The Martha McCarthy Forum on Policy in Practice

The Martha McCarthy Forum on Policy in Practice is an annual University of Kentucky College of Education convening that brings together educators, scholars, policymakers, legal experts, and other stakeholders to examine what happens as education policy moves from enactment into practice and what emerging experience and evidence mean for Kentucky. 

Each year, the Forum focuses on a timely education policy issue and considers a common set of questions: What brought us to this point? What does the law or policy actually do? What happens when it reaches practice? What are we learning? And what should Kentucky continue to watch, study, or understand?

Kentucky’s Changing Assessment and Accountability Landscape

Nov 2 | 2:00 – 3:30 ET | Virtual

Kentucky’s approach to educational assessment and accountability is changing. This year’s Martha McCarthy Forum will bring together leaders who have helped shape, study, and implement education policy in Kentucky to consider where the Commonwealth has been, what is changing now, and what we should be learning as those changes move into practice.

The conversation will examine the history and purposes of Kentucky’s assessment and accountability system, changes associated with HB 257, the questions that remain as implementation moves forward, and what those changes may mean for districts, schools, educators, students, and communities.

Panelists

Robbie Fletcher, Ed.D.
Kentucky Commissioner of Education

Regina “Gina” Umpstead Pratel, J.D., Ph.D.
Professor, University of Louisville

Lu Young, Ed.D.
Chair, Kentucky Board of Education; Chief Leadership Officer, Clinical Professor, Educational Leadership Studies

Gene Wilhoit
Former Kentucky Commissioner of Education

Moderator

Brigitte Blom
President & CEO, Prichard Committee for Academic Excellence

Register online

The Forum follows education policy from its underlying problem and policy context into implementation, emerging evidence, and the questions that remain.

Across different annual topics, the conversation returns to five broad questions:

1. What problem or change is driving the issue?
   What brought us to this point, and how did we get here?
2. What does the law or policy actually do?
   What has changed? What is required, intended, permitted, or still unresolved?
3. What happens when policy reaches practice?
   How is policy interpreted and implemented? Where do local context, organizational capacity, professional judgment, and other realities matter?
4. What are we learning?
   What do research, evidence, history, and experience tell us? What do we still not know?
5. What does this mean for Kentucky?
   What should we continue to watch, study, or understand as implementation unfolds?

This recurring progression—problem → policy → practice → evidence → emerging questions—provides a common structure for the Forum even as the topic changes from year to year. 

The Martha McCarthy Forum is supported through an annual gift to the University of Kentucky College of Education from Dr. Martha McCarthy, a leading scholar in education law, policy, and educational leadership.

Across a distinguished career in higher education, including long-standing faculty leadership at Indiana University and later service at Loyola Marymount University, Dr. McCarthy’s scholarship has examined the ways law and policy shape educational leadership and decision-making. Her work has addressed constitutional issues in education, the legal rights and responsibilities of students and educators, equity and access, and the implications of judicial and policy decisions for schools and educational leaders.

A defining feature of Dr. McCarthy’s scholarship has been her ability to connect legal principles with the realities of educational leadership and practice. Her books, articles, and other scholarship have contributed to the preparation of generations of school leaders and helped establish education law as an essential component of leadership preparation.

Dr. McCarthy has also provided national leadership to the field, including service as president of the Education Law Association and the University Council for Educational Administration. She received UCEA’s Campbell Lifetime Achievement Award in recognition of her sustained contributions to educational leadership.

Through her support of the College of Education, Dr. McCarthy has encouraged UK to create programming that responds to the needs of Kentucky while continuing the kind of thoughtful engagement across law, policy, leadership, and practice that has characterized her career.

The Martha McCarthy Forum is intended for people who approach education policy from different positions and perspectives, including educational leaders and practitioners, faculty and researchers, graduate students, state and local education personnel, policymakers, professional associations, legal professionals, community organizations, and others interested in the annual topic.

Bringing together people who shape policy with those who interpret, implement, study, and experience it is a defining feature of the Forum.

May 7, 2025  - McCarthy Forum: Leadership Lessons in Local School Accountability

For questions about the Martha McCarthy Forum on Policy in Practice, contact:

Amanda Nelson at agwhit0@uky.edu or Beth Goins at beth.goins@uky.edu 
University of Kentucky College of Education