Preparing students for adult life in an ever-evolving economy is driving districts across Kentucky to rethink the skills that students should gain in their school years. The resulting “portrait of a learner” often involves 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. The Shelby County portrait of a learner 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 recently retired 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.
Mike Hesketh, owner of an industrial powder coating company in Shelby County, said local employers began realizing that important skills were missing in the local workforce starting about a decade ago.
“I was part of a group in Southern Indiana called Metro Manufacturing Alliance with plant managers and CEOs,” said Hesketh. “We had a consultant come to our group and say, ‘if supply chain was your biggest problem, if you couldn’t get raw materials, as CEO, would you get involved in that?’ We all said sure. He said, ‘well what’s the biggest problem your company faces?’ And the answer was workforce. He asked, ‘so how involved are you?’ The answer at the time was ‘not very involved.’”
Hesketh said that his efforts in workforce development have showed him there is untapped talent in his community, but they often face barriers to working.
“There is a reason people are not working; that’s the barrier,” he said. “It could be housing; it could be transportation. But in a lot of cases, we were finding it was a bad experience with school, and their goal became getting out and graduating. They weren’t really making the most of school. The data show that 60% of graduating students were not going on to college. So what were they doing? They were kind of floundering. That’s when we said we have to get involved in the schools.”
Hesketh said this was a natural partnership since as a business leader, he’d already been invited to work on the portrait of a learner and strategic planning for the schools. Their efforts have now expanded to partnering on project-based learning opportunities, which give students real-world experience while they are still in school.
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“We started project-based learning this year, and we had about 10 classrooms in the community that partnered with businesses,” he said. “One partnered with German American Bank. Their project was teaching kids how to budget for meals. They took them to the grocery store; they had to plan a meal. They expanded it to include all personal finances. The kids had to do a project where they came into the bank with their parents and made a presentation. They toured the bank, showed them how it worked, showed them the vault and everything. It was a good opportunity to get the kids excited about school. We are seeing where we’ve implemented the portrait of learner, grades go up, attendance goes up, behavior issues go down. Kids go to school interested and excited to be here.”
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. Hesketh said this was a community effort.
“We got everyone in town—the mayor, the judge, our fiscal court, our industrial foundation, the school—everyone pitched in to fund this position,” he said. “It is really catching on now. We have a young lady in the position now who is really enthusiastic and really engaging the community.”
