Kent County Partnership

The Ball Foundation began working with Michigan's Kent Intermediate Superintendents Association (KISA) and Kent Intermediate School District (Kent ISD) in 1999. Kent ISD serves over 140,000 students in 23 districts in the greater Grand Rapids area. During a two-year engagement phase, these countywide organizations collaborated with foundation staff to redefine their roles and become leaders in creating a vision for public education in Kent County. The foundation also worked with them to establish core values and identify shared goals. In 2001, the Ball Foundation signed a formal partnership agreement with KISA and Kent ISD with the aims of increasing productivity and student literacy levels.

Strategies
The partnership agreement included a broad range of strategies in order to reach the ambitious goals.

The agreement's first strategy was to focus the goals and activities of KISA and Kent ISD around student achievement and to align the individual districts' work with that of KISA and Kent ISD through a continuous strategic planning process.

The partners also made early childhood development a priority. As more children have been entering school less prepared for learning, KISA and Kent ISD realized that many parents were unaware of how critical this stage of development is or what support services existed in their communities. Kent ISD and all 23 individual districts have been contributing to education programs for current and expectant parents as well as the creation of resource centers in each district. (For more information about the early childhood program, see a related article in the Winter 2001-2002 issue of the Review newsletter.)

As the partnership emphasized parent education, it also called attention to educating community members - especially those involved in the school district - on the importance of understanding and appreciating their own diverse communities. KISA and Kent ISD believe that understanding differences and eliminating racism will positively affect student achievement and individual growth. The superintendents have been participating in ongoing diversity training and facilitating additional training in their districts.

The foundation, KISA, and Kent ISD recognized collaboration to be essential to their partnership culture. To that end, the partners identified and implemented ways of coordinating services among local districts in the areas of school operation and instruction.

Kent County Partnership Accomplishes Goals
The end of the 2003-04 school year signaled the official conclusion of the foundation's Kent County partnership. The Ball Foundation is very proud of the work done in Kent ISD. Together the leadership of Kent County and the staff of the foundation achieved much of what they set out to accomplish, and all have benefited significantly from the partnership. However, as the foundation strategically redefined its mission, it became clear that future work would be centered around schools and classrooms, not around central support systems such as Kent ISD.

One of the greatest accomplishments of the Kent County partnership is a unified strategy for improving student achievement that is built on the belief that the county's suburban districts and its larger urban district have a stake in each other's success. That is unusual because in most geographic areas, the urban district is left to fend for itself while the suburban districts protect their own interests. The ability of these diverse districts to create a unified strategy that benefits all of the children in the county is truly groundbreaking.

Through the partnership, other major successful strategies have been designed and implemented across all 23 districts, including establishing "Bright Beginnings," an early childhood initiative to increase pre-literacy skills in young children. Also, the KISA superintendents participated in diversity training and developed a diversity plan that included revising the curriculum. Finally, the Kent Curriculum Council was established to set a countywide definition of literacy and provide training, curriculum development, and assessments.

Although the foundation's partnership with Kent County has ended, the work will continue to be done by the capable, committed staff in the districts. The work will outlive the original workers, and that is as it should be.