The Accreditation Advisory Council (AAC) held its first quarterly meeting of the 2023-2024 school year during which members learned about Kansas State Department of Education’s (KSDE) priorities and provided feedback on the four fundamentals of school improvement and Kansas Education Systems Accreditation (KESA) expectations set for districts. 

ARC members met from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Sept. 18 at Andover Unified School District 385’s offices. 

The four fundamentals of school improvement are structured literacy, balanced assessment system, standards alignment and high-quality instruction. Members discussed how a system/district, building and classroom might demonstrate that they have the fundamentals in place. 

AAC members also delved deeper into the KESA expectations in place for systems this year. These include gathering artifacts, meeting with a KSDE regional executive and meeting for peer reviews. Members shared feedback on these expectations as they relate to peer, expert and KSDE reviews of systems. 

Content and feedback from the meeting will be shared with Kansas State Board of Education members during the Oct. 10 State Board meeting and also at the Great Ideas in Education Conference: Empowered Together on October 27 in Wichita.