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• ESEA/NCLB
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• Kansas Education Resource Center
• KEYS
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Another school improvement resource from KNEA

Keys to Excellence in Your Schools

KEYS is a way to diagnose organizational health, explore remedies and adopt new ways of dealing with the important decisions that can yield quality teaching and learning. NEA researchers learned that successful schools consistently displayed the same 42 characteristics. The factors for success range from things that require financial resources to those that don't.

Surveys are administered and scored to support local schools in producing the changes that will help students improve their performance.

KEYS' ultimate goal is to help build quality learning environments where students improve their academic performance, where administrators, teachers and education support personnel are able to make good decisions, and where communities are proud of their schools.

The key to that quality is how a school go es about organizing itself for teaching and learning. The initiative centers on 42 indicators clustered within six "keys" that research has found predicts higher student achievement, namely:

• Shared understanding and commitment to high goals
• Open communication and collaborative problem solving
• Continuous assessment for teaching and learning
• Personal and professional learning
• Resources to support teaching and learning
• Curriculum and instruction

KEYS & KNEA

KNEA is excited to add this new resource to the services already available under the Quality Public Schools umbrella at KNEA.  A school or district can become part of the KEYS 2.0 initiative in a number of ways:

• Take the KEYS 2.0 survey and receive the data from a KNEA facilitator.
• Take the KEYS 2.0 survey, receive the data and assistance in interpreting the data from a KNEA facilitator.
• Take the KEYS 2.0 survey, receive the data and assistance in interpreting the data from a KNEA facilitator, and develop an action plan in consultation with the KNEA facilitator.
• Take the KEYS 2.0 survey, receive the data and assistance in interpreting the data from a KNEA facilitator, develop an action plan in consultation with the KNEA facilitator and work with KNEA to implement the action plan.
• The data from KEYS 2.0 will assist your school in furthering your QPA school improvement efforts.  The action plan would be the school improvement plan, including a results-based staff development component, required by QPA.  This would not be a duplicate plan, but instead a plan that incorporates the KEYS 2.0 data with all the other available data to inform your school improvement efforts.

The cost of using KEYS 2.0 varies, depending on the option selected and the amount of facilitator time required.

For specific information, contact Peg Dunlap   or Terry Forsyth in Instructional Advocacy.