Data from 2020-2023
The Prichard Committee for Academic Excellence was the lead grantee for the Kentucky Statewide Family Engagement Center, otherwise known as the “Kentucky Collaborative for Families and Schools.” The Prichard Committee is a nationally recognized, independent, non-partisan citizen’s advocacy organization based in central Kentucky. The organization has operated the Commonwealth Institute for Parent Leadership (CIPL) for almost 30 years, which builds families’ knowledge, skills, and power related to improving public education.
Joining the Prichard Committee were three regional partner organizations and a school district that each offered a variety of programming and services for children, young people, and families throughout their regions:
- Daviess County Public Schools serve students in preschool through grade 12.
- Learning Grove, located in Northern Kentucky, primarily serves Emergent Bilingual Latinx families.
- Partners for Rural Impact (formally known as Partners for Education), situated in Berea College, in the Appalachian region, primarily serves rural families.
- The National Center for Families Learning (NCFL), located in Louisville/Southeastern region, primarily serves urban families in its workscope for this grant.
The Kentucky Department of Education serves as a statewide agency/policy lever.
We used mixed methods to explore the research questions below, including: observations of KY Collaborative meetings and events, quarterly data reported by KY Collaborative partner organizations on program engagement, surveys administered to parents/caregivers participating in a KY Collaborative training/ workshop (retrospective surveys) or one day event (exit surveys), and yearly interviews with KY Collaborative partners. Additionally, we collected family and school staff survey data across 57 schools from the Family Friendly School Network. Qualitative case study data was also collected from one school, one district, and one community-based organization.
Data are presented in this report by research question. Guided by the theoretical framing of the Dual Capacity Building Framework, our findings suggest that when the right structures are in place, family engagement becomes a shared responsibility that is integrated and sustainable.