By Terry Holliday, Ph.D. and Susan Allred   

It seems simple enough. All states need to do to meet the challenge of college and career readiness for all students is to align all the systems that support the goal. After all, systems alignment is a business principle that has been recognized as effective for decades. Schools should be able to do that. Shouldn’t we?

Continuous Improvement Approach
In Kentucky, the process of systems alignment has been very difficult and is still ongoing; however, there were several crucial steps on the journey that we will describe in this article. The steps are modeled after a continuous improvement approach of defining customer requirements, analyzing current performance, leadership setting a vision and specific goals to meet customer requirements, implementing an action plan and processes to reach the goals, and publicly reporting progress toward the goals.

The customer requirements were defined by the Kentucky General Assembly with legislation passed in 2009. The legislation required the Kentucky Department of Education (KDE) and the Council on Postsecondary Education (CPE) to work collaboratively to increase the percentage of high school graduates who are college- and career- ready. The legislation required adoption of academic standards in language arts, mathematics, science and social studies that were nationally and internationally benchmarked. Additionally, the legislation required new assessments aligned to the standards, an accountability model based on the standards, and professional development and support for educators who were charged with implementing the standards and assessments.

The legislation led the Kentucky Board of Education (KBE) to adopt a strategic plan called Unbridled Learning. This plan established clear priorities for Next-Generation Learning, Next-Generation Professionals, Next-Generation Support Systems and Next-Generation Schools and Districts. The plan established SMART goals for each of the priorities.

One of the SMART goals for Next-Generation Learning is that Kentucky will improve the college and career readiness rate from 34 percent in 2010 to 67 percent in 2015. The partnership between KDE and CPE led to clear measures for this goal. All higher education institutions in Kentucky agreed to benchmark scores for the ACT and COMPASS^® assessments that would allow high school graduates to enter a credit-bearing course. The KBE added measures for career readiness that include academic measures (ACT, COMPASS^®, WorkKeys^® and a state-developed math placement exam, KYOTE) and technical measures (occupational testing and national industry certification).

Actions to Meet Goals
Perhaps the most challenging part of a continuous improvement system is the translation of the goals into specific actions and processes at each level of the system. The delivery chain from KDE to school systems to schools to teachers and classrooms to students and parents had to be aligned to the state goals, and the actions at each level had to lead to improved performance. KDE worked closely with the Education Delivery Institute to define annual targets for every school system and school in Kentucky that became the annual targets for the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) accountability waiver and specific strategies that would enable every system and school to reach the annual targets.