Roberts & Kay, Inc. -- Lincoln County Essential Skills Dialogue

Lincoln County Essential Skills Dialogue

May, 1999

For the Partnership for Kentucky Schools, and in collaboration with the Kentucky Chamber of Commerce, we designed a dialogue session in Lincoln County (Stanford, KY) centered around the topic of essential work skills. Participants in the structured dialogue included Lincoln County educators, high school students from across Lincoln County, and employers of Lincoln County workers. Commonwealth Institute for Parent Leadership Fellow Becky Burton, who works at the South Lincoln County Family Resource Center, envisioned and organized the session. In addition to designing the format for the session, RKI provided facilitation services throughout the day.

The session was based on the Partnership's report Ready to Work: Essential Skills for Kentucky Jobs, March, 1998 (pdf, 203 KB). That report presents information about the skills identified as essential by Kentucky employers and describes how the Kentucky perspective compares to or contrasts with that of employers nationwide. Sources for the research include recently published literature, surveys, and studies, as well as personal interviews with Kentucky employers. The report is currently being revised to incorporate the views of students and educators.

After initial introductions, participants first reviewed specific research findings from the Essential Skills report. They then considered these questions:

From a Lincoln County perspective, how accurate and relevant are the statewide research findings about what employers say they need in new employees, and what employers say about their ability to find employees who meet those needs?
What can students, educators, and employers do to make progress on Lincoln County students' work readiness?

Students, educators, and employers met in separate groups to discuss the main findings of the Partnership's report and then reconvened as a whole group to explore similarities and differences in opinion. They met again, both separately and then together, to consider cooperative efforts they may initiate to ensure that all Lincoln County students are ready for work when they complete their secondary education. RKI produced a short summary report (pdf, 43 KB) that describes the main findings from the dialogue.

The session in Lincoln County served as the pilot in the development of a structured dialogue on improving students' work readiness. Using the Lincoln County experience as the model, RKI has worked with the Partnership to design the Essential Skills Dialogue Guide (pdf, 166 KB) for other Kentucky school communities that want to conduct similar dialogues on this topic.

Be sure to check out other descriptions of our work in the area of School Improvement.

Also visit other clients for whom we have designed dialogue processes.

Back to the Partnership for Kentucky Schools