Going from good to great in Kentucky’s education reform story

Three innovations are key to this next chapter in Kentucky’s education reform story, and they will surely succeed with robust community partnerships and local engagement.

• Vibrant learning experiences will help ensure students do work that matters to them. This can mean reporting on local history, rebuilding computers, researching uses for the invasive kudzu vine, or anything else that offers a genuine, meaningful, relevant challenge for an individual learner. Vibrant learning builds student engagement and agency – helping each learner discover what they love, what they do well, what the world needs, and how their talents can support a good living. 
• Writing across the curriculum will mean students can communicate effectively in science, history, art, mathematics, social studies and other subjects. Kentucky will no longer give statewide writing tests. Instead, local programs will call for relevant writing connected to what students are studying and designed to build skills they can use for a lifetime: evaluating information, organizing arguments, sharing insights effectively with others. These are durable skills Kentucky employers say they need most – built right inside academic content.
• Local indicators of quality will allow each school district to design part of its own accountability measures. School districts in partnership with their community will define their local goals for students, including things like being effective problem solvers, inspired innovators, responsible collaborators, or having a service orientation. Through teaching and learning in each subject, still aligned to the Kentucky Academic Standards, teachers will move students toward the locally defined goals. Districts may create “dashboards” to transparently report student progress to the community, giving a more holistic snapshot of student success. 

Each of these innovations require community involvement if they are to result in the added improvement in student learning that will take Kentucky from good to great. And, together, these key enhancements to Kentucky’s education reform story can help a high school diploma signal real readiness for post-high school success and fuel our continued climb to the top tier of the nation in education outcomes.  

This work will need authentic teamwork by schools and communities working closely together. Community members should be invited to the design table to discuss local indicators that matter most to students, families, and businesses locally. Once the design phase with the community’s input is complete, community-connected vibrant learning will need the support of community members in many fields and across many kinds of lived experiences. Students will be seeking mentors, people they can interview, folks who can share tools or space or time with younger learners, internships and apprenticeships, community partners extending learning outside the classroom and a wide variety of other supports. 

Finally, local accountability will require checking on how close students are to meeting local goals and supporting continuous improvement of a system of partnership with students and families at the center. In many places, educators and community volunteers will review student “demonstrations of learning.” Everywhere, teams will need to check how well things are going for students who have often been overlooked or underserved, including those from less prosperous families, those with major learning differences, and those from varied cultural backgrounds. 

This is an exciting next phase of Kentucky’s story. One that calls us all to be part of the movement, part of the good to great story. By working together, we can build strong schools, foster powerful partnerships, and achieve real results for today’s students and for Kentucky’s future. It’s time to ask locally how you can be part of the effort – and commit to showing up in the arena as one of Kentucky’s #1 fans! 

At the Prichard Committee, we’ve shared explanations, examples and resources to support school-community partnerships at prichardcommittee.org/vibrant.