Details of a new board aimed at tackling worsening results in Liverpool's struggling schools have been revealed.
The council's education and children's social care select committee will this week discuss the Education Improvement Plan (EIP), which is set to be submitted to the council's cabinet in the coming months.
It comes as schools continue to prepare for the full scale return of kids to classrooms in September and amid mounting concern about educational attainment in the city.
Liverpool's GCSE results have plunged in recent years, with some schools getting as little as 4% of their pupils receiving good grades in English and Maths.
The council's cabinet for education, Barbara Murray, last year told committee members there was a problem with the quality of education across all senior schools in the city.
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Earlier this month, the council also commissioned extra literacy support for the city's 120 primary schools after the proportions of children reaching the acceptable standard in reading dropped.
The Education Improvement Board, which will oversee the EIP, will be led by University of Liverpool vice chancellor Professor Dame Janet Beer and include current and former teachers as well as the council's chief executive Tony Reeves.
It will tackle five priorities including literacy, teacher recruitment and support for children with special educational needs.
A report to the committee says: "City leaders recognise the unique and significant challenges facing Liverpool schools. The large proportion of pupils, particularly from deprived areas, who fall behind during the earliest stages of development rarely close the gap and struggle to keep up for the rest of their educational lives.
"This underperformance impacts on children’s learning in many ways but particularly in their ability to read. Children, pupils and students who are unable to catch-up find themselves unprepared for the next stages of their education.
"Closing the gap in attainment has rightly been identified as a key priority in previous strategies and plans and yet the gap has continued to widen. "
The board's work will be assessed after the first six months and then annually.
The committee will discuss the creation of the board on Wednesday.
