Interview with Cindy Heine, May 12, 2014

Partial Transcript: Alright, I'm Arwen Donahue. It's May 12, 2014, and I'm with Cindy Heine, uh, who is the Associate Executive Director, just retiring, of the Prichard Committee.

Segment Synopsis: Cindy Heine talks about her background in nursing and meeting Pam Papka Sexton which lead to her joining the Prichard Committee. She talks about the early formation of education advocacy and policy by the Prichard Committee.

Keywords: Bob Sexton; In Pursuit of Excellence; League of Women Voters; Pam Papka Sexton

Subjects: Prichard Committee for Academic Excellence; Prichard Committee on Higher Education in Kentucky's Future

Partial Transcript: And had you been involved--had you been uh--had leanings towards activism in your life prior to that point or how did you become, uh--was it having children that sparked your interest in advocacy of that sort?

Segment Synopsis: Heine talks about how she became involved in education advocacy and the League of Women Voters. She talks about how the blue ribbon panel modeled itself after the League. She talks about early childhood education and related issues such as nutrition and teenage pregnancy.

Keywords: Children and Youth Subcommittee; Deb Miller; Dorothy Ridings; Early childhood education; Kentucky Youth Advocates; League of Women Voters; Pam Papka Sexton; Town forums; Volunteerism

Subjects: Prichard Committee for Academic Excellence; Prichard Committee on Higher Education in Kentucky's Future

Partial Transcript: Uh, at that point was, uh, Ed Prichard involved at all with, with any of those committees? Would he go sit in on, on the work of the various committees?

Segment Synopsis: Heine talks about the report of the committee, "Path to a Larger Life." She talks about her experience in nursing as it relates to early childhood education.

Keywords: Bob Sexton; Delinquency; Pam Papka Sexton; Path to a Larger Life; Perry Preschool Project; Prenatal care; Teen pregnancy

Subjects: Prichard Committee for Academic Excellence

Partial Transcript: Did you have any kind of, uh, personal friendship with Prich or relationship with him?

Segment Synopsis: Heine relates her first meeting with Ed Prichard and getting acquainted with him during trips to Shakertown for committee meetings. She talks about the research she conducted for the committee.

Keywords: Bob Sexton; Pam Sexton; Path to a Larger Life; Shakertown

Subjects: Prichard Committee for Academic Excellence; Prichard, Edward

Partial Transcript: Uh, okay, can you tal--tell more about your work fay--uh, chairing the Fayette town forum?

Segment Synopsis: Heine describes the process of organizing the education town forum held in Lexington.

Keywords: Ashland Oil; Chamber of Commerce; Parent Teacher Association (PTA); Partnership for Kentucky School Reform; Rona Roberts; School boards; Scotty Kinkle; Steve Kay; Town forums

Subjects: Prichard Committee for Academic Excellence

Partial Transcript: How do you think the, the issues that came up during those town forums affected, if at all, the, uh--how KERA was shaped?

Segment Synopsis: Heine talks about the impact of citizen support expressed during town forums on education reform. She talks about the participation and leadership of Ashland Oil in promoting the town forums. She talks about the leadership of Ed Prichard and Bob Sexton.

Keywords: Ashland Oil; Bob Sexton; Edward Prichard, Jr.; Kentucky Education Reform Act (KERA); Pam Sexton; Path to a Larger Life; Shakertown; Town forums

Subjects: Prichard Committee for Academic Excellence

Partial Transcript: Do you recall your early impressions of the Prichard Committee after, after that first m--during that first meeting?

Segment Synopsis: Heine recalls being initially intimidated by the other committee members. She recalls getting accustomed to committee work and considering it to be rewarding. She talks about visiting task force committee meetings in Frankfort.

Keywords: Bob Sexton; David Hornbeck; Nursing; Task force

Subjects: Prichard Committee for Academic Excellence

Partial Transcript: When you say he, he would bring in subjective tobacco, coal, uh, since those--I mean early on before--I mean those are both pretty controversial issues...

Segment Synopsis: Heine talks about the changing outlook for employment and jobs in Kentucky.

Keywords: Barack Obama; Bob Sexton; Kentucky Education Association (KEA); Kentucky Education Reform Act (KERA)

Subjects: Prichard Committee for Academic Excellence

Partial Transcript: Were you able to sit in on, on all the committees' meetings or did you just go to curriculum?

Segment Synopsis: Heine talks about attending legislative committee meetings on educational issues. She describes how Bob Sexton and the committee worked to influence educational legislative policy.

Keywords: Bob Sexton; Curriculum committee; David Hornbeck; Finance committee; Governance committee; Kentucky Education Reform Act (KERA); School Answer Book; Support Educational Excellence Kentucky (SEEK)

Subjects: Prichard Committee for Academic Excellence

Partial Transcript: I just wanted to go back for one second to the task force. Uh--I'm, I'm trying to imagine what it would be like to be sitting there and listening to, to all these people debating things...

Segment Synopsis: Heine talks about working with Bob Sexton about the deliberations of the legislative task force and participating in the formation of education policy. She says that the most important aspect of KERA was emphasizing the ability of every student to learn. She talks about how to hold schools accountable for educating every student.

Keywords: "Stand and Deliver"; David Hornbeck; Kentucky Education Reform Act (KERA); School Answer Book; Student advocacy

Subjects: Prichard Committee for Academic Excellence

Partial Transcript: I was interested--I read an article recently, uh, in which Gene Bottoms of the Southern Regional Education Board I think was talking about, uh, how some poverty, poverty stricken high performing schools...

Segment Synopsis: Heine talks about the base assumption of KERA that all students can learn and most can learn at a high level. She talks about the importance of decision making on curriculum being made at a level close to the students such as school councils instead of school boards.

Keywords: Ashland Oil; Curriculum; Early education; Kentucky Educational Reform Act (KERA); Parent Teacher Association (PTA); School council

Subjects: Prichard Committee for Academic Excellence

Partial Transcript: In the, in the early days after KERA was passed, um, in some of the media, uh, the most controversial aspect was cited as being the school boards, the site based decision making councils, um, rather.

Segment Synopsis: Heine talks about the challenges of implementing KERA. She says there was insufficient funding and support for some of aspects of reform such as differential instruction. She talks about school councils as an integrated element of the public education system, but not meeting their potential for effectiveness.

Keywords: Curriculum; Family resource youth center; Kentucky Education Reform Act (KERA); Primary education; School councils

Subjects: Prichard Committee for Academic Excellence

Partial Transcript: It comes down so much to how do you motivate citizen involvement, right? I mean on, on so many different levels.

Segment Synopsis: Heine talks about the need for involving parents in local education system support. She talks about Bev Raimondo's idea of parent leadership training.

Keywords: Beverly Raimondo; Commonwealth Institute for Parent Leadership (CIPL); Community Committees for Education; Kentucky Education Reform Act (KERA); Town forums

Subjects: Prichard Committee for Academic Excellence; Prichard Committee on Higher Education in Kentucky's Future

Partial Transcript: I wanted to ask you a little more about the, the testing issue because that, that has been so contentious...

Segment Synopsis: Heine talks about the problems with educational accountability and the "Lake Wobegon" effect of norm reference testing. She says that KERA replaced norm reference testing with standardized performance based testing. She talks about how writing portfolios and math assessments were eventually abandoned. She talks about the challenges of implementing performance based testing.

Keywords: David Hornbeck; National Assessment for Educational Progress (NAEP); Norm reference testing; Performance based testing; Standards based testing

Subjects: Prichard Committee for Academic Excellence

Partial Transcript: How has the Prichard Committee um, determined its, its position as far as testing is concerned given how complex the issues are?

Segment Synopsis: Heine discusses the committee's position on standardized testing and strong support for educational accountability. She says the committee strongly supports common core standards. She discusses the limitations of No Child Left Behind and Kentucky's approach to addressing those limitations. She describes the process of adopting common core standards.

Keywords: Common core standards; Education accountability; Kentucky Accountability Testing System (KATS); No Child Left Behind; School vouchers; Senate Bill 1; Susan Weston

Subjects: Prichard Committee for Academic Excellence

Partial Transcript: Uh, I wanted to ask about the, uh--your relations with the media. I know that, that was, that was very conscious. The media r--relationship with the media was very consciously cultivated on Bob's part...

Segment Synopsis: Heine talks about the importance of cultivating a reputation for integrity in dealing with the media. She talks about Bob Sexton's networking with the media to promote the committee's agenda. She talks about her own role in communicating with the media. She describes the importance of editorial writing in education advocacy.

Keywords: Ashland Oil; Bob Sexton; Journalism

Subjects: Prichard Committee for Academic Excellence

Partial Transcript: Um, I, I saw some, uh, some interesting articles as I was going threw those clipping binders that--these are editor, editorials from legislators.

Segment Synopsis: Heine talks about how the Prichard Committee and Legislative Research Council worked together in generating policy reports. She talks about preschool education as an element of KERA. She talks about various programs designed to improve early childhood education in Kentucky.

Keywords: Children's Defense Fund; Greg Stumbo; Headstart; Jeff Greer; John Tilley; Kentucky Education Reform Act (KERA); Kids Now; Legislative Research Council (LRC); Paul Patton; Perry Preschool Project; Pew Charitable Trust; Preschool education; STARS quality rating system

Subjects: Prichard Committee for Academic Excellence

Partial Transcript: As you're, um, retiring now from the Prichard Committee and you look back on the work you've done over the last three decades, um, what are the things you feel most proud of?

Segment Synopsis: Heine reminisces about her accomplishments working with the Prichard Committee including the Strong Start program and the 800 line. She talks about early political opposition to KERA by the ideological Right in order to ruin the public school system and replace it with a voucher system for private schools. She talks about the divisive nature of the current political environment.

Keywords: Charter schools; Common core; Libertarians; Preschool education; School vouchers; Strong Start; TEA Party

Subjects: Prichard Committee for Academic Excellence