Our mission is to ensure all Appalachian students succeed at school and fulfilling it requires one essential partner: families. Family engagement links individual students with the community which allows the development of sustainable solutions to the challenges facing the region.
By building relationships with parents, grandparents and other care givers we create a foundation for educational success that can be built on using three strategies: Lifting Educational Aspirations, Building Academic Skills and Connecting College and Career. To support these strategies, we braid services and align funding streams—leveraging $39 million each year—to optimize results for 41,000 young people and their families.
Engaging Families
Learning starts at home. Children with supportive and engaged families have better social and emotional skills which is the foundation for educational success. Studies show that children whose caregivers are engaged in and hold high expectations for their education tend to earn better grades, have higher graduations rates and are more likely to enroll in postsecondary education. [learn more]
Lifting Educational Aspirations
Our experience shows that development of an academic mindset is intricately tied to student educational aspirations. Strategies designed to lift educational aspirations include college visits, cultural experiences, and connections to persons from similar backgrounds who have succeeded. An integral part of this approach is assisting families in understanding the importance of high educational aspirations for their children and providing them with the support and opportunity to dream with their students. [learn more]
Building Academic Skills
As students learn to dream big and aspire to go to college, it becomes crucial that they have the opportunity and resources needed to build academic skills. We believe academic success requires a support network that starts with the family and builds outward, so we help foster relationships between caregivers and the schools system. And, we help provide resources to those schools. [learn more]
Connecting College and Career
Connecting college and career begins with setting goals. College and career readiness performance targets are test scores that indicate a student is on track and taking the classes that will prepare them for the careers they aspire to. Using this form of assessment, individual preparation plans are created to build knowledge and strengthen necessary skills to turn those aspirations into reality. Mentoring, college visits, career fairs and much more contribute to the successful transition to college and career. [learn more]
Rural College Access & Success Summit
Learn more about last year’s summit and keep up-to-date on plans for the 2019 Summit, which will be held April 28-30.
Our Creative Promise
Our Creative Promise is an information gathering and sharing project designed to support communities in ten Southeastern Kentucky counties in taking inventory of the artists, cultural organizations, events, venues and other creative assets currently in the area. [visit site]
Meet Robert, a PartnerCorps hero
He’s served Leslie County schools for over 25 years and helped a once-failing school win award after award. Meet Robert Roark.
Our Programs
Partners for Education braids a wide variety of programs together to serve Appalachian students. Learn more about our programs and which counties they serve.
Our Leadership
Learn more about Partners for Education’s leadership and the strengths they bring to serving Appalachian students and families.
Data for Data Driven Solutions
ACT
Headquartered in Iowa City, Iowa, ACT provides high-quality assessments grounded in nearly 60 years of research.
www.act.org
(ARC) Appalachian Regional Commission
Established by an act of Congress in 1965, ARC is a regional economic development agency that represents a partnership of federal, state, and local government. It is composed of the governors of the 13 Appalachian states and a federal co-chair, who is appointed by the president.
www.arc.gov
(CDC) Center for Disease Control
The CDC serves as the national focus for developing and applying disease prevention and control, environmental health, and health promotion and health education activities designed to improve the health of the people of the United States.
www.cdc.gov
Ideas and Inspiration, a List of Resources
AmeriCorps
AmeriCorps programs do more than move communities forward; they serve their members by creating jobs and providing pathways to opportunity for young people entering the workforce. AmeriCorps places thousands of young adults into intensive service positions where they learn valuable work skills, earn money for education, and develop an appreciation for citizenship.
https://www.nationalservice.gov/programs/americorps/americorps-programs
Save the Children
Save the Children began working with Kentucky communities in 1932 to provide support to school children during the Great Depression. They currently partner with 31 sites in 8 counties, serving 11,154 children.
www.savethechildren.org
myON
MyON is an award-winning personalized literacy environment that incorporates enhanced digital reading content, daily news articles written for students, the Lexile® Framework for Reading, cutting-edge literacy tools and embedded metrics to monitor activity and growth.
about.myon.com
AdvanceKentucky
The mission of AdvanceKentucky is to work with local, state and national partners to dramatically expand access to and participation and success in rigorous college-level work in high school, particularly among student populations traditionally underrepresented in these courses.
www.advancekentucky.com
Appalachian Community Federal Credit Union
Appalachian Community Federal Credit Union is a socially responsible financial cooperative that seeks to strengthen low-income and rural communities throughout its region by giving individuals access to fair and affordable credit and promoting employment opportunities through small business lending.
Media Contact
J. Morgan
859.358.6851
Berea Office
859.985.3622
439 Walnut Meadow Road
Berea, KY 40403