Better Schools

In 2000, the Kentucky Legislative Research Commission reported that 44 percent of adult Kentuckians are functionally illiterate. Almost half of Kentucky’s adult workforce cannot function effectively in the workplaces of the 21st century, and lack of education and workplace skills preclude advancement into better paying jobs. On that basis alone, few challenges facing the Commonwealth are more central to its future than student achievement in its public schools. The level of student achievement is the single most important indicator of a state’s future prosperity. Increasing that level is crucially important. Even ignoring financial considerations, large disparities in student achievement by race, class, or gender are unacceptable and negatively impact quality of life.

Fayette County is not immune to these problems. Pockets of underachievement riddle the public schools and undermine any shared vision that education has served or will serve as the great equalizer within the local community. Achievement & Closing the Gap, issued by One Community One Voice in 2003, is only the most recent document to chronicle student underachievement with a disturbing racial dimension.

The Great Schools Initiative (GSI) is working to eradicate the achievement gap, transform two low-achieving schools into one high-performing school, and use this community-based collaborative model to produce systemic changes within Fayette County Public Schools and the Lexington community. Currently, 91.7 percent of Booker T. Washington Elementary School and The Academy students qualify for free and reduced lunch, almost 2.2 times the school district average of 41.7 percent. These schools score well below district, state, and national norms on standardized tests.

This collaboration between UK, Fayette County Public Schools, and One Community One Voice, headed by Lori Gonzalez of the UK College of Health Sciences, Jim Cibulka of the UK College of Education, and UK Assistant Provost Richard Greissman, is now underway.

The plan is to address issues impeding student achievement and to design and implement mechanisms for providing educational enhancements. Most centrally, GSI aims at improving student achievement and test scores. Because academic achievement is dependent on students’ overall well-being, their physical and emotional health, their family and community situation, cohesiveness, and vision, isolated interventions are unlikely to produce the fundamental changes needed. Successful interventions must be coherent, multi-faceted, participatory, community-based initiatives aimed at systemic change. Parent, family, and community involvement are critical. GSI will develop and implement intervention strategies to improve students' overall well-being, including physical and emotional health, family and community situation, cohesiveness and vision.

Actions and Outcomes to Date

Many UK colleges and units have become involved in the Great Schools Initiative. The Knight Foundation has provided funding for external evaluation of interventions adopted, including educational performance, outcomes, and teacher and community engagement. Many initiatives, susceptible to implementation in other schools, and local contextual strategies have been adopted. A newsletter has been created for dissemination to families and school employees.

During the first year, the GSI focused on three areas: student mentoring, partnership enhancement, and curriculum and professional development. The GSI mentoring project places UK students as mentors in the primary center of Booker T. Washington Academy. 36 first-year UK students participated as mentors. A GSI partnership-enhancing steering committee is now functioning. Membership includes UK faculty and administrators, Fayette County Public Schools teachers and administrators, Booker T. Washington Academy (BTWA) parents and community members, Georgetown Road Neighborhood Association leaders, and LexLink, a local advocacy agency. A curriculum and personnel subcommittee has been established to coordinate long-range planning and professional development and to match resource requests from BTWA with UK faculty and staff expertise. UK’s College of Education has sponsored professional development activities for BTWA teachers. The Colleges of Education and Social Work have placed student interns at BTWA to address students’ social, psychological, and cultural needs. The College of Health Sciences has provided a list of proposed activities now being considered by the school’s principal, the School Site-Based Decision-Making Council, and the GSI curriculum and personnel subcommittee.

Future initiatives will include expansion of the mentoring program by increasing the number of students involved, expanding mentoring to include Leestown Middle School as well as BTWA. This expansion will occur in response to an invitation to help address the needs of an underserved and underperforming Hispanic student population.