Goal, Strategies and Initiatives
A concentration of highly educated people is key to achieving a region’s economic success. After all, regions prosper by virtue of their people. Therefore, Northern Kentucky set the goal of exceeding national education performance standards at every level.
Seven strategies for achieving educational excellence:
- Provide high-quality, affordable early childhood programs for all children
- Challenge students with a rigorous curriculum necessary for furthering their education and career goals, and for strengthening Northern Kentucky’s workforce
- Develop a nationally recognized “culture of contribution” by promoting service learning
- Exceed national standards for educator excellence in school systems that pay competitive salaries, reward performance and require accountability
- Make post-secondary education and adult training accessible and affordable to all
- Connect our children’s in-school and out-of-school development
- Ensure all Northern Kentucky educational institutions have the financial resources and programs needed to reach these goals
Latest Developments on Related Initiatives
One to One Practicing Reading with Students
www.newcities.org/partnershipforsuccessfulschools
One to One: Practicing Reading with Students completed the fall training period with 110 new coaches at 32 participating schools (including two new schools). The literacy coaches represent multiple business, non-profit and government organizations. The inaugural One to One Rockin’ Rally-A Music Fest for Literacy was held in late August providing recognition to current coaches and enhanced public awareness and media attention for the program. Additional training is scheduled for early December and January for an additional 30 new One to One coaches.
One to One is always looking for volunteers. Contact Nancy Costello ncostello@vison2015.org if you or your organization is interested.
Success By 6
http://sb6uwgc.org
Success By 6 is a national United Way strategy in more than 350 cities across the country all focused on improving school readiness through local community change. In Northern Kentucky, Success By 6 is active in Boone, Kenton, Campbell and Grant Counties. Key updates from the third quarter of 2011 include:
• Northern Kentucky has experienced a 43% increase in the number of STAR-Rated child care centers since last year. These centers are in the Success By 6 Coaching to Quality Collaborative.
• Northern Kentucky has experienced a 40% increase in the number of bornlearning™ Academies. The bornlearning™ Academy is a school-based workshop series that teaches parents and caregivers of children from prenatal to five years of age how to turn everyday moments into learning opportunities to help prepare their child for school success. The Academy was developed by NKU Early Childhood Faculty members, Kenton County Schools and Success By 6, with funding provided by Citi.
• Kentucky's application for the Race to the Top-Early Learning Challenge grant was submitted on 10/19/11. RTT is highly competitive-35 states have applied for $500 million pool of funds and only a handful of states will secure funding. The work of Success By 6 in Northern Kentucky was well-represented in the grant application.
Strive Partnership
www.strivetogether.org
Strive drives the success of children in Covington, Newport, and Cincinnati from cradle to career. Founded in 2006, Strive is a unique partnership spanning all sectors of Greater Cincinnati. Meaningful progress continues to be made in order to drive "collective impact," resource alignment, and data-informed decision-making. At the heart of the Partnership’s work is our collective effort to improve eight key student success indicators: kindergarten readiness, 4th grade reading proficiency, 8th grade math proficiency, high school graduation rates and ACT scores, and post-secondary enrollment, retention and completion.
In December, the partnership released its 2011 Partnership Report to update the community on progress being made to improve student achievement. The report offers a promising outlook as 81% of the partnership’s measures are trending in the right direction (vs. 74 % last year and 68% two years ago).
As part of a national campaign to improve early grade-level reading, the partnership submitted a joint application with the Northern Kentucky Education Council to launch a comprehensive, multi-year effort to improve 3rd grade reading.
Ready by 21
http://forumfyi.org
Ready by 21 is a call to action to leaders who know that continuing to support youth the same way is just not good enough. The main focus of the Ready by 21 work is to ensure all youth are ready for college, work and life. Ready by 21 is hosting The Southeast Challenge and has invited Northern Kentucky to participate. Northern Kentucky will undergo a “capacity audit” and based on the audit findings will receive core-capacity building support and be eligible for matching funds. We will be asked to document our efforts using state-of the-art software (workstations created by Community Systems Group), participate in peer discussions regarding ideas/strategies for getting farther, faster, and share progress reports with the Ready by 21 Leadership networks. Northern Kentucky plans to target the majority of our work around measuring, tracking and analyzing youth progress both inside and outside of school. In addition to Northern Kentucky, the Ready by 21 National Partnership invited Louisville, KY, Nashville, TN, Chattanooga, TN, Richmond, VA, and Atlanta, GA, to be members of the first cohort of the challenge work with cities.
Northern Kentucky Education Council (NKYEC)
www.nkypartners.org
In spring of 2008, Vision 2015 convened a meeting with the different education-related groups to discuss how potential collaboration would create more efficient and effective support of the full range of educational endeavors in Northern Kentucky. Further meetings were convened, and the group decided to focus its efforts on aligning the work and membership of the Northern Kentucky Education Alliance, the Northern Kentucky Council of Partners in Education, and the Vision 2015 Education Implementation Team. The newly aligned organization has been named the Northern Kentucky Education Council (NKEC). The NKYEC will have equal representation from educators, businesses leaders and community members and has adopted the six education goals identified in the Vision 2015 plan as the framework for moving forward. Action teams have been formed around the goals and data plans are in process. Vision 2015 has provided staff support to the Council through an executive loan.
The Council’s six Action Teams, comprised of key community, business and education leaders have completed guided discussions on priority outcomes and indicators that span the developmental continuum from Early Childhood to Adult Learners. The Council outcomes and indicators align with the broader goals of United Way, Vision 2015, STRIVE and Agenda 360. Comprehensive regional communication of the NKYEC goals and benefits for involved partners has been accelerated through the formation of an Executive Leadership Board.
Vision 2015 partnered with the Northern Kentucky Chamber of Commerce and the Northern Kentucky Education Council to award nearly $15,000 in mini-grants to move all students and adult learners toward college and career readiness.
Six Action Teams from the Northern Kentucky Education Council were eligible to apply, and the following three were selected for project funding. The projects selected were:
1) Professional learning collaborative for educators focused on developing 21st century learning skills.
2) Reducing financial barriers and increasing access for adults taking the GED test, by covering $40 of the $55 GED exam fee for at least 120 adult learners in six Northern Kentucky counties - Boone, Kenton, Campbell, Gallatin, Grant and Pendleton.
3) Building a toolkit designed to engage businesses in a meaningful way to be distributed to all current and potential business partners in the six Northern Kentucky counties.
Center for Educator Excellence
http://nkcee.nku.edu/
The Center offers high quality professional development, for sound teacher recruitment and retention programs, aligns the secondary and postsecondary curricula, encourages more teachers to aspire to National Board Certification and promotes the growth of the Future Educators of America's chapters in middle and high schools.