News and Notes:  News Release
March 10, 2011

Topeka: KLFA meeting focuses on national Learning First Alliance, Kansas Commission on Graduation and Dropout Prevention/Recovery,  and workgroups

Educational issues at the local, state and federal levels were all part of the Kansas Learning First Alliance discussion at its meeting at the Kansas National Education Association building March 10.  Almost three-dozen people from 24 of the 28 member organizations attended the meeting.  On the organizational side, Dayna Richardson, a Kansas Staff Development Council representative, was elected chair-elect.  Nancy Bolz, a Kansas Association of Supervision and Curriculum Development/AdvancED representative, will assume the chair at the August meeting and will replace Sue Givens, who was a United School Administrators representative.  The bylaws of KLFA call for the chair and chair-elect to come from one of the five founding organizations: KASB, KNEA, USA, KSDC and KASCD.

The members learned about the upcoming Learning First Alliance state affiliates meeting in May in Washington, D.C.  Former Secretary of Education Richard Riley will be a featured speaker.  KLFA generally has had five or six representatives at the meeting who assume a prominent role given KLFA’s long association as a state affiliate and the projects it has accomplished.

They also heard from Blake West - past KLFA chair, KNEA president and task force member – who gave an overview of former Governor Parkinson’s Commission on Graduation and Dropout Prevention and Recovery.  Dr. West suggested the workgroups use the recommendations as they discuss future work. A full report is available online at www.kansasdropins.org.

The three groups work toward improving student achievement; strengthening the professional learning of educators; and engaging the public in school improvement and student achievement efforts. To focus their work, three general goals offer guidance.  They are:

• KLFA will broadly disseminate its work to influence practitioners.

• KLFA will increase its visibility among policy makers. 

• KLFA will strengthen and increase its organizational capacity.

Student Achievement work group focused its discussion on getting out to the field the Common Core standards. The Professional Development workgroup created Diigo and Shelfari Web pages to archive reference materials of practices for improving and sharing quality instructional practices. The Community Engagement group drew up a timeline that will allow KTWU to begin work on a series of PSAs co-produced with KLFA.

The last meeting of the school year will be Thursday, May 12 at KASB.  Meetings start at 10:00 A.M.

Visit the KLFA Website at www.klfa.org for more information, including agendas for upcoming meetings as they are developed.  KLFA also has a Facebook page; be sure to visit the page and join as a friend.