Over the past month, I've talked a lot about some of the different things that need to be done to improve the KCMO School district long term. Most are long-term solutions, improving accessibility to jobs for people in the urban core, strengthening neighborhoods, and improving the culture are very long-term goals.
There is something I think can be done in the short term, and I think the new Superintendent is maybe taking steps in that direction. Two weeks ago, the superintendent of KCMO schools announced that they would be closing down several junior high schools and merging 6th, 7th and 8th graders into elementary schools. The goal is to focus on creating neighborhood schools. While this decision hasn't been popular, I think it's a step in the right direction.
I think in the short term, the school district needs to put more power to improve schools in the hands of the neighborhoods -- creating truly neighborhood schools will help that.
I also think the KCMO School district should break down the school district into smaller districts, with each High School representing its own mini-district. The KCMO School district has MANY problems, and they're overwhelming to a school board trying to fix all of the problems. Dividing the district into smaller districts will allow for a school board to just focus on the needs of a smaller group of people. What may be good for people in the Northeast School District would be completely different than what would work for the Southeast School District. Having a school board focus on a much smaller group of problems will create more instant results for a smaller district.
Most of the KCMO Schools have about 40-45% of their students that are below basic on test scores (the state average is about 11%). If one of the mini-school districts can get closer to an acceptable range of test scores, then people will be attracted to that area as a place to live instead of moving to other cities once they have kids in school. As people are attracted to that area, the overall tax base will go up, providing more money that can be shared with the other school districts, so that hopefully they can eventually reach the same success.
It's important that while they are separate districts from a school board and test scores perspective, that the money is shared between districts because we don't want to further isolate poor parts of the city. But allowing for school boards to focus on smaller problems, instead of such large, overarching problems, will benefit everyone in the short term. This will give neighborhoods more ability to affect change quickly, than the massive problem that faces the entire district as-is. This is why the consolidation into neighborhood schools is a decent first step.
It's not sexy, or earthshattering, but I think it's a really solid first step -- that along with other long-term changes, can get KCMO out of the horrible tailspin it currently is in.
Thanks for stating your opinions. It's good to see there are others out there who think logically and are actually looking for solutions.
Posted by: Rob | May 09, 2007 at 01:12 PM