Education
Education is crucial if Kentucky is to increase its economic competitiveness and enhance quality of life. Unfortunately, many Kentucky high school graduates lack sufficient mathematical grounding to pursue careers in areas necessary to high-level jobs and a prosperous Kentucky. UK researchers are collaborating with the Kentucky Department of Education and Kentucky schools to enhance math instruction in the schools and create systems that allow distant teachers to collaborate in developing and testing math courses.
Another educational priority is the disparity in academic performance between African-American students and their counterparts across most academic subject standardized examinations. UK researchers are working to determine the factors contributing to this underperformance and develop strategies to rectify it. UK researchers are also working with Fayette County Public Schools and community groups to determine the factors underlying long-term underperformance by some schools and to develop and implement systems and strategies for turning underperforming schools into high performance models that can be replicated.
UK staff researchers and students are also involved in advancing school readiness skills - language, literacy, and social skills - of low socio-economic pre-school students. UK's Jumpstart affiliate program will use research-based approaches to enhance readiness. UK students will serve as in-class mentors to pre-school classes, working to produce readiness gains.
2008 adds the Kentucky Early Childhood Data System (KEDS), the culmination of eight years of work in early childhood education. Based on the recognition that early childhood experiences play a significant role in later behavior and school success and responding to Kentucky’s 2000 KIDS NOW legislation and the federal No Child Left Behind and the Good Start Grow Smart initiative, KEDS is setting rigorous learning standards and measuring the degree to which Kentucky children in early care and education programs are achieving those standards. KEDS provides aggregate data for the progress of these children while supporting local providers in gathering and using the data immediately to support improved instruction for children.
Another important 2008 addition is the Johnson Elementary School Project. This multi-pronged effort uses school-based interventions to address three significant issues at Fayette County’s elementary school with the highest poverty rates. This Collaborative targets three priority issues for Kentucky: obesity, asthma, and the low percentage of minority students pursuing health careers. Obesity is highest in Kentucky’s low-income, African-American, and Hispanic populations, and contributes significantly to their incidence of heart disease, diabetes, asthma, and orthopedic problems. The program’s second target, asthma, is itself is the leading cause of Kentucky school absenteeism and among the highest causes of emergency room visits. The Johnson School initiative’s third focus is on increasing pursuit of health careers by minorities.
The third 2008 education initiative is UK BEST responds to rising Kentucky and national concern over the low numbers of students training for careers in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics—all areas critical to America’s future economic competitiveness and the well-being of our people. Kentucky ranks 49th nationally in the number of science and engineering degrees conferred and 41st nationally in the number of people working in science and engineering. Percentages of African-Americans, Hispanics, and Asians/Pacific Islanders pursuing engineering in Kentucky are particularly low, so UK BEST provides a two-week, residential program providing rising high school juniors from underserved and underrepresented populations with opportunities to develop and strengthen their pre-engineering skills and to discover the career opportunities available to engineers.