Kent ISD 10-11 Community Accountability Report
Kent ISD is a regional educational service agency devoted to achievement for all students. Essentially, we serve you, each community member, by helping our schools prepare students to be successful in work and life. We work on behalf of all the students, families, educators and communities in Kent County, plus Thornapple Kellogg Schools in Barry County. That means serving nearly 120,000 students and their teachers in 20 public school districts, the Christian, Catholic and other non-public schools, and 19 Public School Academies.
What do we do? We allow districts to devote more dollars directly to the classroom by providing essential services, products and classroom training for students and teachers. Through the economy of scale created by providing these services countywide, we save districts – and their taxpayers – money that otherwise would be devoted to duplication of effort in every district.
We are best known for our high quality student programs and our renowned teacher training. Both of these would be far too costly for an individual district to provide. Our staff offers world class career training to high school students in Kent Career Technical Center, with more than 20 hands-on programs in career fields with great futures. Our Kent Transition Center offers a dynamic combination of vocational and employability training so students with special needs become successful employees. We provide professional development for thousands of educators each year in dozens of topics to help them help students.
We also create opportunities for educators to collaborate on issues related to student achievement and school administration. We do this by breaking down barriers and helping our districts work together, in ways ranging from our common curriculum, business and HR services, cooperative purchasing, technical assistance and data warehousing and even special education busing.
Another example of this collaboration is in our superintendents group. The Kent Intermediate Superintendents’ Association is made up of the 20 public districts, plus our Catholic and Christian schools. They work together to set priorities for the region and identify the services they need our staff to provide. Current priorities we’re working on include collaboration, secondary redesign, early childhood, diversity, Special Education and literacy.
What do we do? We allow districts to devote more dollars directly to the classroom by providing essential services, products and classroom training for students and teachers. Through the economy of scale created by providing these services countywide, we save districts – and their taxpayers – money that otherwise would be devoted to duplication of effort in every district.
We are best known for our high quality student programs and our renowned teacher training. Both of these would be far too costly for an individual district to provide. Our staff offers world class career training to high school students in Kent Career Technical Center, with more than 20 hands-on programs in career fields with great futures. Our Kent Transition Center offers a dynamic combination of vocational and employability training so students with special needs become successful employees. We provide professional development for thousands of educators each year in dozens of topics to help them help students.
We also create opportunities for educators to collaborate on issues related to student achievement and school administration. We do this by breaking down barriers and helping our districts work together, in ways ranging from our common curriculum, business and HR services, cooperative purchasing, technical assistance and data warehousing and even special education busing.
Another example of this collaboration is in our superintendents group. The Kent Intermediate Superintendents’ Association is made up of the 20 public districts, plus our Catholic and Christian schools. They work together to set priorities for the region and identify the services they need our staff to provide. Current priorities we’re working on include collaboration, secondary redesign, early childhood, diversity, Special Education and literacy.
