Prichard Committee For Academic Excellence

Programs: Commonwealth institute for parent leadershipin 2017, prichard committee focused on reinventing our family and parent engagement strategies. We revamped our 20-year old commonwealth institute for parent leadership. The six-day training was transformed to a one-day intensive, basecamp. With funding directed at making our biggest impact in northern kentucky, we held three basecamps in the fall of 2017. The prichard committee also created a statewide parent leadership award, the beverly nickell raimondo leadership award. Our first award winner was recognized at our annual meeting in october of 2017.

k-12, accountability, equity coalitionin 2017, prichard committee focused on the adoption of a new k-12 accountability model to align with federal essa requirements. The committee participated in the development of the state's new accountability model as a member of the accountability steering committee and engaged stakeholders as part of a coalition to ensure the final plan included ambitious goals for all students and for closing achievement gaps for students. The coalition successfully advocated for clear and ambitious goals that are set to cut achievement gaps in half, for all students, by 2030.

early childhoodthe prichard committee continues to serve as the convener for the strong start coalition. The prichard committee published a report, grants grow quality, sharing what has been learned from collaborations among public preschools, child care centers, and head start locations. The cost of quality study report impacted our early learning and care advocacy prior to and during the 2018 legislative session. The report provided a resource regarding the actual funding necessary to have the most impact on kentucky's preschool and child care age populations. The report also provided policy makers a ready reference as to why quality matters in the early years.

student voice team:in 2017, the prichard committee student voice team (svt) celebrated its five year anniversary and continued to prototype ways to support young people as education research, policy, and advocacy partners in the efforts to improve kentucky schools. With a burgenoning membership of 115 middle school through college age students from 19 kentucky counties driving activities, highlights for the year included:publishing "ready or not, stories from students behind the statistics", a book that lifts the voices of some of the least heard youth in kentucky's school systems about college readiness;scaling student-led school climate audits to include three high schools representing the geographic diversity of the state;expanding an independent education blog, "the student voice forum", to amplify more stories about education from traditionally marginalized youth;delivering 21 local and 9 national presentations about the svt's model for integrating students in education decision making to adult and intergenerational audiences. In 2017, the prichard committee's postsecondary efforts continued a focus on strengthening capacity for public engagement on postsecondary policy issues, increasing support for a renewed vision for postsecondary education, and enhancing the committee's credibility and profile on postsecondary issues. The committee continued advocacy on the development of a comprehensive funding model as both senate bill 153 and proposed regulations implementing the model were adopted. This effort included: direct letters to policy makers, blog posts, press releases, legislative analysis, draft bill and regulatory language, and a feature in organizational newsletter to members, friends and partners. These efforts emphasized the principles of transparency, adequate review during implementation, alignment to statewide goals, and proper weighting for priority populations to ensure equity. The committee produced a supplementary report to top 20 by 2020 disaggregating data on race, income and preparedness as part of the committee's focus on equity and closing the achievement gap. As part of this effort, we have begun to generate data necessary to highlight the 9th grade to college completion pipeline to inform policy makers of the points of student loss. The committee hosted an event entitled defining affordability: a collaboratory on postsecondary affordability in kentucky in october to generate greater shared understanding of the issue of affordability and its impact on students and families. In addition to receiving valuable expert knowledge, attendees had the opportunity throughout the day to provide active feedback regarding their perceptions on affordability, as well as responses to specific challenges real students have faced. This effort represents a piece in our larger advocacy supporting postsecondary success for each and every kentuckian.