Kansas City, Kansas Public Schools | Believe in our students. Believe in our staff. Believe in KCKPS!
Kansas Learning Network (KLN)
11/05/08 Kansasn Article — District welcomes state to open house
10/21/08 SPECIAL SIP Memo .pdf
Needs Assessment Visit 3-Day Schedule .pdf
In a recent edition of the Staff Notebook ... http://www.kckps.org/notebook/s092508.pdf .pdf, the district announced its participation in the Kansas Learning Network (KLN). KLN is a collaborative venture between the Kansas State Department of Education (KSDE) and the education policy firm Cross and Juftus, whose goal is to improve school and district policy and increase student achievement by working collaboratively in the areas of organizational development, systems theory and the effective use of data. The other districts participating in KLN include Wichita, Topeka, Turner and Garden City. Participation in KLN has the strong support of both the district and NEA/KCK.
KLN will have a strong positive impact on the district's work, and we want to make sure that staff are fully informed of the progress we are making, and that all staff take advantage of the opportunities for participation that are a part of the process.
As indicated in the Staff Notebook article, all teachers and principals will be asked to complete a short (15 minute) survey. This survey will provide our partners with a more complete picture of what is happening in our schools, and in the district. There will be separate surveys for principals and for teachers. The information from these surveys will compliment the information contained in the KanTELL survey that district staff filled out last year.
The survey will be sent from an on-line survey company, Zoomerang. You will receive an invitation via e-mail from Zoomerang sometime tomorrow, Tuesday, October 14, asking you to complete it. We have worked with our spam filter, in order to make sure that the messages are not blocked. Once we know that the survey invitation has been sent, you will receive another e-mail, reminding you to look for it, and to complete the survey. The survey itself should not take more than 15 minutes. Please have your survey completed by Monday, October 20, 2008.
In addition to the survey, other parts of the KLN process include interviews, focus groups, and classrooms. On October 28-30, we are scheduled to host a site visit. Please know that the entire KLN process is designed to provide feedback to the district with regard to its curriculum and assessments, along with its instructional support system. No part of the KLN process will be used to evaluate individual staff performance. Additional information about the site visit, including which schools will be visited, will be forwarded in an upcoming communication.
It is extremely important to have full participation from staff in the survey you will receive tomorrow, so that the results will be most valid. We want to express in advance our appreciation for your willingness to complete the survey.
Sincerely,
Dr. Jill Shackelford, Superintendent, KCKPS
Linda Hollinshed, President, NEA/KCK
