Steve Burkich, Assistant Superintendent, Anderson County Schools

To cite this article: Burkich, S. Anderson County Teachers Excel with Kagan. San Clemente, CA: Kagan Publishing. Kagan Online Magazine, Spring 2006. www.KaganOnline.com

Professional Development from Kagan
Anderson County Schools in Lawrenceburg, Kentucky have been receiving training on Kagan Teaching Strategies for the past four years. The district is comprised of six schools and over 270 teachers. This training has involved principals going through a three day training on effective teaching strategies (Fall 2001); all teachers grades P-12 going through 12 hours of Kagan teaching strategies (Summer 2002); a team of teachers and administrators evaluating Kagan Teaching Strategies in a school system in North Carolina (Spring 2003); and teams of teachers and administrators attending Kagan Institutes in Florida (Summers 2003, 2004, & 2005).

Teachers and administrators have attended Cooperative Learning, Win-Win Discipline, Multiple Intelligence, Brain Research, Subject Specific Cooperative Learning, Manipulative Workshop, and Administrators Blueprint. The intense training that our staff has been involved with has truly changed the climate and culture of what teaching and learning looks like in our entire school district. Each of our schools operates under the mission to engage all students. What we have learned from Kagan is, and will continue to be, the vehicle to help us to achieve our missions.

Academic Achievement Gains
Kagan has also had a very positive impact on our test scores. These graphs compare 2002 and 2004 test data for our elementary schools for selected subjects.

Reading	Mathematics
Science	Social Studies
Comprehensive Test of Basic Skills (CTBS)

Comparison of Test Data Prior to Kagan and After Kagan Test 2002 Test Data 2004 Test Data CTBS 88.71 96.75 Reading 83.89 92.74 Writing 71.06 71.61 Math 71.02 82.35 Science 82.29 97.65 Social Studies 81.92 96.52 Arts & Humanities 54.58 69.60 Practical Living 80.61 102.12 There has been a dramatic gain in achievement almost across the board after our work with Kagan.

Our goal is for each of these content areas to reach 100%, as you can see from the above, we’re well on our way.