"The Kansas City Kansas public school district, where 79 percent of students are minorities and 74 percent live below the poverty line, was struggling with high dropout rates and low test scores when it adopted the school-reform model called First Things First in 1996. This included setting high academic standards for all students, reducing teacher-student ratios, and giving teachers and administrators the responsibility to improve student performance and the resources they needed to do it. The district's graduation rate has climbed more than 30 percentage points. These are the kind of results you can get when you design high schools to prepare every student for college."
— Bill Gates, National Education Summit on High Schools (February 2005)
Next event TBA
Kansas City Kansas Public Schools (KCKPS) in partnership with the Institute for Research and Reform in Education (IRRE) announce the formation of an Urban Education Innovation Network. With the support of PREP-KC, the network seeks to bring together educators interested in learning more about the implementation of reform strategies that are now a part of KCKPS' district-wide implementation of First Things First, a nationally recognized comprehensive reform framework.
WHO ARE WE?
Over the past five years KCKPS – an urban district serving approximately twenty thousand, mostly minority and economically disadvantaged students – has shown dramatic improvements in attendance, student behavior and persistence to graduation. Double digit gains in students achieving academic proficiency on high stakes tests have occurred at the elementary, middle and high school levels; and the economic and racial achievement gaps have closed substantially. IRRE developed First Things First and has provided technical assistance to the district for the past six years (and now to six other urban and rural districts in four states) around their reform strategies.
WHAT IS THE FOCUS OF THE NETWORK?
The initial foci of the network will be on how to:
- create and strengthen small learning communities,
- provide every student family an effective advocate,
- get all teachers focused on actively engaging all students in rigorous learning activities with payoff on high stakes assessments;
- integrate these three strategies into a data-driven, coherent and sustainable approach to improving student achievement and commitment; and
- build the system leadership capacities needed to pull these first four things off.
WHAT WILL THE NETWORK DO?
The network will provide a range of opportunities for districts and schools interested in joining KCKPS and IRRE in learning more about these reform strategies. Roundtables are held semi-annually in February and October.
At this time, over 250 participants have had the opportunity to spend two and a half days in a series of activities which include:
- presentations and discussion with KCKPS and IRRE network staff currently involved putting these strategies on the ground – including their rationale and evidence base and their application in elementary, middle and high schools;
- two half-day visits to KCKPS schools (elementary, middle and high schools) to observe and continue dialogue around these strategies,
- focused small-group workshops on specific district, union and community supports needed for these strategies to take hold; and
- facilitated conversations about implications of the Roundtable and other Innovation Network activities for next steps "back at the ranch" with IRRE and KCKPS consultants.
HOW DO I GET INVOLVED IN THE NETWORK
Click on the bolded link for an Application form and eligibility information for the Innovation Network Roundtable. You will be notified of future session dates for UEIN.
625 Minnesota Avenue
Kansas City, KS 66101
(913) 279-2311
email paellis@kckps.org
www.kckps.org