Too Many Lost Students!

A Hypothetical Student Who Graduated From the Kansas City Public School District In Spring, 2012

A member of the Do the Right Thing for Kids Board of Directors offers this picture of a typical student who graduated from the Kansas City Public School District in spring 2012. What might this student’s K-12 academic progress look like in this district in turmoil?

If the student entered kindergarten in fall 1999 when the District was stripped of its provisional accreditation for the first time, he would have graduated last spring. As a third grader he would have taken his first MAP test in the spring of 2003. According to the District’s AYP report on the DESE website, a third grader in 2003, along with 84.9% of his peers, would have scored below proficient in Communication Arts. He and 82.1% of his peers would have scored below proficient in Math. Millions of Title I dollars would have been spent in intervention techniques to address these deficiencies. Certainly as we follow his career we should see some progress.

However, when he was a sixth grader in spring 2006, he and 85.9% of his peers would have scored below proficient in Comm Arts. Similarly, he and 87.2% of his peers would have scored below proficient in Math. As an 8th grader in spring 2008, this picture is equally dismal. He and 75.7% of his peers scored below proficient in Comm Arts, and he and 84.1% of his peers scored below proficient in Math.

If he did not drop out of school and took the ACT as a senior last spring, he and his peers would have scored an average of 16.4. Chances are that he graduated from the district. What a disservice the district has done to this student! How can anyone suggest that progress has been made in the last decade?