For Immediate Release: October 13, 2016
Contact: Renee Rybak Lang, renee.lang@nasbe.org, 703.740.4841
“Kansans Can” Initiative a Model for Meaningful ESSA Stakeholder Engagement
Alexandria, VA—The Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) requires state education agencies to file their state implementation plans in “timely and meaningful consultation with stakeholders.” A new NASBE case study, “Kansas Loops Stakeholders In on Conversation about K-12 Policy,” explains how Kansas is getting this right, with lessons for other states.
Through its Kansans Can initiative, the Kansas Department of Education and State Board of Education have built community consensus on a vision for the state’s preK-12 system that has helped to inform some of the toughest policy decisions. The initiative started in 2015, well before the passage of ESSA, with focus groups in more than 20 communities that drew 2,000 stakeholders, including Kansas parents, students, educators, and business leaders.
Participants largely agreed that traditional skills and academics are no longer sufficient to adequately prepare Kansan students. They cited nonacademic skills such as professionalism, teamwork, and communications as essential to success. This community input formulated the basis of the state’s education strategy: The state now knew what skills were most important to Kansans for academic, career, and life success, and it set goals around key outcomes, such as high school graduation, postsecondary completion, and remediation rates accordingly.
The uniqueness of Kansas’s engagement approach, however, is that it’s not “one and done.” State education leaders, including the Kansas state board, revisited communities to report the results of their efforts and continue to use stakeholder feedback to refine the state’s strategic plan and guide education policymaking.
Kansas is not the only state conducting listening tours. Since 2010, 26 states have conducted or are conducting listening tours and community forums to gather public opinion on important education issues, including ESSA. If Kansas provides any indication, listening tours and community forums in other states will give policymakers valuable information on what local stakeholders want out of their education system, says author Anthony Nguyen.
“By proactively approaching people who make up the education system and listening to their opinions on how to improve, state policymakers can ensure that all perspectives are considered so they can make better education policy decisions and build support for them.”
Read “Kansas Loops Stakeholders In on Conversation about K-12 Policy.”
Kansas Commissioner of Education Randy Watson will discuss the Kansans Can initiative during a session on ESSA stakeholder Engagement at NASBE’s Annual Conference in Kansas City, Mo., Thursday, October 22, 2016, at 9:30 am (Central). Media and others are invited to attend. Details can be found here.
The National Association of State Boards of Education represents America’s state and territorial boards of education. Our principal objectives are to strengthen state leadership in education policymaking, advocate equality of access to educational opportunity, promote excellence in the education of all students, and ensure responsible lay governance of education. Learn more at www.nasbe.org.
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