{"id":5352,"date":"2020-12-18T19:38:11","date_gmt":"2020-12-18T19:38:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/prichard-backup.com\/July\/2020\/12\/18\/2020-taught-us-to-prioritize-innovation-engagement\/"},"modified":"2022-09-27T19:49:45","modified_gmt":"2022-09-27T19:49:45","slug":"2020-taught-us-to-prioritize-innovation-engagement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/prichard-backup.com\/July\/2020-taught-us-to-prioritize-innovation-engagement\/","title":{"rendered":"2020 taught us to prioritize innovation &#038; engagement"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Whew, what a year it\u2019s been! We\u2019ve all weathered both collective and unique challenges in 2020 and, without a doubt, we\u2019re pleased to the see the year come to a close. The core values we learned quickly to prioritize were\u00a0<strong><em>innovati<\/em><\/strong><strong><em>on &amp; engagement.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>As a team, we came together quickly in March to start providing answers and meaningful discussions during the early days of the pandemic with our Facebook\u00a0Live\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/prichard-backup.com\/July\/innovations-in-education\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Innovations in Education<\/a>\u00a0episodes. Those conversations led to much of the work that followed:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>We led the state-wide call to close the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/prichard-backup.com\/July\/in-covid-19-era-internet-access-is-a-basic-necessity\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Digital Divide<\/a>\u00a0as a means to ensure continued progress in our state through remote learning, remote work, and remote access to healthcare.<\/li>\n<li>Following the deaths of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor, we released a\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/prichard-backup.com\/July\/racial-equityjustice\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Call for Racial Equity and Justice<\/a>, calling for cultural competency in all areas of education and government, and hosted\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/prichard-backup.com\/July\/black-minds-matter\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Black Minds Matter Week<\/a>.<\/li>\n<li>We expanded our family engagement work to provide\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/prichard-backup.com\/July\/weekly-resources\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Weekly Resources<\/a>\u00a0to parents as they began to help their children with online learning and hosted virtual caf\u00e9\u2019s to provide a much needed outlet for parents to share worries, concerns, and solutions.<\/li>\n<li>We surveyed\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/prichard-backup.com\/July\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/Coping-with-COVID-Executive-Summary.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">students<\/a>,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/prichard-backup.com\/July\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/coping-with-cov_50165935-2.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">families and teachers<\/a>,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/prichard-backup.com\/July\/kentucky-child-care-provider-survey-shows-critical-need-for-federal-support-due-to-covid-19-crisis\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">child care providers<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/prichard-backup.com\/July\/kentucky-parent-survey-shows-families-concern-on-child-care-amid-pandemic\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">parents<\/a>, and are working on a survey of postsecondary students to better understand the impact of the pandemic. This work will show ways we can improve the pipeline of education so that it is stronger than it was pre-pandemic.<\/li>\n<li>During the Prichard Committee\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/prichard-backup.com\/July\/2020-annual-meeting\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Annual Meeting<\/a>\u00a0in September-October, we explored both equity in education and the pandemic\u2019s disproportionate impact. We also released the Committee\u2019s new national rankings report:\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/prichard-backup.com\/July\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/BBF-2020-Rankings-Oct2.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Big Bold Future<\/a>\u00a0and designed the next 5-year strategic plan for our long arc of continued improvement as a state.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Finally, when the clock strikes midnight on December 31, we\u2019ll be toasting to the success of our efforts to mobilize a new generation of Kentuckians who share in the vision of a \u201cBig Bold Future &#8211; with education at the core.\u201d\u00a0That work, fondly known as\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/prichard-backup.com\/July\/groundswell\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Groundswell Initiative<\/a>, is now more than 1,000 strong!\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/prichard-backup.com\/July\/groundswell\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Visit our website<\/a>\u00a0to learn what actions members from Paducah to Pikeville are taking to improve education in their communities!<\/p>\n<p>But, before we close out this\u00a0year there\u2019s one more exciting release \u2013 the \u00a0inaugural\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/prichard-backup.com\/July\/2020-letter-from-kentucky-teachers\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Letter from Kentucky Teachers<\/a>. The idea for this Letter arose as I watched the tense political environment of recent years and at the same time saw so many teachers expressing their longing to focus on the needs of students in their classrooms. I knew we needed to give teachers a platform to talk about their aspirations for excellence in teaching and to shape our collective vision for what\u2019s possible &#8211; and what\u2019s necessary.\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/prichard-backup.com\/July\/2020-letter-from-kentucky-teachers\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">This letter is the culmination of that longing, and a beautiful statement of commitment by OUR Kentucky teachers.<\/a>\u00a0I hope you\u2019ll enjoy reading it over the holiday season.<\/p>\n<p>In celebration of all we\u2019ve learned, and in solidarity with all who have lost so much this year, we wish you\u00a0<em>Peace<\/em>\u00a0and moments of\u00a0<em>Joy<\/em>\u00a0this holiday season.[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Whew, what a year it\u2019s been! We\u2019ve all weathered both collective and unique challenges in 2020 and, without a doubt, we\u2019re pleased to the see the year come to a close. The core values we learned quickly to prioritize were innovation &#038; engagement. As a team, we came together quickly in March to start providing answers and meaningful discussions during the early days of the pandemic with our Facebook Live Innovations in Education episodes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":5353,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"passster_activate_protection":false,"passster_protect_child_pages":"","passster_protection_type":"password","passster_password":"","passster_activate_overwrite_defaults":"","passster_headline":"","passster_instruction":"","passster_placeholder":"","passster_button":"","passster_id":"","passster_activate_misc_settings":"","passster_redirect_url":"","passster_hide":"no","passster_area_shortcode":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[76],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5352","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ed"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/prichard-backup.com\/July\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5352","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/prichard-backup.com\/July\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/prichard-backup.com\/July\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prichard-backup.com\/July\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prichard-backup.com\/July\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5352"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/prichard-backup.com\/July\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5352\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6033,"href":"https:\/\/prichard-backup.com\/July\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5352\/revisions\/6033"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prichard-backup.com\/July\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5353"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/prichard-backup.com\/July\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5352"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prichard-backup.com\/July\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5352"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prichard-backup.com\/July\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5352"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}