Collaboration with Our Communities means involving families, educators, students, community members and business leaders to help define and co-create opportunities that bring out students’ unique gifts. Kentuckians told us that we needed to work on finding genuine ways to collaborate with people in our local communities, especially people and groups who have not always been at the table when education policy decisions have been made. Each family has a unique story and each child has individual talents to contribute - and those should be valued and understood. Our students and families come to schools with different levels of support and experiences. We must take steps as an education system to meet our students, wherever they are, and give them the support they need to succeed.
We want to find ways for schools to genuinely involve entire communities to contribute to student success. This involvement could take the form of mentorships, internships, or apprenticeships, and any number of other partnerships within our communities that can enrich student experiences from preschool through graduation.