By Leslie Collins
Northeast News
December 28, 2011

Kansas City Public School’s failure in student achievement isn’t a new concept.

The district hasn’t been fully accredited by the state since 1993. That’s 18 years worth of floundering state test scores.

In 2006, it earned provisional accreditation, but one year later, it failed to meet the provisional accreditation requirements. However, the state Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) allowed the district to operate under provisional accreditation until now. Effective Jan. 1, KCPS will lose its state accreditation.

“This is something we deserved,” District Advisory Council (DAC) Parent Advisory Task Force At-Large Representative Jamekia Kendrix said during the Dec. 11 DAC town hall meeting.

Kendrix likened it to a child not keeping his room clean.

“If you (as a parent or grandparent) say, ‘Clean your room or you’re going to get a punishment,’ and they don’t clean their room, we’re not going to do that for five years,” she said.

KCPS didn’t clean up its test scores and now it’s finally paying the price.

DESE officials are considering options for district level governance but want a community driven plan, Kendrix said. To discuss options and garner feedback, DAC hosted four town hall meetings at Manual Career Tech Center.

“What we’re doing today is actually what the state has asked for. The only thing we can’t do is nothing and dissolving the district should be a last resort,” she said.

During the meeting, Kendrix listed seven options, explaining the pros and cons of each. Options included:

1. Split KCPS and join other school districts, which eliminates the current elected board of education.

2. Enter into a suburban school district contract, which would allow the district to keep its boundaries, but surrounding suburban school districts would operate and staff the schools and maintain the buildings. KCPS would retain ownership of the schools and would be accountable for the Missouri Assessment Program (MAP) test scores.

3. Create a hybrid school board consisting of both elected and appointed positions.

4. Appoint a monitoring and assistance team, which involves DESE officials advising the school board on how to improve the district and stabilize the central office administration

5. Create an oversight commission to oversee, evaluate and support the best governance practices and oversee the implementation of achievement focused, community-based interventions. The five-member commission would be comprised of three mayoral appointments and two state board appointments. The commission would also report daily to the mayor and quarterly to DESE. The local school board would remain intact, but the commission would have the option to dissolve the board.

6. Use a mayoral controlled governance system in which the mayor would appoint a chief executive officer, chief academic officer and chief business officer to run the school district. Those appointed would be accountable to the mayor.

A dissolution of the current KCPS Board of Education would be required. Following the dissolution, the mayor could choose to use a mayoral appointed board or forgo that option.

7. Adopt a state appointed school board.

A number of state legislators are fighting to dissolve the school district and have already filed the pre-legislation to do so, Kendrix said.

“They actually have the votes to move this legislation through.” Kendrix said. “The only way to prevent dissolution of our district is to come together and create what (Missouri Commissioner of Education Chris) Nicastro has said she needs, which is a plan that contains community consensus that can create a significant change in the governance structure that is acceptable to the state legislature.”

Kendrix said DAC will gather the community’s feedback and consensus and distribute it to state officials and stakeholders.

The 3 questions

In addition to considering the governance options, DAC representatives also asked attendees to answer three questions: What do children in our schools need; What can we do to ensure our schools and our children get what they need to achieve; and What are the key components of the best governance structure to enable us to help children in our schools improve?

Answers for what schools and children need ranged from removing disruptive students from class to more parent involvement to employing teachers who are passionate about teaching.

For Lincoln Prep sophomore and class vice-president Jonah Haas, it comes down to grabbing a student’s attention.

With a media rich generation, teaching shouldn’t always be textbook oriented, he said.

“Teachers need to think outside the box and know different ways to teach the kids,” he said.

It also involves application.

“We don’t have connections on how am I going to use this in my life? Why do I need to know about atoms and protons?” Haas said.

One hurdle is disruptive behavior and the teacher’s failure to maintain control of the class, he said. It’s especially apparent with the newly hired Teach for America teachers, he added. While those teachers think outside the box, they need more training in disciplining students, he said.

“They don’t know what they’re doing. They’re not used to bad kids,” Haas said.

Jon Hile, chief operating officer with Big Brothers and Big Sisters of Greater Kansas City, said he’s seen an entire generation of students come through the KCPS and the issues affecting the youth haven’t been addressed.

“There’s so much time spent talking about the governance and the political leaders,” he said. “What we don’t talk about is how we can create opportunities for kids at the school level. I think that’s such a key part to any district rebound or success or comeback.”

Asked what issues he hears the youth talk about, Hile said his youth say the “school culture is not good.” Students are apathetic about learning, don’t feel safe in school or don’t have teachers or principals who stimulate their interests, he said. Improving the school district will require KCPS officials to replicate and improve on things that have made other comparable urban school districts successful, he said.

However, finding a solution for the district’s woes won’t happen overnight, he said.

“There’s tremendous pressure on the community to develop a quick fix approach to get us more check boxes on our state evaluation score and I don’t think that’s what’s best for the district long-term…” Hile said. “We need to make the right decision for the next 20 years, not the right decision for the next two years.”