Kentucky parents are learning leadership and communication skills along with getting a crash course in deciphering test score data to help improve their schools during a free six-day training program.
The inaugural class of the Governor’s Commonwealth Institute for Parent Leadership will complete their training during a final two-day session next month. The institute prepares parents to assume leadership roles in schools, both individually and in a group, to help boost student achievement. Institute participants, which also include mentors, caregivers and other adults, must commit to lead at least one school or community-based project with the assistance of the institute. The sessions are being held in three areas of the state, Eastern Kentucky, Northern Kentucky and Louisville.
“We are building leadership capacity to keep the public engaged in our public schools,” Cindy Baumert, the director of the Governor’s Commonwealth Institute for Parent Leadership, said in a release.
The Governor’s Commonwealth Institute for Parent Leadership is an independent nonprofit organization, which is modeled after the successful parent leadership institute created by the Prichard Committee for Academic Excellence, a Kentucky nonprofit dedicated to improving education. Almost 100 Kentuckians will take part in the Governor’s Commonwealth Institute for Parent Leadership, which is being supported by a variety of sources including, Toyota TEMA, State Farm, Duke Energy and Morehead State University.
The Prichard Committee’s parent leadership institute is a nationally recognized program that has trained 1,600 Kentucky parents, teaching them how they can help improve student achievement. According to the Prichard Committee, over the last 16 years, institute graduates have served in many key education leadership posts—with 47 having been elected to local school boards and two serving on the state Board of Education.
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