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A PEAK Back

For 20 years, KSBA PEAK award has recognized programs aimed at enhancing student learning skills

Kentucky School Advocate

January 2018

By Matt McCarty

Staff writer

Two decades of innovative education programs: that’s a lot of students boosted to higher levels of achievement honored in KSBA’s Public Education Achieves in Kentucky (PEAK) Award. Of the 45 winning programs since the program’s inception in 1997, some have lasted the distance, some have been tweaked and others have died natural deaths.

Lincoln County Schools won the first PEAK Award in October 1997. Its program blended Head Start, preschool and adult literacy. The district had retrofitted school buses that served as mobile classrooms to bring preschool and adult education to families.

Christine Killen, Lincoln County Schools’ preschool coordinator and early childhood program director, said the program ended in the early 2000s. “It was a fabulous program. It just kind of outgrew its purpose and the needs of the families,” she said.

Killen said the program was phased out because the district thought the children needed to be in school five days a week rather than being seen at their home for an hour or less.

That outcome contrasts with Pike County Schools’ November 2001 PEAK winner for professional development centered around a leadership academy for principals and academies in other subject areas for teachers.

Sherri Heise, director of professional development for Pike County Schools, said the district has improved on its professional development approach since winning the award. “We’ve refined it and developed it further around PLC (professional learning communities) academies. It’s an ongoing, continuous process,” she said.

In September 2017, the project received state education department recognition as a best practice.

Barren County won the PEAK Award in November 1998 with its Junior Guard program. The program, a collaboration between the Kentucky Army National Guard and the Barren County Youth Services Center began in 1995 to help students improve their academic and social skills.

Jean Ann Emerson, assistant coordinator for Barren County’s Youth Services Center, said the Junior Guard program is “still going strong” and has more than 30 members.

Barren also won the PEAK Award in 2010 and is one of seven two time PEAK-winning districts, along with Boone County (1999, 2012), Campbell County (2004, 2015), Daviess County (1998, 2005), Grant County (1999, 2013), Johnson County (2001, 2016) and Kenton County (2001, 2013).

Other PEAK-winning programs are still thriving today.

Summer 1998 – Daviess County Schools
One of the early winners of the PEAK Award was Daviess County Schools’ Graduation 2010 program, which was described in the July 1998 edition of the Kentucky School Advocate as a “far-reaching program that incorporates into the elementary curriculum the latest scientific research on brain development in children.”

Elementary students in Daviess County practice their instruments during music class. The district placed a focus on

music education at a young age as part of its Graduation 2010 program. (Photo courtesy of Daviess County Schools)

While the district’s class of 2010 has long since graduated, many of the components the district integrated nearly two decades ago remain.

“The lasting impact it had on the district is ultimately we think about the whole child, and their complete wellness and their academic learning is part of that wellness, but we now look at making sure we offer a great program that improves a child’s whole life,” said Jana Beth Francis, Daviess County’s assistant superintendent for teaching and learning.

In 1997, a school/community steering committee made recommendations that helped form Graduation 2010. At the time, the panel studied research about how music, art, foreign language study and other activities help stimulate a child’s brain development and thinking skills.

While Francis said the foreign language aspect for elementary students never fully got off the ground, the district’s music program is thriving.

“I think we rethought how music education at the elementary level should be (taught). We have this incredible music education program where kids are on keyboards and they’re doing more than just singing songs. They’re playing musical instruments,” Francis said. “It just catapulted our music education program into this really incredible K-12 program. We feel very successful in the fact we have a well-established secondary performing arts program. I think when you think back to that component – the keyboards and brain-based research there, that’s really good.”

She said the program was unique in that the district took many things to scale quickly and sustained them. That experience has helped the district with other programs over the years.

“We have a culture of ‘We can do this, how are we going to break it down’ and I think so much of that was learned by trying to move the Graduation 2010 program into place,” Francis said. “How do you work with different schools on taking certain components to scale and how do you keep coming back to them and refining them and making sure they’re sticking and staying. It’s hard to sustain an innovation in a public school.

“Graduation 2010 propelled our district into thinking about education differently and the results have been a cutting-edge district that is not afraid to try something new.”

Spring 2007 – Anderson County Schools
Anderson County Schools Superintendent Sheila Mitchell is no stranger to the district’s cooperative learning strategies. She was a principal in the early 2000s when the district started the Kagan Cooperative Learning Structures program and was part of the original training groups.

Students work on a math lesson during Bridget Gay’s kindergarten class at Ezra B. Sparrow Early Childhood Center in Anderson

County. The school uses the Kagan Cooperative Learning Structures, which won the district the PEAK Award in 2007.

Mitchell was the district’s assessment coordinator when it won the PEAK Award in the spring of 2007.

“We continue to use best practice strategies and KCLS are best practice because it does focus on ensuring high engagement, equal participation in learning and it continues to engage a classroom of children,” Mitchell said. “The goal is to get as many children engaged in high-quality or rigorous thinking as possible, and I think adding the cooperative learning structures in our district coupled with focus on the rigor, the relevance and the relationship piece that we’ve been focusing on over the last few years as well has allowed us to continue to grow and have high student achievement.”

When Anderson County began using the cooperative learning strategies, districts were learning the difference between traditional and collaborative classrooms.

“We continue now to look at collaborative classrooms, which is using structures or strategies to have high engagement in the classroom. Now we’re looking at another layer of that in looking at the 21st-century classrooms and how we incorporate technology and use of space along with the high engagement strategies and structures to continue to improve that,” Mitchell said. “Back then it was more traditional vs. collaborative classrooms. Now it’s very collaborative classrooms with another layer of technology and being able to use devices and good use of space to promote rigorous, higher-level thinking, learning.”

Fall 2007 – Walton-Verona Independent Schools
Walton-Verona Independent’s Schools and Families Empowered Agent program won the PEAK Award a decade ago, eight years after its inception in 1999. During its 18 years, the program has worked to remove barriers between at-risk students and their education.

“I know we’ve kept kids in school … that would never have graduated from high school if it weren’t for this program,” Superintendent Robert Storer said.

Walton-Verona High School S.A.F.E. Agent Nancy Ryan talks to a student. The program won the PEAK Award in 2007. (Photo Courtesy of Walton-Verona Ind. Schools)

The district’s first S.A.F.E. Agent, Larry Davis, died in 2011 after a short battle with cancer. Storer said Davis’ last request was for people to make donations to the district. With the money received, the district created the Larry Davis Foundation and now the S.A.F.E. Agent program continues to operate in Davis’ name.

Nancy Ryan, a veteran teacher within the district, took over the “agent” position in 2012.

“My biggest role is to make sure we don’t lose kids along the way, doing whatever we can to keep them in school, to do what’s best for them,” Ryan said. “We work on alternative schedules; we work on anything we can to keep the kids in school. If I have to go get them in the morning, I go get them.”

Ryan makes home visits and monitors students’ academic progress, among other things.

When the program won the PEAK Award, it had had zero high school dropouts since its inception. Storer and Ryan noted that the way districts count dropouts has changed so its official number is no longer zero.

“I really, really, really believe we’re keeping kids in school and, no, we don’t have zero dropouts anymore because the formula’s completely different,” Ryan said. “But I will tell you this: we don’t have kids that drop out, if that makes sense. It’s just not an option and that’s what we tell them.”

The district now has a S.A.F.E. Agent in its elementary school as well.

PEAK trifecta

Taylor County Superintendent Roger Cook has led PEAK Award-winning programs three times with three different school districts.

Cook was the principal at Russell County High School when the district won the spring 2000 PEAK Award for the high school’s Assessment Improvement Program, which was designed to raise test scores through a combination of strategies.

Taylor County students in the Cook’s Kids program celebrate Dr. Seuss’ birthday.(Photo courtesy of Taylor County Schools)

In spring 2008, Cook was superintendent of Russellville Independent when the district won the award for its performance-based education program that enabled students to progress at a rate that suits their individual needs, regardless of seat time.

His third win came in fall 2011 when Taylor County Schools won for its dropout program. Cook said in the past 11 years as a superintendent for Russellville Independent and Taylor County he hasn’t had a dropout.

“Every program I’ve won the PEAK Award on from three different schools, I still do,” Cook said.

Taylor County Schools has three people who are dropout prevention specialists who identify at-risk students.

“They are put into a group called Cook’s Kids. Every month I do something with these Cook’s Kids. I take them to a restaurant to eat or I will take them on a field trip,” Cook said. “It’s given these kids an opportunity to see and do things that I didn’t have the opportunity to do.”

“I’m not going to let anybody drop out of school,” he said. “I’m going to personalize their learning and give it to them the way they like it so they won’t want to drop out. And that’s how I got into doing personalized learning.”