R12CC continues to host a monthly Executive Leadership Forum with Kansas superintendents to support them as they lead change management initiatives. Superintendents and state education leaders also took part in two workshops designed to support the creation of the Kansas Executive Leadership Development System. The goal of these workshops is to identify key competencies and learnings required for success at progressing stages of an executive leader’s career. Participants identified six dimensions of leadership and work has begun on developing learning experiences for each competency.
In addition, the R12CC team is assisting the Kansas State Department of Education (KSDE) in evaluating a Registered Teacher Apprenticeship pilot program. Initial work on the program consisted of using REL Central’s Program Evaluation Toolkit to co-develop a program logic model, identifying key evaluation questions and project evaluation design, and collecting feedback for continuous improvement and scaling from pilot program participants through focus groups. The team also continued to meet with the Accreditation and Design Team to develop a tool for collecting feedback on the Annual Check In—a new strategy to support systems as they engage in the Kansas Education Systems Accreditation 2.0 model.
Finally, capacity building with KSDE’s Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging committee focused on developing a plan to collect perceptions from staff across the organization that will then be used to identify priorities/opportunities and create a plan of action.
Collectively, these services support Kansas education stakeholders’ understanding of the technical and adaptive challenges related to navigating education policy changes and build capacity for continuous improvement at the state and local levels.