by Mary Rupert
The Kansas City, Kansas, school district celebrated a significant improvement in test scores – around 5 percent – at Tuesday night’s Board of Education meeting.
Improvement in math and English was made in every grade level and in each subgroup of the district in the state assessments, according to district officials.
Dr. Charles Foust, superintendent, told the board the district is on track to proficiency.
“We are a turnaround district,” Dr. Foust told the board. “We’re no longer the lowest performing school district in the state.”
According to district officials, 39 of 43 schools showed positive gains in English language arts and 40 schools showed gains in math.
Dr. Foust said instructional improvement officers have been placed in each school to work with principals and administrators and provide feedback to teachers.
According to district officials, English language arts, including reading and writing, went from 14.3 percent in 2017-2018 to 18.6 percent in 2018-2019. In the same period, math improved from 11.4 percent to 17.6 percent, and science from 13.9 percent to 17.8 percent.
The rate of improvement in the KCK district was greater than that in Wichita and Topeka, he noted, although those districts are ahead of KCK in the total percentage of proficiency. Wichita was at 23 percent, Topeka 25 percent and the state, 36 percent, he said.
Dr. Foust said the biggest challenge in making these changes has been convincing the students that they can succeed in academics.
“Once you start to face it, then you can do it,” he said. Also a challenge was “our teachers not realizing they have the skill sets to do it.”
Those were the biggest challenges, and now students from all areas know they can achieve, Dr. Foust said. The district is celebrating the huge gains with students, and making sure they understand they can do it, he said, and if there is a barrier, let them know and they will help them.
Dr. Foust said everything is now in place for the district to continue its academic improvement toward proficiency.
Dr. Foust has been superintendent for about one year in the KCK district. A year ago, Dr. Foust told the board that he had turned other school districts’ academic performance around. Maxine Drew is the current president of the school board, and Dr. Valdenia Winn was president last school year.
David Rand, director of evaluation, research and assessment for the KCK schools, said there was a 6.2 percent increase in math scores and a 4.3 percent increase in English language arts district-wide.
“We’ve been trending down over the previous years until this most recent year,” Rand said, and it was flat or down for the three previous years.
The state has set a long-term goal of 75 percent proficiency by 2030.
“We definitely believe that every single one of our kids has the ability to perform well,” Rand said.
Dr. Foust also said the graduation rate was 73.8 percent in 2018 and the district will take steps this year to help track down dropouts and get them to finish their schooling.
District officials also announced greater participation in the district’s Diploma Plus program, and that more than $120 million in scholarships was received this school year by graduates, a record for the district.
Drew, the board president, and other board members were pleased with the results.
“I feel like we’re on a track to continue the momentum that was shown in the data,” Dr. Stacy Yeager, a board member, said. “More parents, teachers, and the whole district are on track and in support of where the district is going.”
She said she was really excited to be part of it.
The board also voted to approve a tutoring program on Wednesday afternoons that will use digital technology. Students in greatest need of tutoring will be encouraged to participate.
More details on the superintendent’s academic progress report are available online at www.kckps.org.
