Among the most often repeated: “Why can’t the Kansas City, Missouri, School District be more like the Kansas City, Kansas, School District?”
The statement is usually made as if one district is educational nirvana, and the other hopeless. It is a naïve conclusion.
If the conversation continues, this belief usually includes a nod to the fact that both districts serve large numbers of minority students, often living in families of generational poverty. The conclusion, therefore, is one district is light years ahead of the other.
But this is an oversimplified, limited viewpoint that cherry picks some of the positive aspects of the Kansas district to draw broad conclusions. There are many laudable aspects of Kansas City, Kan., but expecting the same from the Missouri district without understanding the two district’s vastly different histories is ludicrous.
Most glaring are the differences in the district’s desegregation pains, and wealth and poverty patterns.
Kansas City, Kan., also had a desegregation plan. But it was nothing to the scale and length of the 26-year, $2 billion set of court-ordered rulings that the Missouri district underwent. The KCK magnet plan basically just created Sumner Academy as a college-prep school.
On the Missouri side, bitterness is still unresolved from the initial plan to force the inclusion of surrounding Missouri school districts into the desegregation case. The feeling that too much tax money was spent without achieving the result of well-educated students is both valid and stifling for the district.
Another huge difference: Wyandotte County is poorer than Jackson County, but this also means it does not have the wide disparity of wealth to poverty. Private schools exist there, but nothing to the extent on the Missouri side.
Schools like Pembroke, Rockhurst, St. Teresa’s and Notre Dame de Sion are wonderful resources for the community. But they also have meant that the wealthier and often more educationally engaged families have been bled away from the Kansas City, Mo., district.
Finally, Kansas City, Kan., has benefited from being able to make mistakes and progress without the glaring public scrutiny long focused on its Missouri counterpart.
Look hard and long enough at any institution and you’ll find something negative to write about. Nothing is blemish-free. But Kansas City, Mo., has taken more than its fair share of negative publicity, both due and at times, undue.
One of clearest views of both districts comes from the vantage point of someone who has worked in the administration of both systems. David Smith, an assistant superintendent in KCK, also worked under former Kansas City Superintendent Benjamin Demps Jr.
Smith and other local leaders rightly note the stability of the Kansas school board. Most members have been on the board since the mid-90’s.
That would be hard to imagine on the Missouri side where a core group of often testy gadflys has hovered around the workings of the board. Sometimes these are agitators for the betterment of the district, oftentimes not.
KCK, without the leverage to draw national candidates, has had to grow its own talent.
This in-house grooming and hiring has meant a string of superintendents who agreed with long-term goals set by a long-standing school board.
A decade ago, the KCK board took a long hard look at its failing test scores and other markers of achievement. Abysmal math and reading scores were publicized. The result became an energized district staff and board focused on specific goals.
Smith, in noting the positives of the Kansas district, also notes the support its schools have from within the community.
“Having a healthy functional community impacts your ability to have a healthy governance of schools,” he said.
And that just might be a good place for Kansas City, Mo., to begin.
Mary Sanchez is a nationally syndicated columnist for Tribune Media Services. Read her Tribune column on high school dropout rates on KansasCity.com.
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