News and Notes:  News Release
January 19, 2005

Topeka: KAE brings new voice to Kansas Learning First Alliance

Kansas Learning First Alliance (KLFA) members voted unanimously at their Jan.19 meeting to approve a request from the Kansas Award for Excellence (KAE) Foundation to become the 24 th member of KLFA. KAE is a nonprofit organization that provides support for businesses, hospitals and schools as they constantly seek improvement in their operations and results. KAE promotes the pursuit of a Baldridge Award as the means for continuous improvement. Two school districts, Hutchinson USD 308 and Olathe USD 233, are working with KAE as they work towards their QPA goals. KAE’s inclusion allows for even broader discussions as KLFA seeks to accomplish its mission of “making Kansas first in the nation in teaching and learning.”

The three workgroups that are aligned with KLFA’s three goals spent much of the meeting working on initiatives. The Student Achievement and Professional Development groups refined plans to create a reference manual that provides easy access to KLFA research findings. The manual will use as themes the Kansas State Board of Education’s Core Principles for school redesign and the demands of No Child Left Behind as embedded in Quality Performance Accreditation. By tying together research at the national level with state initiatives, Kansas teachers and building principals will have a timely and effective school improvement resource.

The Public Engagement group reviewed the progress of three initiatives. The KLFA Education Foundation was recently incorporated and hopes to file for tax-exempt status in the next month. Almost 20 percent of state legislators have taken advantage of KLFA’s offer to provide them two Learning First publications, Every Child Reading and Ever Child Mathematically Proficient. The group also discussed using another Learning First project, “Reciprocal Accountability,” as a framework to help organizations in the next 6-9 months become better aware of overlaps and gaps in their work.

Other agenda items included presentations by Blake West, KNEA vice president, and Nancy Kraft, director of the Kansas Parents Information Resource Center (KPIRC). West shared a Power Point that gave an overview of state and national trends in the use of public dollars, particularly in schools. The presentation is being used by KNEA at civic organizations and other public meetings to help Kansans better understand the complex world of public revenue and expenditures. Groups wanting to see the presentation can get in touch with KNEA to make arrangements.

Kraft offered a look at KPIRC’s work, including many of the resources it has developed to make parents more aware of what schools are demanding of their children and tools to help their children succeed. Many of the materials can be downloaded from KPIRC’s Web site at www.kpirc.org.

Twenty-nine people from 15 organizations attended the meeting at KNEA. The last two meetings of the 2005-06 school year, on March 11 and June 1, will be at KASB. For more information about KLFA, visit www.kansaslearningfirst.org.