Friday, October 26, 2018

Eastern Kentucky school leaders volunteer to make education key to reshaping the region's economy


A group of rural school superintendents in Eastern Kentucky and a cooperative that serves them are working on a list of "research-based solutions and policy recommendations to better serve disadvantaged rural students statewide," and to make local schools "centers of community transformation" in a region that has lost most of the jobs in its main industry, coal.

The effort is being coordinated by the Kentucky Valley Educational Cooperative, based at Hazard Community and Technical College. It is a non-profit serving 22 school districts in Appalachian Kentucky. It says recent educational gains by students in the region "demonstrate the determination of school districts and communities to use education to revitalize their small towns and rural areas."

The superintendents and KVEC say they "are seeking public input on the draft position paper before release of the report that details how schools in their region . . . .are poised to revitalize and reinvent their local economies and issue a "call to action" when the state legislature meets this winter. "In a meeting at Pikeville on Wednesday, "More than 600 educators demonstrated cutting-edge innovation in rural schools," which can be seen on the agency's website, The Holler.

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