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By Brigitte Blom | December 13, 2022<\/p>\n
[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=”3\/4″][vc_column_text single_style=””]Like Marty and Doc in the 1985 science-fiction blockbuster \u201cBack to the Future,\u201d we find ourselves returning to the past to ensure the Big Bold Future we know can be ours!<\/p>\n
This year brought blow after blow, showing Kentucky losing ground to other states on important indicators of education progress.<\/p>\n
While much of this traces to the upheaval of the COVID pandemic, we started seeing signs of decline in 2017. To get Kentucky back on track, we must focus on COVID recovery, but also rethink education to meet the future with greater strength, resilience\u2014 and sustainable progress. Consider the following examples of hard-won progress lost:<\/p>\n
Because COVID had a disproportionate impact on those with fewer resources, Kentucky, a poor state, was likely hit harder than other states. Our losses could have been worse. We should acknowledge the strength in our systems that kept us from outright free fall \u2014 and meet our declines in the rankings with resolve to work smarter and harder \u2014 together and without division.[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][vc_column width=”1\/4″][vc_single_image image=”19024″ img_size=”full”][vc_column_text single_style=””]<\/p>\n
By Brigitte Blom<\/strong> [\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row content_placement=”top” css=”.vc_custom_1672194553177{margin-top: 0px !important;padding-top: 0px !important;}”][vc_column][vc_column_text single_style=”” css=”.vc_custom_1672195029969{margin-top: 0px !important;padding-top: 0px !important;}”]We must also recognize that test scores in reading and mathematics are not all that parents, students, communities, and businesses expect from a world-class public education. The 1990 Kentucky Education Reform Act defined seven capacities required of students (with an eighth added in 2000). These include the durable and transferable skills that will serve students in a changing economy and world. Communication, leadership, critical thinking, and collaboration are among these skills.<\/p>\n While we don\u2019t \u2014 and arguably shouldn\u2019t \u2014 try to boil these skills down to standardized tests, a diploma should ensure meaningful evidence of skill development. Students should practice and be able to articulate how they developed these competencies. A \u201cmeaningful diploma\u201d must assure that Kentucky\u2019s students are prepared to succeed.<\/p>\n Our work, as a citizen-led, nonpartisan and independent organization \u2014 is the same as ever: striving to create conditions for success and progress. That means advocating for the policy and investment solutions that strengthen our system, like passage of the 2022 Read to Succeed Act and the General Assembly, so far, meeting our six-year Big Bold Ask investment requests for early childhood, K-12, and postsecondary.<\/p>\n It also means supporting and amplifying local solutions to the needs of students and families \u2014 a<\/p>\n Groundswell for community and family engagement. Communities need to be at the table.<\/p>\n Sustainable improvement will not be just the work of our school districts, early childhood providers and postsecondary institutions. It requires all of us to be part of the solution.<\/p>\n While we won\u2019t be traveling back to the future in a DeLorean, we are indeed looking for a lightning bolt to restore our momentum. That jolt can come from Kentuckians uniting around a shared commitment, putting the pedal to the metal, and accepting nothing less than reaching that Big Bold Kentucky Future, together![\/vc_column_text][vc_empty_space]
\nPresident & CEO<\/p>\n