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Urban School District Across the Nation; Problems.

Peter Dufort | Marketing Partnership Development | pdufort@kcstar.com

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'Paradigm shift' puts college teachers in high schools; Penn Valley works to prepare students for life after graduation. By Joe Robertson

Credit: The Kansas City Star
Wednesday, March 14, 2007
Edition: METROPOLITAN, Section: CITY, Page 1

EDUCATION | Kansas City district seeks stronger ties with colleges, businesses

Anyone unconvinced of the urgent need for a better way to govern the Kansas City School District should talk to Bernard Franklin, President of Penn Valley Community College.

The Penn Valley Community College president is witness to the district's ongoing failure to adequately prepare students for life beyond high school.

Dozens of its graduates arrive on his campus each fall, bringing federal Pell grants and high hopes.

It falls to Franklin and his faculty to tell them what they're missing. Math skills. Reading proficiency. The ability to write clearly.

Last year, nine of 10 Kansas City School District graduates who entered the Metropolitan Community College system as freshmen were unprepared for college math. Six of 10 freshmen required catch-up work in writing. Nearly half needed help with reading.

To be fair, the district's most successful students, including most graduates of high-achieving Lincoln Prep, enroll in four-year colleges. And Kansas City isn't the only system graduating unprepared students. But the percentage of its graduates who require remedial classes in the Metropolitan Community College system is greater than that of any other area district.

"They're really offering middle-school math under the guise of pre-college algebra," Franklin said.

Another observation: "For whatever reason, the district abandoned science some time ago."

Those are intolerable revelations for a community that purports to care about young people.

Students who enter community college inadequately prepared are assigned to "developmental" courses, which cost the same as other college classes, but don't award credits. Youths who are far behind could expend all their financial aid on remedial classes and have nothing to show for it.

Franklin agonizes about charging tuition for a walk down a primrose path. "Knowing that some of these students are coming in at a third-grade level, do I have a moral obligation to say, 'There's nothing we can do for you?' " he asked.

The answer is to head off the problem while students are in high school.

The Metropolitan Community College system works with six area school districts to help students prepare for college. The Career Education Consortium introduces high school students to career possibilities and aligns high school curriculums with college knowledge.

The Center, Grandview , Hickman Mills, Independence , Lee's Summit and Raytown
districts are in the consortium. Kansas City is not.

I asked why, and heard the familiar explanations about personality conflicts, administrative instability and mixed signals from the school board.

The bottom line is that Kansas City School District students are being denied opportunities.

Franklin thinks an appointed school board would be in a better position than the current elected board to move beyond bickering and distractions and focus on academic progress.

I'm with him on that. It's time for Kansas City 's political, civic and community leaders to get serious about structural reforms that will end the culture of failure in Kansas City 's high schools. Tinkering around the edges won't get the job done.