The Partnership for Kentucky Schools
1991 – present
In 1990, Kentucky's members of the Business Roundtable launched the Partnership for Kentucky Schools (then known as the Partnership for Kentucky School Reform) in response to the passage of the Kentucky Education Reform Act, the most sweeping education reform legislation in the United States. Since 1991, RKI has worked closely with the Partnership in a number of different capacities. Primarily, we have conducted research on school-community topics related to education reform using such methods as focus groups, interviews, and dialogue sessions. A great deal of our work since 1997 has been dedicated to increasing the student voice in decisions about school improvement.
RKI advised the Partnership on its Expect More, Achieve More strategic plan. This plan guides work with school communities and business groups to improve students' academic performance and readiness for work and civic life. Expect More, Achieve More represents the best efforts of the Kentucky business community to contribute in a distinctive, powerful way to Kentucky's goal of having all public schools reach proficiency by 2014.
As part of this program approach, RKI helped to develop "toolkits" based on Partnership research efforts that enable school-community groups to put research findings to practical use. In addition, we trained and guided educators, students, and other interested citizens on how to design and carry out their own research efforts on topics that make a difference to their students and their schools. RKI and the Partnership worked with noted facilitator Roger Schwarz, author of The Skilled Facilitator, to develop the Partnership Cadre for School and Community Development, a group of people throughout the state who serve as resources and advisors for school-community groups seeking innovative ways to improve Kentucky schools.
We also made usability improvements to the Partnership's website, www.pfks.org. The improvements included switching to web-safe colors, making links more visible, providing more "see also" links within pages, improving image quality, decreasing load time, overhauling the search function, and reorganizing the site's content into more logical categories. For more information about our web services, visit www.rkiweb.com.
Below you will find brief descriptions of the major projects we have completed for the Partnership, along with links to more detailed information about these projects.
Partnership Coaching (2000-present)
External Communication Focus Groups (2000)
In the spring of 2000, we conducted focus groups that aimed to provide the Partnership with information about ways it could communicate more effectively with the business community about education issues. During the focus groups, participants from both the public and private sectors evaluated the current effectiveness of the Partnership's newsletter, Expect More, Achieve More, and offered suggestions about ways to improve the design and/or content.
Fayette County Schools – Student Focus Groups (1999-2004)
In cooperation with the Fayette County School System, we provided guidance for five public schools that carried out their own student-based focus group research. We worked particularly closely with one Fayette County middle school on all phases of the research effort.
Jessamine County Schools (1998-2000)
We worked with Jessamine County Schools (Nicholasville, Kentucky) to conduct 13 focus groups with students in grades 4-12 on the topic of school climate and school safety. The school board used the results of this study to guide its decision not to place a uniformed safety officer in every school building. In addition, this effort developed the research and facilitation skills of Jessamine County educators, students, and parents. In 1999-2000, RKI provided occasional advice as Jessamine County educators conducted a second round of student focus groups on the topic of students' perceptions of the work they do for school. The educators used the results from these focus groups to set goals for improving teaching/learning strategies as part of the district's 2000-2002 Comprehensive Plan.
Lincoln County Essential Skills Dialogue (1999)
In collaboration with the Kentucky Chamber of Commerce and the Partnership, RKI designed a dialogue that brought Lincoln County educators, students, and employers together to discuss essential work skills. RKI designed the format for the session and provided facilitation services.
Turn Up the Volume: The Students Speak Toolkit (2001)
Developed for the Partnership in 1999, and expanded in 2001, this comprehensive kit guides school communities in conducting research with students in order to increase the student voice on such issues as school safety, school climate, the curriculum and their experience of teaching and learning. The Toolkit – based on case studies of successful student focus group research efforts in several public schools in Kentucky – provides detailed descriptions of the process for conducting student-based focus group research.
Governor's Scholars Program (1998)
In the summer of 1998, we conducted a four-week course on qualitative research and dialogue for 40 rising high school seniors attending the Governor's Scholars Program. The course instructed students on how to conduct their own focus group research on topics related to teaching and learning.
Students Speak: How Kentucky Middle and High School Students View School (1993, 1997-1998)
In 1993 and 1997-1998, RKI conducted focus group research with a cross-section of middle and high school students in Kentucky's public schools. These focus groups sought to discover students' views of teaching and learning, in light of the Kentucky Education Reform Act. These research efforts also sought to increase the student voice in decisions about school improvement.
Difficult Ground: Community Leaders and School Board Service in Kentucky (1997) (pdf, 80 KB)
For the Partnership and the Kentucky School Boards Association, we conducted focus groups with community leaders and interviews with present and former school board members to determine their views on school board service and to recommend strategies to encourage more highly skilled community leaders to serve as school board members.
See the Prichard Committee for Academic Excellence for a description of our early work with the Partnership.
Check out other descriptions of our work in the areas of school improvement and community change and citizen engagement.
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