Kentucky Teacher

Pam Sexton speaks to the Kentucky Board of Education after accepting the annual Dr. Samuel Robinson Award for her late husband Robert Sexton, executive director of the Prichard Committee for Academic Excellence. Photo by Amy Wallot, Dec. 7, 2011

At its meeting in Frankfort Wednesday, the Kentucky Board of Education presented the annual Dr. Samuel Robinson Award to the late Robert Sexton, executive director of the Prichard Committee for Academic Excellence. The award was accepted by Sexton’s wife, Pam.

Since 2004, the Dr. Samuel Robinson Award has been conferred on an individual or groups in Kentucky for outstanding leadership, commitment and service in promoting equity and opportunity to learn at high levels for all Kentucky students.

In their nomination letter, Cindy Heine and Albert Smith, Jr. of the Prichard Committee noted that Sexton was a champion for Kentucky’s children.

“Bob never ran for political office. He didn’t invent a new machine, captain a financial empire or run a giant corporation. We honor him as a social entrepreneur. He tackled the most important challenge of our time, which is how to help Kentucky kids become competitive in a knowledge economy.”

Kentucky Board of Education Chair David Karem presented the award.

“Bob Sexton’s entire career was focused on improving education in Kentucky at all levels,” said Karem. “He brought education leaders together to hammer out policy and strategy issues on which the groups could agree and then promoted them with policymakers. Over the years, he generated bipartisan support for legislative initiatives that helped to move Kentucky’s education system forward.”

The Prichard Committee recognized the head of its parent leadership efforts, Bev Raimondo, for 20 years of work for the organization. She was recognized during the group’s June meeting at General Butler State Park in Carrollton.

Raimondo joined the Prichard staff in 1991 after a career at IBM.

After the passage of the Kentucky Education Reform Act in 1990, Raimondo created and managed a network of professional staff to organize more than 60 Community Committees for Education in more than 90 Kentucky school districts to support education reform. She created and has led the Commonwealth Institute for Parent Leadership since it began in 1997. More than 1,500 Kentucky parents have become CIPL fellows.

In 2002, Raimondo also began directing the Center for Parent Leadership, a consulting unit of the Prichard Committee that has helped organizations across the nation develop parent leadership training programs. She is a native of Lexington and graduate of the University of Kentucky.

From the Prichard Committee

Teachers from school districts across Kentucky shared what they see as revolutionary new teaching strategies and lessons that will strengthen what students know in mathematics and language arts. What started as a pilot program in nine school districts will soon spread across the state – and to other states as well.

An audience of 225 state education department officials, policymakers, college professors and leaders of statewide education organizations got a first-hand look at the new wave of classroom teaching and learning strategies recently at a showcase in Louisville. Read the full story

Veteran educator and community leader Hilma Prather of Somerset recently became the new chair of the Prichard Committee for Academic Excellence.
Prather, a retired principal from the Somerset Independent school district, is a member of the Kentucky Authority for Educational Television, KET’s governing board, and has been a member of the Kentucky Board of Education, the advisory board of Somerset Community and Technical College, and the Council on Postsecondary Education.
A member of the Prichard Committee since 2006, Prather succeeds Louisville businessman Sam Corbett, who stepped down as chair in May. Prather had served as the Prichard Committee vice-chair.

Former Fayette County and Daviess County school superintendent Stu Silberman recently was named as executive director of the Prichard Committee for Academic Excellence.

Silberman, who announced his retirement in February from Fayette County, is a three-time Kentucky Superintendent of the Year.

Silberman succeeds Robert Sexton, the committee’s founding executive director who died in August 2010. Silberman will assume the Prichard Committee position Sept. 1.

For more information, visit the Prichard Committee website.

From the Prichard Committee for Academic Excellence

Improving early childhood programs is a vital strategy for increasing the numbers of students who finish high school prepared to enter college, the military and the workforce, said Rob Dugger, a Virginia investment executive who chairs the Partnership for America’s Economic Success, a coalition of economists, policy experts and advocates focused on programs for young children.

Dugger recently addressed a statewide meeting of the Business Leadership Council for Pre-K, a group of Kentucky business leaders advocating for making voluntary, high-quality preschool available to all 3- and 4-year-olds in the state. Read the full story

Robert F. Sexton, the longtime executive director of the Prichard Committee for Academic Excellence and a long-respected education advocate, died Aug. 26 following a struggle with cancer. Sexton was 68.

Sexton headed the Prichard Committee from the time it was formed in 1983 to advocate for education in Kentucky. Before joining the Prichard Committee, Sexton was deputy director of the Council on Higher Education, which was replaced by the Council on Postsecondary Education created by the 1997 higher education reform. Read the full story

The Prichard Committee for Academic Excellence has earned the support of the Pew Center on the States for a fourth year in its work to improve the educational and economic success of Kentucky by expanding access to quality preschool programs for more children in the state.

The statewide organization has received a $200,000 grant from Pew, $25,000 of which is contingent on raising matching funds, for work in 2010 to bring advocates, policy and business leaders, and service providers together to develop strategies for expanding quality early education programs through Prichard’s Strong Start Kentucky initiative. Read the full story