By Leslie Collins
Northeast News
August 24, 2011

If the Kansas City, Missouri School District (KCMSD) received a real report card, it would be marked with an “F.”

This year, KCMSD met three of the 14 benchmarks in the state’s preliminary Annual Performance Report (APR). In comparison, the Independence School District met 14 of the benchmarks and North Kansas City met 13. KCMSD faired only slightly better in previous years, meeting 4 benchmarks in 2010 and in 2009.

KCMSD also scored poorly in the 2011 Missouri Assessment Program (MAP) tests and is still provisionally accredited.

“This has to be the year where we turn things around,” Dr. MiUndrae Prince, KCMSD associate superintendent for Educational Accountability and Instructional Support, told Northeast News.

Scoring below par isn’t a new trend for KCMSD. MAP divides students into four skill levels: below basic, basic, proficient and advanced. KCMSD routinely scored the highest in the below basic and basic categories.

In the 2006 MAP test, an average of 27.2 percent of KCMSD students grades three through eight fell into the below basic skill level for communication arts. By 2009, KCMSD brought that number down to 19.7 percent and down again to 19.1 percent in 2010. However, in 2011, it rose to 21.3 percent. From 2008 to 2011 an average of 8.1 percent of KCMSD fifth grade students were in the proficient to advanced category for science compared to the state average of 47.5 percent.

“We saw incremental improvements the past two years with student test scores on the MAP,” said Tony Stansberry, Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) area supervisor for the Kansas City area. “This year it went down a bit. It was a disappointment, but we also realize they went through a lot of changes this past year and we hope that change will lend itself to student achievement this year and the year after.”

One of the changes involved shuttering 29 of the district’s 61 schools and combining the seventh and eighth grades with the ninth through 12th grades.

When KCMSD combined the junior high with the upperclassmen, the district received criticism. KCMSD Executive Director of Public Relations and Marketing Eileen Houston-Stewart defended the move. Now mixed with the upperclassmen, seventh and eighth graders are exposed to higher level courses they wouldn’t have been able to take otherwise, she said.

“It’s really moving the kids forward and not holding them back,” Houston-Stewart said.

Through the shuttering of the 29 schools, DESE noticed significant progress of the school district’s financial outlook, Stansberry said.

“We like the progress we’ve seen (KCMSD Superintendent) Dr. (John) Covington and his staff provide over the last couple of years, but the bottom line is we’ll need to see improvement in student performance in the district over the next year or so,” Stansberry said.

Asked why he thinks KCMSD has struggled to score well on the MAP tests, Stansberry cited several factors.

“Kansas City isn’t a whole lot different than a lot of the other urban school districts in the country,” he said. “There’s a lot of poverty in those schools and the kids just don’t have the support base. There are a variety of issues associated with poverty that has a deep impact on how well these kids do in schools. There’s a lot of research to back that up.”

Other past KCMSD issues included operating too many school buildings with too few students, which caused budgetary issues, and having a board of education that micromanaged the district’s administration, he said. Those issues have since been resolved, he said.

The issue that hasn’t been resolved is student academic achievement, but KCMSD is up for the challenge and is implementing several new initiatives to improve academic growth.

Last year, due to the closure of 29 schools, KCMSD started later than other school districts. Compounding the issue of fewer instruction days was last year’s high number of snow days, Prince said. This year, however, the district has added two additional weeks of instruction.

KCMSD also added 40 minutes of collaborative planning time for the elementary and high school teachers. During this period, teachers will meet with each other, with principals, and KCMSD staff. Teachers will use data from the school district’s data warehouse to improve instruction in the classrooms, Prince said. In addition to keeping track of a student’s attendance record, teachers will regularly keep track of predictive test data for each student.

“We’ll have teachers look at predictive tests along the way to see which students are doing well and which ones need intervention to make sure they’re ready for the MAP tests,” Prince said.

Teachers will need to implement individual intervention plans for students when necessary, but also keep track of those performing in the proficient and advanced category, so those students don’t regress, he said. Teachers will also continue to receive professional development training.

To encourage students to attend classes and show up on time, KCMSD is launching “On Time or Fall Behind,” thanks to a $10,000 grant from Sprint. Those with perfect attendance and no tardies will be placed into a drawing for prizes like an Xbox, iPad, movie tickets, field trips and other giveaways. The school district is also seeking partnerships with area businesses and non profit organizations to further the program into future years.

“It will just be something fun so to speak, but at the same time, it has the element of ensuring our kids come to school everyday and come to class on time and get them in the mindset that it’s important for them to be in school everyday because when they’re not there, they’re not learning and they’re missing out on important classroom time,” Houston-Stewart said.

For some students, having the prize giveaway may be the extra push they need to come to class, Prince said.

“Attendance is a big issue for us,” he said.

Another item that will help with attendance is the Family Store, which launched this year, Houston-Stewart said. The Family Store offers items like school uniforms, hygiene kits and school supplies to students in need. School uniforms are required in all the elementary schools and in the 7th and 8th grades at Central High School, she said. Some families may struggle to afford the uniforms, which can keep their children from class, she said.

“Through the Family Store, we can outfit that child and give them what they need… There’s a lot of barriers that you find in urban settings that you may not necessarily find in a suburban setting that keeps our kids from coming to class,” she said.

Last year KCMSD established five student-centered elementary schools and added five more this year.

By the beginning of the 2012-2013 school year, KCMSD hopes to have all of the elementary schools functioning as student-centered schools, Prince said.

“The biggest advantage (of student-centered schools) is that students learn at their own instructional level. When you’re ready and you demonstrate you can move forward, then you go and we’re not going to hold you back,” he said.

Each subject is broken into different instructional levels, Prince said. For example, a third grade student could be reading at a fifth grade level, but working on the third grade level in math.

“The other side is, if you’re not ready (to move to the next level), we’re not going to make you feel bad and say, ‘Oh, you failed at third grade.’ It just means you need more time.”

Eventually, KCMSD will adopt the student-centered learning approach in all 30 of its schools. Not only do student-centered schools provide additional help to students who are struggling academically, it also provides an avenue for those at the proficient and advanced level to advance faster, he said.

“With the way the high school is structured right now, in a sense we’re already doing it (student-centered learning),” Prince said. “This year, we’ll have the first class who will graduate with an associate’s degree (from Penn Valley College) with their high school diploma.”

KCMSD students are receiving free tuition and books to attend Penn Valley, Houston-Stewart said.

“That will be a great graduation for some parents,” she said. “That’s two year’s less tuition your parents have to pay or you have to pay.”