Making a Moral Imperative a Reality
On behalf of the Kentucky Department of Education, welcome to the Continuous Improvement web pages. Within these pages are information, resources and tools designed to assist schools and districts in their efforts to reduce the number of students scoring below proficiency and improve overall student achievement.
Understand the Need behind Continuous Improvement
The Novice Reduction for Gap Closure White Paper lays out the foundational beginnings of the Continuous Improvement work, lists related regulations and statutes and the Key Work Processes for Classroom and how they were selected to guide the Continuous Improvement work. In Appendix A there is a matrix that demonstrates the connection between the Key Core Processes, the Kentucky Framework for Teaching and the Characteristics of Highly Effective Teaching and Learning (CHETL).
The Purpose of the Key Core Work Processes
The Key Core Work Processes drive strategic decision-making and guide the development, refinement, and implementation of work systems within your organizations. To define the Key Core Work Processes, we refer to the definition of work systems as outlined in the Baldridge Criteria for Performance Excellence Education (2015). Work Systems:
define how the organization's work is accomplished
include the internal work processes and external resources needed to develop and produce programs and services
support delivery of programs and services to student and other customers
ensure purposeful continuous improvement within the organization
Educational work systems involve your instructional team members, shareholders, community partners, and others with a vested interest in student achievement within schools, districts, and communities-at-large.
The Key Core Work Processes also serve as a framework for building the CSIP/CDIPs in your organization. The work processes serve as the qualitative component of the needs assessment process and help schools and districts identify strategies to be deployed through the continuous improvement plan. This protocol can serve as a guide for analysis of the Key Core Work Processes.
Utilizing the following tools will allow teams to purposefully engage with the key core processes and the strategies that support them.
Reference Strategic Level Key Core Work Processes
Reference SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats) Analysis Tool
Diagnostics
Once areas of leverage and concern have been identified, the diagnostics found on Continuous Improvement web pages can be utilized to further identify where work needs to be focused. Resources are provided on each page to help with focus areas.