Igniting a Literacy Renaissance in Kentucky with the Read to Succeed Act

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Reading was always essential in my growing up. My dad read all the time and, as a very young child, I wanted to learn to read more than anything. Prestonsburg first grade was a great experience with Miss Elsie, but I was taught only to guess and memorize words. That did not give me the basis for higher reading levels, but I made it — even though I had to work harder than others at Randolph-Macon Women’s College to succeed!

As a young parent, I saw that my young first born was not learning to read, even though he was obviously very intelligent. It was imperative that our three sons be good readers, so I, along with other Knott County parents, founded the dyslexia program at the Hindman Settlement School forty years ago. We stumbled on the Orton-Gillingham instructional method and learned that reading can be taught systematically, using multisensory, explicit, structured techniques. In current terms, it is the Science of Reading.

For years, we struggled to find ways to inject the Orton-Gillingham approach into our public schools to help dyslexic students who were not learning to read. Now we are learning that Science of Reading helps not only dyslexic students, but many others who are not dyslexic.

Kentucky’s students deserve to be taught reading using Science of Reading, which incorporates methods that activate the auditory system in the brain. Current neuroscience validates using evidence-based programs to stimulate the brain’s reading pathways. In simple words, this involves teaching kids how to decode new words to access word recognition and comprehension.

Recently, our commitment to advancing literacy reached a new milestone here in Knott County with the initiation of the Honor Cadre’s Professional Development program, a collaboration between the Knott County Educational Endowment Trust Fund and Hindman Settlement School. This cadre, including administrators, teachers, and a special ed instructor are participating in the Language Essentials for Teachers of Reading and Spelling (LETRS) program to learn the Science of Reading, as many others across the state are doing so as well.

With the passing of the Read to Succeed Act (Senate Bill 9) in 2022, the Legislature equipped the Kentucky Department of Education with, among several policy shifts, tools to offer additional instruction for teachers and administrators via LETRS professional learning, which is offered at no cost, to ensure teachers have access to the current research of reading instruction.

Encouragingly, over 1,800 Kentucky educators across the commonwealth were registered for Kentucky Reading Academies in cohort 1 of the professional learning in 2022-23. Currently, over 2,600 educators have registered for cohort 2, beginning in October 2023.

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The work began as soon as the bill passed. In the 2022-2023 school year, colleges and universities that offer teacher preparation programs for interdisciplinary early childhood education or elementary regular education, began including evidenced-based reading instructional programming. This includes the areas of phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary decoding and comprehension.

Senate Bill 9 also outlined the timeline for setting up universal reading screeners for K-3, which begins with this school year. The screener will be given in the first 45 days of the school year for all kindergarten students and in the first 30 days of the school year for grades 1-3. If the screener shows that a student may fall behind in reading, measures and supports to students will be provided.

Mississippi already embarked on this path, making big investments in Science of Reading instruction, and it’s paying off in steadily rising reading scores. For example, on the National Assessment of Education Progress (NAEP), Mississippi has created a 9-point improvement in percent proficient from 2011 to 2022. Over the same years, Kentucky saw a 4-point proficiency drop.

Kentucky doesn’t need to be last in reading. Our educational institutions can give teachers the tools to change, and our school districts can offer their students reading approaches that work. Kentucky kids shouldn’t have to work harder than their peers to succeed in life, like I once did. We now have the research and the policy to ensure every young learner can READ to SUCCEED, and be prepared for success in school and in life.

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Lois Combs Weinberg, an Eastern Kentucky native, has a M.A. from Harvard University in Education and has worked teaching dyslexic students to read for forty years. Weinberg has served on the University of Kentucky Board of Trustees, the Kentucky Council on Postsecondary Education, and the Kentucky Prichard Committee for Academic Excellence.

Will my application be rejected if a FRYSC coordinator is shared between two or more schools?
No, this is a recommendation; not a requirement. Applicants will have an opportunity to provide rationale in narrative sections.

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When is the District Director expected to begin?
Dec. 1st 2023

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How can the grant funds be spent?
– Up to $150,000 per year is allocated for a Community Schools District Director position salary and fringe
– Up to $150,000 is allocated for 2 school budgets ( $75,000 for each of the two schools).
– School budgets will be determined by community and school needs assessments and data.

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Can a district apply if the district is made up of only one school?
Yes

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Can an early childhood center be included as a “school” in a district?
No, but early childhood can be mentioned throughout the narrative portions of the application and program funding can be allocated to these services since this qualifies as one or more pipeline services.

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If my district is already receiving funding from a Full-Service Community Schools grant, should we apply?
Not at this time.

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If my district applied for the 2023/4 Full-Service Community Schools grant (recipients will be notified in Dec. 2023), should we apply?
Yes. If you are selected as a Prichard Committee District in September and then awarded by USED in December we will evaluate next steps at that time.

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Do the two schools that are chosen have to be feeder schools or a particular grade level?
No

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Does the Prichard Committee hire the District Director?
No, Prichard Committee provides a template for the job description and funding for this cabinet-level position to be hired at the district-level. This person is accountable to grant deliverables, data requirements, and routine check-ins with Prichard Committee staff but reports to the District Superintendent.

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What support will the Prichard Committee be providing?
See MOA in application

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If you have other questions, please see the MOA in the application or reach out to Travis Marcum, Sr Director of Community Schools with the Prichard Committee at: travis@prichardcommittee.org

July 27, 2023
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE‍

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The Prichard Committee Calls on Cabinet to Stabilize Child Care Now

Certainty crucial for little learners and working families‍‍

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LEXINGTON, Ky. — Early care and education programs play a vital role in supporting Kentucky’s workforce, allowing parents to work while providing children with safe, enriching learning environments. However, Kentucky’s child care system is facing a significant challenge as the funding to stabilize child care businesses from the American Rescue Plan Act is scheduled to end on September 30.

The early child care community has been working to raise awareness about the potential impact of this approaching deadline, and it is concerning that the Cabinet for Health and Family Services has not yet committed to a plan to address this issue, as mentioned in a meeting of the Interim Committee on Families and Children this week. We’ve discussed our concern previously with the cabinet and have yet to see a plan publicized, leaving child care providers in a state of extreme uncertainty.

We strongly urge the cabinet to prioritize Kentucky’s child care providers and take immediate action by issuing an additional stabilization payment before the deadline. Timely and transparent communication with child care business owners and working families is of utmost importance, enabling them to make well-informed decisions that contribute to the well-being of Kentucky’s children and overall economic stability.

Without this necessary support, providers could face closures, layoffs and disruptions that ultimately jeopardize the safety and well-being of children, as well as Kentucky’s economy. Child care business owners and working families need action and answers now to navigate this challenging situation effectively.

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Contact:
Courtney Daniel, Director of Communications and External Affairs
courtney@prichardcommittee.org

What are Durable Skills, and why do Kentuckian learners need them?

Tim Taylor, Co-Founder & President, America Succeeds

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You have an important presentation to give at 11 AM today. As you are driving on the freeway into work, your car breaks down, and you jump into action to ensure that your colleague is prepared to present in your absence. You email them your slide deck, complete with talking points, so they can present without you, and contact the partners of your organization to apologize for the inconvenience.

The actions taken to mitigate your absence help the presentation continue without interrupting too many schedules, and you follow up later to the group with action steps, jumping right back into your rhythm and responsibilities.

In this scenario, you are demonstrating a range of valuable “Durable Skills,” encompassing problem-solving, tenacity, adaptability, accountability, coordination, and collaboration, among others. While you likely highlighted these skills during your job interview, the reality is that many recent high school and college graduates lack them, hindering their entry into the workforce and the start of their careers.

At America Succeeds, we are committed to changing that.

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In today’s economy, the key to achieving financial freedom lies in developing a combination of sought-after technical and soft skills essential for jobs of the future. Astonishingly, there are 11.4 million open job positions, yet 80% of HR leaders struggle to find suitable candidates. As employers increasingly embrace skills-based hiring to establish a broader and fairer talent pool, they often face challenges in recognizing “high-quality” non-degree paths, deciphering and translating skills, and assessing applicant readiness for the workforce.

Our goal is to ensure that every student in America not only possesses durable skills but can articulate and leverage them effectively. This commitment is backed by concrete evidence—Lightcast’s extensive database of 80 million employer job postings from the past two years reveals that 7 out of the 10 most requested skills by employers are durable skills.

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The need for inclusive, durable skills-based education and hiring was apparent long before the pandemic, but COVID-19 has significantly accelerated these existing trends. As we strive for economic recovery and address the exacerbated inequities of the past years, it becomes increasingly critical to equip individuals with the durable skills necessary for long-term success in the workforce. By prioritizing common competencies over diverse technical requirements, we can empower a wider and more diverse group of learners and workers to advance along successful career pathways, benefiting both employees and employers.

Currently, America Succeeds is collaborating with CompTIA to develop a rubric that measures the acquisition of durable skills through various educational pathways. This rubric will encompass classroom-based learning for future workers and employee training for individuals already in the workforce, ensuring their preparedness for successful careers and contributions to their communities.

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“We believe helping students better develop their innate durable skills at an early age will help them compete, contribute, and thrive in their careers,” – Todd Thibodeaux, President and CEO of CompTIA

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There is widespread alignment among employers, parents, educators, and state leaders, all sharing the desire to equip students with the knowledge and skills necessary for their success. We invite you to join them and support the Durable Skills movement today.

June 13, 2023
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE‍

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Media Advisory: The Prichard Committee Hosts Annual Groundswell Summit

More than 250 stakeholders will be in attendance

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‍‍Lexington, KY - The Prichard Committee for Academic Excellence is holding its annual Groundswell Summit in Floyd County on June 14-15. The summit will bring together more than 250 education leaders, stakeholders, educators and families from across the state to discuss key challenges and opportunities in education.The summit will feature a lineup of educational speakers, panel discussions, workshops and networking opportunities. Attendees will have the chance to engage in thought-provoking conversations, share innovative ideas and explore collaborative strategies in education.We invite members of the media to attend and cover the Groundswell Summit on June 15. This is an excellent opportunity to learn about the latest trends and initiatives in education.

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Highlights:

• The Great Schools Showcase: 9:30-11:30 a.m.
• Hometown Achievers Spotlight: 12:45-1:30 p.m.
• 2023 Statewide Groundswell Awards 1:30-2:15 p.m.
• National Education Speakers: 2:30-3:30 p.m.

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Media Opportunities:

• Listen to education experts and thought leaders discuss pressing educational challenges.
• Capture visuals and footage of education professionals engaging in workshops and networking sessions.
• Interviews available upon request.

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Event Details:

• Date: June 15
• Time: 8 a.m. – 5 p.m.
• Location: Floyd Central High School

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RSVP

‍To RSVP, please contact Courtney Daniel at courtney@prichardcommittee.org or 859-338-358.For more information about the Groundswell Summit, please visit www.prichardcommittee.org.

May 16, 2023
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

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Statement from Prichard Committee President on the Kentucky gubernatorial primary election

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“The Kentucky primary election for governor tonight serves as a reminder of the urgent need to address our declining education outcomes and to halt the divisive partisan rhetoric surrounding this critical issue. As both candidates for governor clearly prioritize education, it is crucial that the plans they put forth focus on returning Kentucky’s education outcomes to a state of progress.

Since 2015, the Prichard Committee has reported continual declining outcomes nationally. Our state, once ranked 8th in 4th-grade reading, has dropped to 29th. In 8th-grade mathematics, our ranking has never exceeded 33rd and currently places us at 41st. While we are ranked 3rd in the nation for high school graduation rates, the diploma carries little weight in the labor market – or as indication of likely success in college. Despite reaching 6th place in the nation for 2-year degrees, Kentucky’s college-going rate is declining, and the state has persistently ranked near the bottom in national poverty rankings for decades. The future is not bright.

Further, our young people and the workforce are suffering for lack of early childhood opportunities that support working families and prepare our youngest Kentuckians for success in school.

Yet, even with these stark statistics, there are bright spots to be found in schools and communities across the state, working diligently to improve education outcomes and reverse learning loss. Educators are working quietly to deepen meaningful learning in classrooms, ensuring students not only excel in reading and mathematics but also develop durable skills that align with the demands of today’s and tomorrow’s economy. Effective political plans for progress, will be built upon these promising approaches.

Gubernatorial education platforms must prioritize evidenced-based strategies and innovations that enable the state to return to its rightful place leading the nation – as we did in the 1990s and early 2000s.

Investing in our education system – early childhood through postsecondary – is an imperative for individuals, families, communities and our state as a whole. As each candidate expressed tonight, there is nothing more important to drive economic growth and ensure the economic well-being of Kentuckians all across our state. We urge each candidate to put forth a solid plan to achieve this goal.”

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Contact:
Courtney Daniel, Director of Communications and External Affairs
courtney@prichardcommittee.org

With the 2023 Legislative Session behind us, Kentucky’s continued decline in education outcomes continues to sound alarm bells for our future. In just the last decade Kentucky has fallen to:

• 29th in the nation fourth-grade reading — a fall from 22nd in 2019 and a high of 8th in the nation in 2015,
• 28th in the nation in eighth-grade reading — a drop from 25th in 2019 and a peak at 12th in 2011,
• 34th in the nation in fourth-grade math — a fall from 30th in 2019 and 21st in 2015,
• and 41st in the nation in eighth-grade math — down from 36th in 2019 after reaching 33rd in the nation in 2011.

Despite Kentucky’s downward slump in education outcomes, the Prichard Committee celebrates the steps taken by the 2023 Kentucky General Assembly to return Kentucky to a place where education outcomes are improving.

Particularly, steps taken in the following successful pieces of legislation move the needle in providing a Big Bold Future for all Kentuckians:

• House Bill 319, An act relating to teacher shortages, sponsored by House Education Chairman James Tipton (R-53);
• Senate Bill 156, An act relating to a statewide reading research center, sponsored by Senate Education Chairman Stephen West (R-27);
• Senate Bill 70, An act relating to relating to a pilot program for performance-based professional development, sponsored by Senate President Pro Tempore David Givens (R-09); and
• Senate Joint Resolution 98, A resolution directing the Council on Postsecondary Education to study the placement and services provided by public universities and community and technical colleges in the Commonwealth, sponsored by Senate President Robert Stivers (R-25).

Take a look at each of the pieces of legislation below, where we break down the details and explain how they can help provide a Big Bold Future for all Kentuckians.

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House Bill 319, An act relating to teacher shortages, sponsored by House Education Chairman James Tipton (R-53)

Chairman Tipton’s House Bill 319 is designed to address Kentucky’s teacher shortage. The bill is divided into four policy items:

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I. Interstate Teacher Mobility Compact

The Interstate Teacher Mobility Compact is like a shortcut for teachers who want to work in a different state. It makes it easier for them to get their license and move to a new state to teach. The idea is to support teachers by providing them with a new pathway to licensure that enhances their ability to move across state lines.

Policy Goals:

• Enhance the power of state and district level education officials to hire qualified, competent teachers by removing barriers to the employment of out-of-state teachers,
• Create a streamlined pathway to licensure mobility for teachers,
• Support the relocation of eligible military spouses,
• Facilitate and enhance the exchange of teacher licensure, investigative, and disciplinary information between the member states,
• Support the retention of teachers in the profession by removing barriers to re-licensure in a new state, and
• Maintain state sovereignty in the regulation of the teaching profession.

To learn more about the Interstate Teacher Mobility Compact, read more here from EdWeek.

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II. Exit Surveys for School Personnel Leaving Employment

To help with teacher recruitment and retention, teachers or other school personnel will be asked to complete an exit survey when they leave their job voluntarily. The survey responses will be anonymous. To keep track of the data, KDE will create a system for reporting the survey results.

Policy Goals:

Information submitted by an employee and reported to the department includes:

• the position vacated,
• the employee’s years of service in the position and in the district,
• if the employee is taking a similar position in another district,
• and the reason or reasons provided for leaving the district.

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III. Kentucky Educator Placement Service System

The Kentucky Educator Placement Service System is an online job board run by the KDE for local school districts and public charter schools. It lets job seekers apply online for open positions and upload their application materials. School districts and public charter schools can then access and download these applications. Local districts can also have their own job boards in addition to the statewide platform run by KDE.

Policy Goals:

• The Kentucky Department of Education shall operate and maintain the system to ensure:
  • that job postings are current, including tracking each unique position posted,
  • monitored for repeated position postings,
  • outdated postings are removed,
  • and that accurate data is collected about employment in public schools.
• KDE shall prepare a report detailing data from the system and its implications for the status of employment in public schools including:
  • the number and type of unique and duplicate job postings,
  • how often postings are viewed by the public,
  • and positions that are remaining vacant by type, certification requirement, and location.
  • The report shall be submitted to the Interim Joint Committee on Education each year.

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IV. Technical Changes to Kentucky Teacher Scholarship Program

Changes include:

• A drop to 8% interest rate for repayment purposes, down from 12%.
• A requirement for the scholarship authority to:
  • submit a report on the number of teacher scholarships provided in each fiscal year,
  • the program of study in which recipients are enrolled,
  • recipient retention rates,
  • total number of applications, and
  • reporting of scholarship recruitment strategies to the Interim Joint Committee on Education.
• A process for candidates to obtain an eligible for hire letter from the Education Professional Standards Board, should the certification option require employment prior to certification.

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Senate Bill 156, An act relating to a statewide reading research center, sponsored by Senate Education Chairman Stephen West (R-27)

Chairman Stephen West’s Senate Bill 156 is designed to establish a statewide reading research center. The center will support educators in implementing evidence-based reading programs. The legislation builds upon Senator West’s successful passage and implementation of the Kentucky Read to Succeed Act in 2022.

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I. Purposes of Statewide Reading Research Center

The center is designed to support educators in implementing reading programs that are:

• Reliable
• Replicable, and
• Evidence-based

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II. Collaboration between the Center and Kentucky Department of Education (KDE)

• The Center and KDE will set annual goals and performance objectives and report on the effects of those activities on state performance levels in reading and writing, and the outcomes of all annual goals and performance objectives.
• Based on the annual outcomes, KDE will make programming and funding recommendations to the Governor, the Legislative Research Commission (LRC), and the Interim Joint Committee on Education by October 1 of each year.
• Additionally, KDE will select the administrator of the statewide reading research center for approval by the Kentucky Board of Education (KBE). The selected administrator will be contracted for 5 years unless funding is not available.

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Senate Bill 70, An act relating to a pilot program for performance-based professional development, sponsored by Senate President Pro Tempore David Givens (R-09)

President Pro Tempore David Givens’ Senate Bill 70 permits teachers in local school districts the ability to develop and implement a performance-based professional development project designed to produce measurable outcomes of positive impact on student performance.

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I. Program Requirements

The pilot program requires 2 or more teachers to design an instructional practice or strategy project to address a school or district academic or nonacademic classroom problem. The program will run from the 2023-2024 school year to the 2025-2026 school year.

Successful completion of a project under this section shall satisfy up to 3 days of the requirement to complete 4 days of professional development.

A local board of education may award a teacher a stipend for successful completion of a project.

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II. Local Board of Education Responsibilities

Local boards of education determine the following:

• Project application process.
• Review and approval of project proposals.
• Submission of completed project analysis and results.
• Evaluation of completed projects.
• The awarding of professional development credit, including the amount of the credit and when it will be credited.
• The awarding of a stipend, if applicable.

Additionally, KDE will study the completed pilot projects for their impact on schools and districts to determine the attributes of quality performance-based professional development and the best practices for measuring its effectiveness.

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Senate Joint Resolution 98, A resolution, sponsored by Senate President Robert Stivers (R-25)

Senate President Robert Stivers’ Joint Resolution 98 directs the Council on Postsecondary Education (CPE) to study placements and services provided by public universities and community and technical colleges. The President of the Council on Postsecondary Education will report the study with findings and recommendations by December 1, 2023.

The resolution directs CPE to undertake the following actions:

• Study the projected needs of the state over the next 20 years in terms of postsecondary education attainment, workforce, and economic needs.
• Provide recommendations on changes needed to the state’s postsecondary governance structure that would be essential to meet identified needs and ensure the best delivery of postsecondary educational services to students.
• Study the impact and feasibility of establishing a regional, residential, four-year public university in southeastern Kentucky.
• Study the feasibility of having the Kentucky Community and Technical College System (KCTS) continue to be responsible for technical education programs but transfer responsibility for traditional academic subjects to the regional universities.

While much work remains in the mission to return Kentucky to a place where education outcomes are improving, The Prichard Committee applauds these positive steps forward championed by Representative Tipton, Senator West, Senator Givens, and Senate President Stivers.

NEW ENERGY BOOSTS RELEVANT LEARNING, SKILLS

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MOREHEAD — For chemistry students at Rowan County Senior High, lab experiments testing properties of water will produce more than scores for a teacher’s grade book. Students’ findings and questions are designed to spark lively conversations — in this case about aliens, telescopes scanning for inhabitable planets, and the challenges of colonizing distant moons.

Turning chemistry into investigations built around storylines that grab students’ interests are now a fixture for building a deeper understanding of academic standards. Teachers April Adkins and Brianna Greenhill make chemistry a catalyst for compelling student interaction.

Last school year, nearby Carter Caves became the surprise classroom to study intermolecular forces — a field trip to explore how rainwater and limestone interact to carve massive underground chambers, trails and habitat.

Water experiments this fall were part of a chemistry unit asking students to look for patterns in molecules like carbohydrates, enzyme proteins, metal ions, and more that are building blocks of life on Earth. Students reported patterns of elements, charged particles, and water present across the samples. That knowledge helps students understand discoveries from the infrared astronomy of the new James Webb Space Telescope, and how it uses spectroscopy to analyze the atmosphere of distant planets.

“They are hooked,” said Adkins, a 12-year teacher. “We are hearing from parents and the community that kids are talking about chemistry at home, which is unbelievable.”

Weaving academic content and relevant topics into engaging learning experiences also promotes other skills: Using evidence and findings to generate questions, design investigations, function as a team, regroup at dead ends, and present results — all now part of high school chemistry in Morehead.

“Problem-solving, communication and research are just parts of the learning process,” said Greenhill, now in her 14th year teaching. “These are things that can happen when students are absorbing content knowledge more.“

“These are skills that will last through their lives,” Adkins added.

Curiosity and creativity are taking root in an increasing number of Kentucky schools and districts as fuel for stronger academic understanding and high-demand problem-solving skills.

Hands-on “deeper learning” can be a spark for educators seeking outcomes beyond mere passing grades. Such experiences fit well with existing efforts to assure student mastery of academic standards, provide re-teaching to make sure that students fully understand fundamentals, and address individual learning styles and needs.

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MATH TEACHER ALISSA NANNIE works with students on the properties of similar figures at Grace James Academy of Excellence in Jefferson County.

More engaging learning experiences are also rooted in local desires to deliver more meaningful education experiences and a diploma that connects with adult success.

In response to an interconnected, technological world, Kentucky schools and districts have been drafting new “graduate profiles.” As a result, skills like problem solving, communication, adaptability, citizenship, and more are becoming part of the goal of academic achievement.

In Rowan County, the focus on deeper student learning has grown over the past four years. It has encouraged both in-depth projects like those created by the high school chemistry teachers and the district’s graduate profile, stating its intent to equip all students as lifelong learners, effective communicators, global citizens, critical thinkers, and active collaborators.

“We started down this road by asking what we are expecting students to master and what skills our community is wanting in high school students,” explained Brandy Carver, the former Rowan County Senior High principal who now serves as the district’s director of professional learning and districtwide programs.

Carver said that the updated focus points educators toward stronger connections with employers and the community while boosting student engagement.

She said that the district is committed to producing graduates better prepared for the world beyond high school.

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DURABLE SKILLS IN HIGH DEMAND

While proficiency in reading, writing, math, science, and other academic fundamentals is essential, good grades are an inadequate measure of the know-how needed to thrive as adults.

Examining 82 million job postings in 2019 and 2020, the group America Succeeds, based in Denver, found that skills in communication, leadership, self-management, and critical thinking were the most common attributes sought in postings across all job categories.

The non-profit group developed a list of “durable skills” most needed in today’s workforce. Employers want to see that job candidates can apply knowledge — collaboration, creativity, communication, critical thinking — along with characteristics like leadership, fortitude, character, growth mindset, self-awareness, and personal management.

The group said that in an economy that values agility, “students and workers will need to commit to ‘up-skilling’ and ‘re-skilling’ as they respond to economic shifts and disruptions.”

In its 2021 report, “The High Demand for Durable Skills,” America Succeeds calls on state policymakers and school leaders to ensure students are ready for the job market.

“The best preparation in the face of uncertainty and rapid innovation is a combination of academics, digital literacy, and durable skills,” the report stated. “We need intentional, strategic policies and practices that strengthen the linkages between education and workforce.”

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We started down this road by asking what we are expecting students to master and what skills our community is wanting in high school students.

— Brandy Carver, Rowan County Schools

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Many Kentucky schools are moving in that direction.

Last summer, the state’s eight regional education cooperatives — groups that provide support services for school districts — launched a major campaign to train and support educators in spreading “deeper learning” experiences and assessments. The co-ops won a $24.5 million grant from the state’s education-focused COVID-relief funds for a three-year effort to support local “deeper learning” experiences. Of 171 Kentucky school districts, 167 joined the effort.

“We see this as a collaborative response to reimagine school for all and accelerate student learning,” said Bart Flener, a former superintendent who directs the Green River Regional Educational Cooperative in Bowling Green. Pandemic shutdowns and remote learning caused administrators to consider new approaches that would improve student success, he said. For co-op leaders, spreading concepts like durable skills and more interesting learning experiences fit the moment.

Observers say that the drive for more meaningful school outcomes is well underway in many areas. Education leaders have been initiating local conversations about essential skills, expanding internships and community service opportunities to connect schools and communities, and supporting classroom outcomes that stretch beyond one-dimensional test scores or an outdated high school diploma.

“We’ve got an opportunity right now to say let’s look at success in a different way,” Flener said. “Vibrant learning experiences — more collaboration and innovation — are about how students can use what they know in new situations they are going to face in real life.”

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EDUCATION BEYOND THE ASSEMBLY LINE

A school culture of student engagement, empowerment, and sense of belonging were top goals in Jefferson County three years ago when it established Grace James Academy of Excellence, a new middle school that will grow to encompass high school years.

Better systems to monitor student achievement, lessons steeped in project-based learning, and a personalized classroom approach are ways the science, technology, engineering, arts, and math (STEAM) magnet school for girls builds involvement and academic results.

Skills like collaboration, resilience, originality and willingness are also bedrocks, even in off-campus experiences that connect students to career pathways and practitioners.

Principal Ronda Cosby said that relevant academics that emphasize problem-solving and critical thinking and the focus on collaboration and communication are a good fit for students, who she describes as eager for more active, involved learning and skill-building connected to a fast-moving economy.

She said that adapting to current economic needs and future demands are often a tougher shift for adults in the system accustomed to a rigid assembly-line model of education.

“School does not reflect the generation that we currently serve,” Cosby explained. “Seats in rows, stand-and-deliver teaching, apathetic kids? Students are excited and ready to learn. We need to be wide open to what school can and should be for today’s students.”

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Seats in rows, stand-and-deliver teaching, apathetic kids? Students are excited and ready to learn. We need to be wide open to what school can and should be for today’s students.

— Ronda Cosby, principal of Grace James Academy of Excellence in Jefferson County

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At Grace James, the new approach has made student perspective a prime focus for adults, which has produced greater attention to classrooms that are comfortable and appealing to students — from furniture to layout and atmosphere. Meanwhile, serious student discourse is a goal for what teaching produces in classrooms.

“Our whole job is not to school students, it’s to educate them,” Cosby said. “We school them to death, then they learn the game of school and become compliant, ritualistic learners. We need learners who are engaged and who own it when it comes to the outcome and performance. We are creating a school that empowers, activates and illuminates academic excellence.”

Planning for outcomes that include skills and student engagement is a major change, said math teacher Alissa Nannie.

“Personalized learning has really helped me grow,” she said. It requires a stronger connection with students, openness to different approaches and even different answers, a clear focus on the daily goal, and a readiness to keep working to help students understand key ideas, Nannie added.

“I’m ready to provide so many opportunities for you to show me you’ve mastered what you need to know,” she said.

Abigail Seow, an eighth grader, said that the school helps students see their academic progress and areas where more work is needed. At the same time, it gives students experiences that help them have “a more open mind” to future careers and ways of being involved.

Fellow eighth grader Diamond Barnes said that the school’s eagerness to hear students’ voices is important. Encouraging students’ interests also makes her pleased to be at Grace James. “We have deeper connections than just learn and go home,” she said.

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EXPANDING EXPERIENCES FOR STUDENTS, EDUCATORS

This fall in Rowan County, fifth graders at Tilden Hogge Elementary in the rolling hills north of Morehead had the school playground on their minds like never before.

Far from daydreaming, students were tackling issues previously handled by adults running schools. When the co-ops’ grant offered training for teachers in planning and delivering project-based learning over the summer, six of the 10 teachers at Tilden Hogge volunteered and then trained their colleagues.

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FIFTH GRADERS AT TILDEN HOGGE ELEMENTARY spent part of the fall learning about community uses of public spaces, focusing on ways to improve the school playground. Pictured are (from left) Ellie Kidd, Jaida Mays, Milyn Mason, (front) Joel Howard and Colton Branham.

After the training, the school planned projects at each grade level about decision making and community involvement, covering academic standards throughout the process.

Fifth graders at the 200-student school explored how community spaces bring people together. The school’s playground was a focal point.

“We are thinking about our school’s space and what we should do with it,” explained Milyn Mason. Personally, she liked the idea of a bigger see-saw. She said the idea of space to accommodate a movie night for locals came up. Students discussed possibilities in class, examined the space, and asked parents, families, and classmates for input. They’ve also learned about strategies for gaining wider input from the community.

Students studied the challenge of creating and measuring responses to open-ended questions versus a set list when designing a survey. They found that interview responses often provided the best input. “It’s been really interesting to learn about what a survey researcher does,” said Joel Howard. He hoped that a new swing set would make the cut once the group reached a final conclusion, which the group said would come with charts to back up their recommendations.

“You need data to create new things,” noted Colton Branham. He said that students discussed space and how things might fit. They were also mindful of safety issues and costs before they present final recommendations.

Principal Brandy Breeze said the process has covered academic standards while reaching into the community, giving students a new taste of ownership and deep involvement as they learn. “It will grow from here,” she said.

“There’s a lot of reading to do, but I’ve been excited,” fifth-grader Jaida Mays said of the school space project. She enjoys reading as well as solving problems in math. “I didn’t know it was going to be fun. We’re pretty lucky — I don’t think kids at many schools have gotten to do this before.”

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TOP PHOTO: Chemistry students at Rowan County Senior High test properties of water and other materials in lab experiments as part of a project focused on the ingredients required to support life.

SCHOOLS CONNECT TO MODERN MODES OF WORK

SHELBYVILLE — It’s nine years before high school graduation (May 2032) for Elijah Mabrey and his third-grade classmates at Heritage Elementary on the eastern edge of Shelby County. However, that distant horizon hasn’t stopped Elijah or Heritage from getting ready. Efforts to meet Shelby County’s new goals for graduates are in high gear across the elementary grades.

In front of a hallway display their class created last year — as second graders — Mabrey and classmates Stella Franklin and Dallas Husband explained the district’s hexagon-shaped “graduate profile” diagram in terms that would make sense to even the youngest Heritage students.

Stella said that young students need to know that part of becoming a lifelong learner means knowing that people grow from their mistakes.

Elijah pointed out the blue wedge on the poster that says “a global citizen.”

“The community would get worse if we didn’t make good choices like being involved, like picking up trash,” the eight-year-old explained. “We can grow up to be really good. Like getting people to share.”

Dallas, also 8, noted the wedge that symbolizes “an effective communicator.”

He looked at the reporter intently, speaking slowly. “One thing that’s important is eye contact,” he said without blinking. “You have to make eye contact so a person knows that you are talking to them.”

Preparing students to use what they know is driving districts across Kentucky to rethink the skills that students should gain in their school years. The emerging graduate profiles often involve districts seeking increased input from educators, community members, employers, and students themselves. The process is also calling attention to measures of achievement that go beyond state test scores or basic credit hours earned.

In Shelby County, priority outcomes now include developing all students as critical thinkers, responsible collaborators, lifelong learners, effective communicators, global citizens, and inspired innovators.

That focus was evident as fourth grade teacher Taylor Shaver posed warm-up questions ahead of a reading assignment.

The whiteboard at the front of the room showed the day’s academic standards: Reading text with attention to what the characters desire and obstacles they face. Also, analyzing characters’ actions, thoughts, and words throughout the text.

Shaver projected a photo on a screen — a statue of the explorer York. He stands facing the Ohio River on the downtown Louisville Belvedere. York, an enslaved man on the Lewis and Clark expedition, is depicted in bronze. He holds a rifle and carries a brace of ducks. He is outfitted with a hatchet and hunting pouch.

“What inferences do you make from the character in this statue?” the teacher asked.

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A FOURTH GRADE STUDENT AT HERITAGE ELEMENTARY in Shelby County prepares to respond to a question in teacher Taylor Shaver’s class.

One student said the man looks brave. The teacher asked what skills the class could use to analyze the image. “We can be critical thinkers by asking questions, like what it means to be brave,” one student said. Classmates noted that being brave can mean someone is fearless or confident.

The teacher said it is important to be on the lookout for telling details in reading and to think critically about how characters respond to situations and surroundings.

Xander Kleiner, one of the fourth graders in the pre-reading discussion, said that the Shelby County graduate profile is a common source for school discussions. “We use it to see that by asking questions, we are thinking flexibly. We know we are responsible collaborators when we talk to each other and share each other’s ideas.”

“When we think in creative ways, it helps us be a well-rounded person,” he noted.

“In math we use critical thinking a lot,” added Julia Swinford, another fourth grader. “It’s what happens when we try again, or know we need to find a stronger justification.”

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GRADUATE PROFILES REFLECT LOCAL NEEDS

The Shelby County graduate profile now influences classroom work and serves as a focal point for the district’s public outreach.

“This was created by the community,” said Sally Sugg, the Shelby County superintendent. A series of community forums, input from families and students, and in-school conversations produced the profile’s goals. As administrators have connected in-school experiences and new workplace learning to the skills, continuing community meetings are used to monitor how well progress is being communicated and understood.

“Everybody involved values these competencies to a great degree,” Sugg said of the profile. “We’ve heard repeatedly how people don’t lose jobs because they don’t have knowledge, they lose them because they don’t have skills.”

Based on community connections, the district has created a work-based learning liaison position, career workshops for students, and more support for high school students working in local jobs.

At the state level, increased community collaboration is one of three priority areas in the education department’s new strategic priorities known as United We Learn, introduced in late 2021.  Community partnerships are also a focus of a deeper learning grant initiative by Kentucky’s education cooperatives.

“Opportunities to engage communities and create deep and meaningful learning experiences for students abound in our Commonwealth,” Education Commissioner Jason Glass wrote in 2021.

Mike Hesketh, owner of an industrial powder coating company in Shelby County, said it was more than six years ago that local employers and Shelby County education leaders began realizing independently that important skills were missing in the local workforce.

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We’ve heard repeatedly how people don’t lose jobs because they don’t have knowledge, they lose them because they don’t have skills.

— Sally Sugg, Shelby County superintendent

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“It was a challenge filling new positions, and several business owners started discussing our challenges in finding the workforce we needed. We learned that the school district was working on those same areas in its graduate profile, and we said, ‘Boy, this is timely,’ ” he recalled. “They were willing to listen and update their strategic plan.”

“A high school diploma is nice, and we understand the big push for assessment and accountability with state testing or the ACT, but we see plenty of extremely bright, motivated students who don’t test well,” Hesketh said. There are also many honor roll students who struggle outside of school because they lack an ability to communicate or adapt to changing circumstances.

Hesketh said that the most impressive sign he’s seen in his recent work with schools was a third grader in a school board meeting presenting his “learning defense” — an activity taking hold in many schools focused on deeper learning. In front of a panel of adults, students share their best work and describe how they’ve grown. They explain what skills have become strengths and areas where they want to improve .

“This third grader was telling how he was a critical thinker. He talked about projects he’d done and about solving a problem — ‘this is what I found out’; ‘this is what I did’ — it was amazing,” Hesketh said.

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SKILLS UPDATE GROWS FROM A DECADE OF ACTION

Learning defenses and electronic portfolios of students’ best work from real-world projects are growing as a way to measure students’ skills.

In 2018, Jefferson County launched its Backpack of Success Skills program (its own graduate profile) and a partnership with Google to create a digital backpack for every student to collect student work. Students in 5th, 8th, and 12th grade make official presentations to a panel of educators and community members to showcase their work and describe gains on the “Backpack” skills. Panelists also get time to ask students questions.

Through the pandemic, Jefferson County’s emphasis continued with virtual presentations. Last school year, 20,625 student defense presentations were held across Jefferson County. In the first six weeks of this school year, district officials said that about 40,000 examples of school work were loaded by students into individual digital backpacks.

Many schools and districts have used the last decade to make impressive gains in overhauling learning environments to focus more on student input, local economic connections, and more engaging work.

The single-campus Eminence independent district in Henry County is a pioneer in student-driven learning experiences dating back to 2010. It increased high-tech connections and more rigorous classes after interviewing students about how school could improve. The district’s makeover also emphasized “surprise and delight” as qualities that inspire effort and creativity from staff and students, boosting achievement.

The vibe permeates. The elementary dining space at Eminence looks more like a cafe than a lunchroom. A looping slide connects the second floor with the ground-level cafeteria. An airy, multi-purpose addition resembles a high-tech corporate training retreat more than a school.

“The biggest thing for us was we wanted our diploma to mean something,” Superintendent Buddy Berry explained in a June webcast for superintendents held by the state education department. “We thought we needed something bigger than a program. We needed … something for our town to rally around.” He said the outcome was “a completely personalized, technology-rich, authentic, passion-based learning environment where kids couldn’t wait to be at school every day.”

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It was a challenge filling new positions, and several business owners started discussing our challenges in finding the workforce we needed. We learned that the school district was working on those same areas in its graduate profile, and we said, ‘Boy, this is timely.’

— Mike Hesketh, Shelby County business owner

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Over about the same timeframe, districts across Eastern Kentucky have embraced the connection between education and economic development. The emphasis has prompted courses and career training that offer creative responses to needs in Appalachian communities and local resources.

Active, applied learning approaches have been championed and spread by the Kentucky Valley Educational Cooperative, which promoted enterprising Appalachian school programs as part of a renaissance “to lift the region out of generational poverty and historically poor educational outcomes.”

Teachers have eagerly shared creative learning opportunities.

> At a KVEC regional conference four years ago, for example, a Knott County elementary teacher explained how she added software coding lessons for her third grade math class, allowing students to program robots. She explained seeing the connection between coding and math after learning that computer science jobs were growing far faster than the qualified workforce.

> Under carpentry teacher Don Page, Phelps High School in Pike County has become well-known for annually designing and selling new “tiny houses,” an enterprise now popular in area technology centers.

> At Belfry High School, also in Pike County, the STEAM Lab led by science and engineering teacher Haridas Chandran, known as “Doc,” has gained a reputation for in-depth projects with local applications.

His class resembles an inventor’s workshop. Students have examined chemical compositions that exist in coal, measured water quality in local wells, examined local medical trends and needs, even testing kudzu for medicinal qualities and as a building material.

“I want my students to learn more than what I have learned — I want them to be No. 1 in the world and compete with anybody,” Chandran said in a 2020 interview. “We’ve built a program where students can gain knowledge that fits the 21st century workforce — where they can take initiative, and they gain motivation to want to start something to help in this area.”

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STUDENT VOICE, COMMUNITY INPUT GROW

Hesketh of Shelby County has high hopes for what business leaders and deeper learning proponents can accomplish to equip students with skills that match the times.

“This is definitely having an impact,” he said. “Our industries are not the industries of the old days. Everyone is reluctant to change, but we need to take this message out to everyone in the county.”

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TEACHER HARIDAS CHANDRAN AT BELFRY HIGH checks on students in his STEAM Lab as they work on a prototype biodigester which will convert manure and food scraps into fertilizer. 2020 photo.

Charlie Reeves, now a sixth grader at East Middle School in Shelby County, said that his experience with graduate profile skills that connected to classwork helped him become a better student. He said that the learning defense presentation he made last year at Heritage Elementary allowed him to stand out in a way tests couldn’t.

“I’m really shy, but I got to show myself. It was just me,” he recalled. “I’ve become more responsible. I’m five times more confident. I’ve grown a large amount.”

Shaver, the fourth-grade teacher, said that he has been impressed at how thoughtful students have been about connecting graduate profile skills with life beyond school.

“I have found it extremely powerful when a child can tell me how they’ve been a responsible collaborator during scouts, on their baseball team, or in church,” Shaver said.

J.J. Black, principal at Heritage Elementary, said the graduate profile presents students with important new challenges. The district’s expectations encourage students to make their voices heard and to recognize their roles as contributors to the school and their own success.

“The profile has given kids license to be an advocate for themselves and push us at times,” the principal said. “It’s been about educating the whole student to realize that their world isn’t in these four walls.”

Black said the district now has a thorough plan for stressing the graduate profile and challenging academic work.

“The skills aren’t something we see in a silo or as an extra,” she said. “They are naturally a part of who people are and what we should work toward.”

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TOP PHOTO: Stella Franklin, Dallas Husband and Elijah Mabrey stand in front of a poster that their second grade class at Heritage Elementary in Shelby County created last year. It explains the district’s “graduate profile” skills in language young students can understand.

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CAN SKILLS, DEEPER LEARNING CRACK THE STATUS QUO?

SCOTTSVILLE — The feel of sixth-grade social studies last fall at the Allen County Intermediate Center was definitely not “textbook.”

Teachers introduced a new unit where local history and regional economic development took center stage for students. Their premise was that opening imaginations to the future — plus a major creative burst of cardboard art — would drive teams of 11-year-olds to suggest new enterprises that could enhance local pride and nurture community life, complete with imaginative makeshift prototypes.

Academic standards usually yield generic lessons and faraway references. Teachers here reconceived the opening chunk of sixth-grade content as a set of active, team-focused, hands-on explorations closely tied to the local community and its economic challenges.

The experience sparked proposals for a train depot museum, a livestock market, a shopping mall, and other ventures that would honor local culture and boost economic and social opportunities. Students proposed a drive-in theater complete with an extensive snack bar, a photo booth and a supersized abominable snowman statue. The drive-in and train depot became the themes of a pair of Christmas parade floats representing the school and pulled up South Court Street by a tractor.

The plunge into more engaging and relevant student learning and incorporating skills like collaboration and communication made a strong impression.

“It’s amazing because we get a voice. It makes us think about that we can make a change in the county,” said Ay’Den Grainger, part of the group of five students researching and creating the prototype for the drive-in theater.

The drive-in was appealing because it could draw people of all ages, explained Henry Harper. He said it is also needed. The nearest drive-in screen is 25 miles away in Franklin. The closest movie theater is further — in Bowling Green.

Gracie Chandler said that the unique assignment motivated her classmates in interesting ways: “It’s about how to overcome challenges, identify problems, and get stuff done.” She liked doing creative work in teams.

Allen County teachers were among 255 across Kentucky who participated in free project-based learning training ahead of this school year. Turning academic standards into hands-on, student-driven investigations is part of a three-year state grant to promote achievement and skills for adult success through relevant, engaging student work.

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FOURTH GRADE STUDENTS at Allen County Intermediate work on a project that involved mapping, geometry and habitat content as they planned what community services would need to be restored after a natural catastrophe.

Veteran sixth-grade teacher Amanda Minix joined the training based on enthusiasm from district and school leaders. “I was really skeptical when they told us about the training,” she recalled. “After 22 years, I know that we tend to jump on bandwagons, so I thought this was something else that would come and go.” Putting the approach into action made her an enthusiast.

“As we got started with this unit, I saw how this could work,” Minix added. She said students became more eager to be at school, behavior issues declined, classroom conversations were more focused, and adults and students alike saw how the learning could fuel success beyond school.

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STATE GRANT AIMS TO SPREAD ‘VIBRANT’ LEARNING

State officials expect the number of teachers involved in the project-based learning training to grow significantly this summer. Regional sessions are planned. All eight regional education cooperatives have added staff to actively coach and support educators in active learning experiences.

The push toward new classroom approaches is key to the state education department’s United We Learn strategic plan, drafted in 2021 following meetings with educators, students, families, and business leaders across the state. It calls for delivering more vibrant learning experiences for students, creating innovation in assessment, and establishing greater collaboration between educators and communities.

Pandemic shutdowns in 2020 and 2021 fueled wide reflection about the outcomes of students’ learning experiences and the need to produce results beyond a narrow focus on multiple-choice and short-answer state tests, educators said.

“There’s been a growing feeling that it’s time to move toward the systems kids need to have to be prepared for life,” said Robb Smith, now the statewide director of deeper learning for the Kentucky Association of Educational Cooperatives and a retired superintendent. The co-ops combined to win a $24.5 million three-year grant to support deeper learning experiences. Of 171 Kentucky school districts, 167 joined the effort.

“We want to build stronger partnerships with business people, families, and citizens — we have a responsibility to meet the needs of our communities,” Smith said.

More engaging and relevant learning experiences have been expanding steadily.

In 2010, district-level and community involvement to engage all students in more active learning led the University of Kentucky College of Education to start its Next Generation Leadership Academy for school teams seeking new approaches. In the 12 years since, the academies have involved about 1,200 educators from 75 districts.

Lawmakers in 2012 enacted innovation provisions allowing districts and schools to implement programs to improve student learning and achievement. The state education department created an innovation division to work with interested districts and expand personalized learning.

In the fall of 2021, the state education department launched its Local Laboratories of Learning to collaborate with school districts in a network of community projects to redefine essential student outcomes, overhaul teaching and learning, and explore assessment and accountability alternatives.

Seven districts joined the first year. (Allen, Jefferson, Fleming, Shelby, Logan, and Johnson counties, along with the Frankfort independent district.) Six more joined in the spring of 2022. (Boone, Bullitt, Lawrence, and Greenup counties, as well as Berea and Corbin.) Five more districts joined last fall. (Carter, Floyd, Washington, Rowan, and LaRue counties.)

More broadly, 43 Kentucky districts have become part of the state’s Innovative Learning Network, a professional learning outreach effort to offer technical assistance and support on deeper learning efforts.

“The demand is there from communities — they recognize the importance of skills for lifelong learning well beyond education,” said Sarah Snipes, innovative strategies manager at the state education department. “In schools and in communities, people know that we need something different for students.”

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The demand is there from communities — they recognize the importance of skills for lifelong learning well beyond education. … People know that we need something different for students.

— Sarah Snipes, Kentucky Department of Education

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The state’s assistance is designed to combine community understanding with education system changes to assure wide and lasting input and support. Snipes said that deeper learning changes mark a big shift for schools.

“What makes the work of last two years look different is seeing community collaboration mobilize and take hold differently,” Snipes said. “Educators and community representatives see themselves making something together and see that come alive in classrooms.”

“Making sure everyone is at the table has been really powerful,” added Travis Hamby, superintendent of the Allen County district, part of the first cohort involved in the Local Laboratories of Learning program. Wide community input helped Allen County’s educators define larger goals for students — expectations that spelled out the need for all students to become resilient learners, creative problem solvers, accountable collaborators and more. “We got what the community said they want,” Hamby said.

“It comes back to why we all got into education to begin with — to make a difference with students and create engaging activities. Learning is about curiosity and asking questions,” Hamby said. “To go down this path, we recognize that we had lost some of that. But when you start talking about the possibilities of engaging with kids in the learning process, and building up everyone’s skills and passions, that resonates with people.”

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SIGNIFICANT CHALLENGES AWAIT

As interested administrators and a team of deeper learning coaches nurture growing interest in schools, educators who have been at the forefront of such programs point to the need for policy changes and new approaches.

Some challenging areas where educators say new approaches will be vital:

> Redefining assessment and accountability. State tests focus on multiple-choice and short-answer questions in single content areas. Meanwhile, an accountability system that classifies schools based on that narrow snapshot reinforces test-driven teaching and learning. Can state leaders find measures and a system that will not only permit — but measure and recognize — well-rounded students who can produce and explain meaningful work?

> Addressing professional preparation. Rigid certification and training rules classify teachers as subject- and grade-level specialists, with teacher prep programs necessarily following that mold. How can current and prospective teachers become strong designers of powerful learning experiences? How do preparation programs train teachers to cover teamwork, presentation skills, and interdisciplinary content?

> Coordinating succession and team building. Dynamic school environments are often the product of maverick or charismatic individual leaders. How can schools and districts develop teams of skilled educators and administrators prepared to build upon stronger learning experiences and innovation successes?

> Garnering solid legislative support. The budding emphasis on developing durable skills and student engagement clearly connects to labor market and economic development needs. How does the education system work with legislative champions to assure statutory and regulatory support for significant changes in student learning and testing?

> Sharpening outreach and communication. Public schools are deeply wrapped in tradition. How do schools, districts and the larger system coordinate and succeed in reframing needs and solutions to win public support and involve citizens, family members, business leaders, and others as advocates?

“What will be needed is an attractive alternative that’s easily understood by educators and the community,” said Justin Bathon, associate professor and chair of the educational leadership studies department at UK.

Bathon has faced the challenges of moving beyond the status quo as a co-founder of the STEAM Academy high school in Lexington, a designer of UK’s deeper learning academy, a developer of school leaders, and a public school parent.

“Over the last 25 years, we’ve told everyone that education means a deeply measurable, simplified thing,” he said. “It’s difficult to ask a system under pressure and that doesn’t have resources make this kind of major shift.”

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Over the last 25 years, we’ve told everyone that education means a deeply measurable, simplified thing. It’s difficult to make a system under pressure and that doesn’t have resources make this kind of major shift.

— Justin Bathon, University of Kentucky College of Education

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His experience with the STEAM Academy, a partnership with the Fayette County school district, involved a mix of challenges. “It can be hard to hold the ground you have achieved,” Bathon said. “We almost need to define a new type of school as living in a different category for district and board choices to be different. Right now, there is no category for schools that have broken the mold where we’ve provided long-term supports to be sustainably different.”

Carmen Coleman, director of deeper learning for the Ohio Valley Educational Cooperative in Shelbyville, said that the growing interest in what students need to be successful as adults opens big possibilities. “We’ve got an opportunity with forces coming together that we haven’t had, so it’s a really important moment in time.”

Coleman was previously chief academic officer of the state’s largest school district, implementing Jefferson County’s Backpack of Success Skills program beginning in 2018. She also worked with Bathon at UK and was superintendent of one of the state’s original Districts of Innovation.

Achieving a more meaningful school experience will require changing the power of test scores in the public’s mind and in educators’ careers, Coleman said.

“The districts that we are working with all want to do something differently — they see the need for change and a different kind of student experience for successful futures. There’s no argument about the need,” she said.

As local schools move toward more rigorous and relevant learning, the requirements and routines of the education system are due for a makeover, Coleman said.

“We are getting what the system is designed to produce, and we need drastic changes on that front,” Coleman said. “Teaching is so focused on individual standards. People lose jobs over state test scores. And the teachers most inexperienced are just trying to survive. People are understandably nervous about doing anything away from the norm.”

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STUDENT OUTCOMES, VOICES ILLUMINATE NEEDS

While standardized tests or course-taking indicate how many students are “proficient” or “ready” by graduation day, the data fail to register how students fare in actual settings. After a decade of deeper learning efforts, however, many recent graduates are eager to reflect on the impact of school experiences.

As a senior at Fern Creek High School in Louisville in the spring of 2019, Keilen Frazier was in the first group of Jefferson County students to make a presentation explaining how high school learning and achievements equipped him to move forward.

Learning defenses, where students present to a panel of teachers and community members, are a component of district’s Backpack of Success Skills program as students leave elementary, middle and high school.

Frazier was an early fan the district’s move to provide students challenging experiences, reflect on their work, and practice skills beyond academic recall.

“A lot of seniors, I think, aren’t ready to graduate,” Frazier explained in a 2019 interview. “In their head, they think they are, but deep down inside they know they aren’t. They just want to get out even though they don’t know what they’re getting out into. I feel like the Backpack really does help us center ourselves to figure out what we’re going to do next — that next chapter. I wish we had something like this our freshman year.”

Weeks before graduating, Frazier said many students see standardized tests as a poor measure of what matters for success. “The Backpack gives you more opportunity to show what you do than standardized testing. I struggled academically my freshman year,” he explained. “I do better when I can actually do things. I’ve learned more outside the building than I have inside.”

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IN A 2019 PHOTO, FERN CREEK HIGH senior Keilen Frazier was among the first group of Jefferson County high school students to make a presentation about how classwork and experiences demonstrated command of skills like critical thinking, collaboration and leadership. Now a photojournalism major at Western Kentucky University, he said the experience in Jefferson County was good preparation for college and succeeding in internships.

Now a photojournalism major at Western Kentucky University, Frazier said he still appreciates the changes he saw in his final years in Jefferson County. The emphasis on presentations defending one’s work turned out to be common in many college assignments. He also liked that students could gain recognition for acquiring skills beyond their classwork through extracurricular activities and team competitions. In college, he has focused on landing a series of internships to gain a professional edge beyond college.

“Leadership can translate to any organization,” Frazier said in a recent interview. “Understanding how to work together, knowing what’s expected, and how to move things forward — that’s how things work in classes, in student organizations, in teams, and on the job. You’ve got to know how to solve problems and get to the end zone, which is what the Backpack program is about.”

Frazier said schools need to build students’ opportunities and abilities to work together, solve problems, and communicate.

Jaley Adkins, preparing for early graduation after her third year at the University of Louisville, said that the opportunity to do original research and be involved in hands-on projects at Belfry High School in Pike County were enormous advantages in college and as she focuses on postgraduate programs.

During her senior year of high school, Adkins and a classmate earned a spot at the Regeneron International Science and Engineering Fair in California.

In short, their project examined whether extracts of natural products — including kudzu flowers picked from vines growing on a hill beside the school parking lot — could capture gold or silver nanoparticles from an acid compound and possibly replace commonly used chemical solutions in medicine. (Gold and silver nanoparticles are adept at bonding with cancer cells, making them a tool for locating cancer cells in MRIs, for example, or delivering highly targeted treatments.)

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IN A 2020 PHOTO, BELFRY HIGH seniors Jaley Adkins, left, Madison Slone, and teacher Haridas Chandran discussed the students’ research testing whether kudzu extract can capture gold or silver nanoparticles potentially useful in cancer diagnosis. Adkins, now a student at the University of Louisville, said her in-depth high school learning experience inspired ongoing interest in medical research.

The experience connected Adkins with U of L. Her research has continued there, leading to plans for graduate school and a doctorate in pharmaceutical chemistry and engineering.

“Based on my experience at Belfry, teachers and schools trying to make learning more engaging is easily one of the most beneficial things that can be done for students,” Adkins said in a recent interview. “Without teachers like Doc, I would not be where I am today. Making learning more engaging truly brings students into it and makes them feel like they are playing an active part in their learning.”

Haridas “Doc” Chandran, the Belfry High science and engineering teacher and leader of the school’s STEAM lab, said in a 2020 interview that one of his first discoveries as a teacher was that schoolwork was deeply disconnected from adult life and local realities.

“The education the kids received was not related to the workforce and the economy we have, which was going down. I thought I should motivate these kids to go beyond what they might normally know — the 21st century workforce is not the thing they had 30 years ago.” Drones, 3-D printers, and investigations into medicine, construction and energy became focal points.

“I just mentor — give them directions,” Chandran said. “They take that initiative and do it by themselves. If something happens, they come and ask me. It’s research, understand, and complete the work. That’s the learning process.”

Adkins said that engaging challenges are essential to producing motivated students.

“I think schools should step up to help students find their passions sooner,” Adkins said. “Too often now, schools are focused on teaching for exams, not teaching for love. That is what happens when there is applied learning. Like me, students can find what they love through these applied experiences.”

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TOP PHOTO: Sixth grade students at Allen County Intermediate Center add details to a cardboard model of their proposed drive-in theater, complete with cotton to suggest an all-season entertainment destination.

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TEACHERS’ CREATIVE ENERGY FUELS ENGAGEMENT

BENTON — Once school is out and middle school teacher Kalli Colley is dealing with regular life, she notices interesting learning opportunities almost everywhere: In the decisions people make, in news stories, in everyday work, and even ordinary forces of nature.

In the Marshall County school district, teachers who can combine academic standards and real-life applications are in demand. For many students in the district, learning often involves experiences and activities that reach across subject areas, pull in relevant events or tasks, and spark interaction with adults and the community. For Colley, the off-time brainstorming flows easily into the classroom.

“My husband and I were planning a vacation and starting to discuss where we might go, what we’d like to do, Airbnb versus hotel, and reading carefully about options,” she explained. That slice of her own life almost fully explains the activity underway in her language arts classroom at South Marshall Middle.

Small teams of students worked as travel planners. Colley created 10 “client profiles” describing fictional people eager to enjoy leisure time. The profiles listed desired trip length, budget, activities, and other pertinent notes or preferences.

For instance, Sam and Mary, the fictional retired couple in the group, wanted to spend $3,000 or less for a five-night getaway. Sam likes taking nature photos but doesn’t want to walk too much because of achy knees. Mary is picky about restaurants and only eats out at places with mostly positive reviews. Colley’s profiles included stock photos of each set of “clients.”

Students scanned the internet and bounced ideas off family or friends to devise a trip that met the clients’ specifications. The assignment involved research, targeting a specific audience, informational writing, organizing a presentation, and more. Math and geography content was involved. Colley said the project also let her see how well students were understanding inferences, being accurate and precise in their work, and recognizing the difference between wants and needs.

After suggesting an ideal destination and itinerary for the clients, student teams turned their findings into a presentation promoting their recommended destination. It was presented to adults including local tourism and chamber of commerce officials for questions and feedback.

Colley said that designing engaging learning projects with student work worthy of an outside audience leads students and educators to gain more from classwork.

“The good experiences I had in school were ones that were memorable,” she said. “We say that if what we do in here makes it to the kitchen table, we taught them something.”

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HIGH SCHOOL ENGLISH TEACHER MARTY VAUGHAN EXPLAINS AN ASSIGNMENT, which is also recorded for students to view later, for a writing workshop at the STEAM Academy in Lexington.

At South Marshall, middle school students and families can choose to enroll in the Explore team, where Colley teaches. Explore focuses on education experiences that incorporate students’ personal interests and learning styles. Stressing real-life skills, examples, and community resources, the goal is rich understanding of key academic content.

Colley said the approach has changed her view of teaching.

“This involves a learning curve for teachers and adjusting when things don’t work, but it also leads to so much success,” she said. “Students aren’t doing an assignment and only getting a grade that ends up in the grade book and then, no matter what they make, we move on. If there are lingering gaps in their understanding, those are still my responsibility. We try again with a new approach — a third, fourth, or fifth time if necessary.”

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EDUCATORS GAIN A NEW LENS ON LEARNING

“Deeper learning” strategies are known for seeking student ownership and engagement. However, the success of the active experiences also elevates teachers, requiring careful planning and creative design.

Many Kentucky educators describe their own increased ownership and engagement as a powerful step forward.

In Marshall County, educators seeking to boost student proficiency first looked into deeper learning seven years ago. The district promised support for teachers willing to pursue new approaches. In addition, leaders drafted a graduate profile pledging that all classrooms would work toward applying academics through skills connected with adult success.

The profile calls for students to develop communication, creativity and innovation, character, critical thinking and problem solving, collaboration, and citizenship as they learn core knowledge,

Jackie Reid, Marshall County’s supervisor of instruction, said that seeing students engaged in authentic learning experiences, demonstrating their work, and reflecting on the skills gained has created a big change in the way educators view teaching, learning, assessment, and success.

“When I started as a principal, our schools had some of the highest test scores in the state. That’s how you gained recognition.” Feeling satisfied, however, disappeared after Marshall educators joined a Kentucky delegation that visited Wisconsin schools focused on student ownership, personalized learning, and durable skills.

“It was almost a kick in the gut,” Reid said. “Watching the students there, I felt a pit in my stomach — like you know that what you’ve been doing is wrong. We saw all of these ideas in place, and there was no question that those kids would have a major advantage over Marshall County kids. They were doing so many things that we should be doing. At that time, our kids had no idea how to problem-solve or work with each other. “

Marshall leaders held local meetings with community leaders and employers. “We asked what they expect of entry-level workers and started hearing all of these things, knowing that we were not teaching it,” Reid said.

The district found many teachers and administrators eager to dive into deeper classroom learning. Navigating the new emphasis has been a professional learning experience here and in many Kentucky districts.

Transforming academics and classrooms “to equip students to be in the real world” is a major change for teachers and school leaders, said Chris Flores, director of the STEAM Academy, a high school program for Fayette County students launched in 2013 around deeper learning and durable skills.

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Sometimes teachers have an idea but may not fully know how to bring it to fruition or make it authentic, so we spend more time in collaborative mode, working with each other.

— Chris Flores, STEAM Academy director, Fayette County

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Teachers fill the gap between academic concepts and how they are applied. Getting students more involved and reaching a solid level of understanding tests educators with new roles as motivators, facilitators and coaches in areas like communication or problem solving.

“We ask a lot. We want students to be seen and heard. When we see deficiencies, we want to help them through that,” Flores said. “The teachers who want to be here want to challenge what education was when we went to school.”

Success in deeper learning requires educators to become more flexible and reflective, he said. Creating a cooperative workplace is a must.

“Sometimes teachers have an idea but may not fully know how to bring it to fruition or make it authentic, so we spend more time in collaborative mode, working with each other,” Flores said.

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‘I SAW AN OPPORTUNITY TO QUESTION NORMS AND INNOVATE’

At the STEAM Academy’s open, artsy space in north Lexington, students in Marty Vaughan’s English I class gathered in a lounge space outside the classroom or found quiet areas in a session set aside as a writing workshop. Some wrote new sections. Others revised their own work, or reviewed one another’s pieces, or consulted with Vaughan.

As the period progressed, their teacher found time to record a short presentation sharing his guidance for the assignment — a tutorial that students could access online any time. A few students watched as he recorded the video, picking up on his advice.

This setting and structure offers plenty of freedom for students, meaning progress at various stages of completion. Vaughan said that teachers here learn to juggle technology, student questions and struggles, and help teens adjust to the learning atmosphere built around deeper interaction with academic concepts, real-life connections, and explaining results.

“Differentiation is at a whole new level here,” he said.

The English I class is a full-year course, versus the semester classes common at STEAM. The full-year English schedule the transition for students arriving from traditional middle schools across the Fayette County system. “In a lot of cases, it’s a shock.”

The facility, opened by the Fayette district in 2013, is a partnership with the University of Kentucky’s Center for Next Generation Leadership in the College of Education and includes built-in early college courses, community internships, and project-based learning.

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Students need as many experiences as possible in how academics are applied. Otherwise, we’re not giving kids the skills necessary to succeed in a world that’s going to change before they are even out of high school.

— Gary DeBorde, STEAM Academy teacher

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Vaughan said that while new approaches pose challenges, the goal of engaged students moves the job of teaching much closer to the creativity and learning breakthroughs that led many teachers into education.

“I saw too much wrong with the typical American high school classroom,” Vaughan said. “It’s a broken system. Here, I saw the opportunity to question norms and innovate. We’re give the freedom to try and fail forward. It’s a pretty cool place to be.”

Gary DeBorde, an engineering teacher at STEAM since the program began, said he was drawn to principles of design-thinking, where hands-on assignments are built for an authentic customer or end-user. School should encourage students to be thoughtful and results-oriented, he said.  Beyond producing work in line with a project or assignment, students need to be able to justify their choices along the way and explain the final product.

His freshman engineering class offers a grab-bag of challenges — designing fashion, creating board games, building a carbon dioxide powered drag racing vehicle, and more. Using specifications from a national technology student group, DeBorde advises and equips teams of students who work to produce and refine pieces that can ultimately be judged in state or national competitions.

Many educators involved in the push for greater student engagement point to new partnerships and interactions with employers and community members as a step that has expanded their professional focus. The emphasis opens ways for students and teachers to see how academic concepts are actually used.

“Students need as many experiences as possible in how academics are applied. Otherwise, we’re not giving kids the skills necessary to succeed in a world that’s going to change before they are even out of high school,” DeBorde said.

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PLANNING AND REFLECTING ALL DAY

In Marshall County, upgrading teaching through professional collaboration has become an all-day, everyday experience for fourth-grade teachers Shannon Hamlet and Amanda Murphy at Sharpe Elementary.

After seeing the results a pair of teachers in a Wisconsin school achieved using a flexible space to creatively group students, collaborate, and juggle varied experiences throughout the day, Hamlet and a colleague asked to try it. The district arranged to take out a wall at Sharpe to create the giant space where Hamlet and Murphy now work together with 65 students.

Hamlet and Murphy are enthusiastic about using project-based learning to create central themes that prompt new thinking and work from students. In the fall, their fourth-graders spent weeks on the book “The Wild Robot,” about a robot that awakens alone on an island, unaware of what to do next.

It proved an amazing diving board.

“We studied camouflage and adaptations in science, read fiction and nonfiction texts in language arts, researched animals and biomes to write a feature article,” the teachers explained. “We used engineering to create dioramas of biomes and learned about maps and landforms in social studies. We even covered math standards.”

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AT SHARPE ELEMENTARY IN MARSHALL COUNTY, fourth-grade teachers Shannon Hamlet, foreground, and Amanda Murphy work in a combined classroom where 65 students work in flexible groups and teachers collaborate throughout the day.

At an exhibition for parents and family members at the end of the weeks-long project — featuring a robot that students built in honor or Roz, the title character — students discussed what they had learned and how topics connected.

“We just stood back and watched,” Murphy said. “Parents talked about how passionate their children had been. They were proud the children had done so much work.” The large robot in the gym lobby made the project a buzzy topic in the school.

Hamlet said that the co-teaching arrangement and focus on projects has enhanced her potential as a teacher.

“Teaching is a lot about planning and reflecting, and we can do that all day,” Hamlet said. “We can create small groups for students as we see that is needed, and when a lesson is going south or not clicking, we are a tag team. It’s constant planning in motion all day where we are also continually assessing kids and ourselves.”

Hamlet is energized by conceiving projects that grip students and allow them to learn across subject areas.

“Hands-on learning has been very important to me from the beginning of my teaching career,” she said. “It’s the way I like to do things.”

Seeing the sense of discovery in students has become a driving force.

“Students who struggle get a chance to shine when it connects to life, and they feel more freedom,” Hamlet said. “Seeing the a-ha moments of connecting and pulling in so many standards is a big payoff. And we can go bigger.”

The day after the parent exhibition on the robot project, Murphy and Hamlet were already thinking ahead to January, mulling the next big unit. Still on the table: a biography project — maybe a wax museum.

“We’re proud of what we can put together and so proud of what the kids can do,” Hamlet said.

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TOP PHOTO: South Marshall Middle School teacher Kalli Colley talks with eighth grade students planning a presentation.

May 11, 2023
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

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Prichard Committee Releases Meaningful Diploma Series

Reinforces Importance of Durable Skills in Education

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Lexington, KY – The Prichard Committee for Academic Excellence announced the release of its illuminating Meaningful Diploma Series today. This follows the earlier release of its report, The High Demand for Durable Skills. Together, these publications provide a comprehensive roadmap for enhancing education in Kentucky by focusing on the development of durable skills and fostering deeper learning.

“We are excited to elevate the important work educators are doing now to give their students the best possible start in life,” said Prichard Committee President Brigitte Blom. “While educational rankings can give us one piece of the puzzle, it is clear that the true measure of success lies in the combination of content mastery and real-life skills, like communication, leadership, critical thinking, and collaboration.”

The Meaningful Diploma Series consists of four reports that examine how durable skills — attributes that set students up for achievement in the workforce — are being incorporated into classrooms across the state and what that means for long-term success.

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Examples of classrooms across Kentucky developing durable skills are not hard to find. At Tilden Hogge Elementary in Morehead, fifth-graders explored the various uses of public spaces in their community, with a special focus on ways to enhance their own school playground. Meanwhile, at Rowan County Senior High, chemistry students conducted lab experiments to test the properties of water and other substances as part of a project centered on the essential ingredients for supporting life. Over at Allen County Intermediate, fourth-graders explored the necessary community services to restore after a natural disaster strikes. And students at Belfry High delved into a project aimed at transforming manure and food scraps into nutrient-rich fertilizer.

“As the former president of the Kentucky Community and Technical College System (KCTCS), I saw firsthand the transformative power of education when it’s coupled with the development of durable skills,” said Dr. Jay Box, former KCTCS president and member of the Prichard Committee Board of Directors. “Integrating durable skills can help ensure our students are not just academically proficient but also equipped with the critical skills needed to navigate and excel in our ever-evolving economy.”

Despite the positive steps being taken in Kentucky, significant challenges remain in breaking the status quo, including disparities in educational attainment, persistent achievement gaps between students of color and their white peers, and ongoing teacher shortages in critical subject areas.

“While we know foundational literacy and numeracy skills remain important for our students’ future success, they alone are not enough to ensure our economic prosperity and quality of life in the fast-moving economy that our children will inherit,” said Kentucky Education Commissioner Jason E. Glass. “If we can count on anything, it is that the forces shaping commerce right now are only going to accelerate in the years to come. This calls on us to reimagine education and create deeper and richer learning experiences for our students that prepare them for the world that awaits them. The Prichard Committee’s efforts around Meaningful Diplomas and bringing authentic and deep learning experiences to our students are important as we work to redesign education at scale in Kentucky, and prepare our students for their futures.”

The Prichard Committee collaborated with America Succeeds, a national nonprofit that aims to involve business leaders in enhancing access and opportunity in education, to produce a Kentucky-specific report. The study analyzed nearly 900,000 job postings from the past two years in 20 different industries and found that at least one durable skill is required in 74 percent of Kentucky jobs.

“The collaboration with the Prichard Committee has allowed us to further delve into the pressing need for durable skills in today’s ever-changing job market,” said Tim Taylor, Co-Founder and President of America Succeeds. “Our findings nationwide have revealed a significant demand for these skills, emphasizing the urgent need to integrate them into our education system.”

For more information on the Durable Skills Report and our Meaningful Diploma series, visit the Prichard Committee’s website at www.prichardcommittee.org.

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The Meaningful Diploma Series was authored by journalist Lonnie Harp who has covered education issues for the Courier Journal and the Lexington Herald-Leader in Kentucky, and as a reporter and editor at Education Week in Washington, D.C.

Contact: Courtney Daniel, Director of Communications and External Affairs
‍courtney@prichardcommittee.org