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.

Register online

Panelists

Robbie Fletcher, Ed.D.
Kentucky Commissioner of Education

Dr. Robbie Fletcher has served as Kentucky Commissioner of Education since July 2024. He previously spent a decade as superintendent of Lawrence County Schools, where the district expanded dual-credit and career and technical education opportunities and participated in Kentucky initiatives focused on innovative and deeper learning. Fletcher brings nearly 30 years of experience in public education, beginning his career as a mathematics teacher and later serving as a middle and high school principal. He has participated in numerous state and national education initiatives, including the Kentucky United We Learn Council, the Local Superintendents Advisory Council, and the Kentucky General Assembly’s School Funding Task Force. He holds degrees from Morehead State University and the University of Kentucky.

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

Dr. Regina Umpstead Pratel is a professor in Educational Administration and Leadership at the University of Louisville, where her teaching and scholarship focus on educational law, policy, and leadership. Her research examines how law and policy shape educational systems and practice, including the use of law and policy as levers for educational reform, educational equity, school innovation, finance, and the educator workforce. A former practicing attorney, she earned her J.D. from the University of Michigan Law School and her Ph.D. in Educational Policy from Michigan State University. She is also active in the Education Law Association and currently serves as secretary of its Board of Directors.

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

Dr. Lu Young is a longtime Kentucky education leader who has worked across classroom, district, university, and state contexts to advance educational leadership and student-centered learning. She began her career as a classroom teacher in Jessamine County Schools and later served as director of curriculum, assistant superintendent, and superintendent, a role she held for nine years and in which she was named the 2012 Kentucky Superintendent of the Year. She subsequently served as Chief Academic Officer for Fayette County Public Schools before joining the University of Kentucky College of Education. At UK, Young has helped lead the Center for Next Generation Leadership and its statewide work supporting deeper learning, leadership development, and educational systems transformation. She currently serves as a clinical professor in the Department of Educational Leadership Studies and Senior Leadership Officer for the Center. Young also serves as Chair of the Kentucky Board of Education, bringing more than four decades of experience in public education to Kentucky's statewide policy and improvement efforts.

Gene Wilhoit
Former Kentucky Commissioner of Education

Gene Wilhoit is a nationally recognized education leader who has worked at the intersection of policy, accountability, and educational improvement for decades. He previously served as Kentucky Commissioner of Education and as director of the Arkansas Department of Education before becoming executive director of the Council of Chief State School Officers. In 2013, he co-founded the Center for Innovation in Education, which has worked with state and local education leaders to advance more student-centered approaches to learning and educational systems. Wilhoit began his career as a classroom teacher and has held leadership roles at the state and national levels throughout his career. He currently serves on the Board of Directors of the Prichard Committee for Academic Excellence.

Moderator

Brigitte Blom
President & CEO, Prichard Committee for Academic Excellence

Brigitte Blom is President and CEO of the Prichard Committee for Academic Excellence, where she leads statewide efforts to improve education outcomes and opportunities for Kentuckians. She has more than 20 years of experience in education, public policy, research, and public service. Before joining the Prichard Committee, Blom served as director of public policy for United Way of Greater Cincinnati, with a particular focus on early childhood policy. She also spent a decade as an elected member of the Pendleton County Board of Education and served as vice chair of the Kentucky Board of Education. Her work has addressed education, poverty, public finance, and state policy. She holds undergraduate degrees in economics and international studies and a master’s degree in public policy from the University of Kentucky’s Martin School.

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