Kansas City students need a system to support them. We’re building it | Opinion

In Kansas City, students make up roughly 20% of our population, and 100% of our future. Yet too many face barriers that limit their potential: poverty, housing instability and inequitable access to strong educational systems. The results are visible all around us. More than 250,000 adults in our metropolitan area are not yet literate. That’s nearly a quarter of our community unable to fully participate in the economy we’re building together.

At SchoolSmartKC, our mission is simple: Close the opportunity gap so every child has a strong path to success. When that gap closes, student growth accelerates — not by luck, but by design.

To close that gap, we’re building a citywide ecosystem that unites public district and charter schools, families, businesses, philanthropy and local government, all of whom are willing to work shoulder to shoulder for Kansas City’s students.

That collaboration matters because nearly one-third of Kansas City students change schools every year. When families move, learning gaps get bigger. No single school or program can keep up with that kind of mobility. Only a connected system can ensure that learning follows the child.

A strong system also supports family choice. Kansas City families deserve access to high-quality district and charter schools that meet their children’s needs. Real equity means every public option is strong, transparent and working toward the same goal: success for every student.

We’ve already seen what’s possible when collaboration comes before competition. This spring, leaders from both charter schools and Kansas City Public Schools collaborated to pass a $474 million school improvement bond, a historic investment in our city’s future. That level of cooperation is rare, and it should be our new normal.

For too long, our community has relied on short-term programs tied to grants or individual champions. Programs end and leaders change, but systems last. Systems align long-term goals, sustain funding and share data that drives improvement. Systemwide collaboration doesn’t mean sameness — it means strength through connection. Each school keeps its identity and approach, while every student benefits from the power of the whole.

The results of this approach have been encouraging. In four years, our coordinated investments across district and charter schools have produced clear, citywide results:

• We have 540 new teachers, increasing the share of teachers of color by 8%.
• There are 700 new early-learning seats, so more children have access to pre-kindergarten.
• Seventy-four percent of students who attended our PreK Cooperative classrooms this year entered kindergarten ready to learn, 10% above the national average.

Our belief in the power of systems-level change drives SchoolSmartKC’s work through Literacy for All Students, our citywide plan to raise third-grade reading proficiency by 10 percentage points within four years. It’s ambitious but achievable, because it builds capacity, not dependency. Today, 11 partner schools have on-site literacy coaches supporting teachers daily and strengthening the pipeline of instructional expertise for tomorrow. Our goal is to reach all 40 elementary schools in our ecosystem, so that no matter where a child learns, or how often they move, consistent, high-quality instruction follows them.

These milestones prove what’s possible when Kansas City embraces student success as a shared civic responsibility. Every child deserves a clear path to the future, and every neighborhood benefits when strong systems keep that path open. As opportunity gaps close, graduation rates rise and our workforce expands. When every student succeeds, Kansas City thrives.

Student success isn’t by accident. It’s the intended outcome of a just and connected system.

Dr. Angelique Nedved serves as president and CEO of the Kansas City-based 501(c)(3) nonprofit SchoolSmartKC. She earned her doctorate in educational leadership and policy studies, and holds a master’s in education administration and a bachelor’s in secondary and elementary education.