formal presentation on their projects at the conclusion of the course.

According to the KASS statement, in each of the two years, participants will be expected to

1. Attend a three-day summer session and three 2-day sessions during the school year

2. Complete face-to-face and independent study involving analysis of core curriculum texts, case studies, lectures via video, and of a gap analysis of KY compared to other states and countries, and

3. Participate in the cohort Community of Practice via face-to-face and online discussion and collaborative problem solving.

Shelton said the target audience for the Academy will be veteran superintendents and the initiative would complement training provided to first-term district chief executives in the New Superintendent Leadership Series, a program operated by the Kentucky Association of School Administrators and the Kentucky Department of Education.