海角大神

In Rachael McIlvaine鈥檚 eighth-grade science class at West Middle School here, a group of three students akes turns closing their eyes, dipping a plastic spoon into a foil roasting pan and fishing for cracked M&M鈥檚.

The idea is to show how homes use clean water and replace it with pollution; for every regular M&M removed, students replace it with a peanut M&M. On a chart, they track what percentage of the 鈥渨ater鈥� remains clean.

The pollution analogy works well: The M&M鈥檚 have seen better days. Many are cracked or chipped, the result of having been reused. 鈥淭hey鈥檙e kind of nasty,鈥� remarks one student.

鈥淚 reuse the M&M鈥檚 because a bag of M&M鈥檚 is $4 or $5 apiece and 100 of those per group would add up over time as far as cost,鈥� Ms. McIlvaine says.

Teachers in financially strapped urban districts are used to saving money where they can. In that respect, Kansas City, where in 2014 nearly 90 percent of the students were poor enough to qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, is not unusual. But since 2009, according to David Smith, the district鈥檚 chief of communications and government relations, the district has had to cut more than $50 million from its already tight budget because of state cutbacks, threatening progress in a district that had seen some significant and surprising gains for its students.

Kansas鈥檚 governor and Legislature also are making national headlines for not equalizing education funding between low-income and wealthier districts. The state Supreme Court has warned that it could prevent schools from opening in the fall if the state refuses to comply with its most recent order to increase funding.

But whether or not the school district gets the cash, it says it is going forward with an ambitious plan to add a requirement that, to get their diplomas, high-schoolers must either score a 21 on the ACT, complete a year of college, or earn a technical certificate.

Kansas City鈥檚 persistence in the face of the funding shortfalls raises questions reformers across the nation have battled over for decades: Can districts raise expectations and improve achievement on a shoestring? How little money is too little for schools to function well, and what could be achieved with more? Whether Kansas City maintains its optimism or loses ground as the belt tightens could begin to suggest answers.

鈥淭he passion around doing the work is still present,鈥� says Superintendent Cynthia Lane. 鈥淏ut it鈥檚 hard to maintain morale and to keep folks moving in the very aggressive direction that we鈥檝e set for ourselves. It鈥檚 hard to ask them to stretch to do more when they鈥檙e already really doing everything that鈥檚 humanly possible.鈥�

The district says it has tried to prevent the cuts from reaching the classroom by spending its limited funding more efficiently. But class sizes have begun to increase, and many of the supports that educators here say helped spark improvements over the last 15 years have been removed.

McIlvaine fears for what鈥檚 to come. 鈥淎t some point you have to make up for that somewhere,鈥� she says. 鈥淭eachers are always used to filling in the gaps 鈥� but if it continues longer term, then you look at not having the ability to hire new staff when you need new staff, or being able to update when it鈥檚 time to update.鈥�

Kansas City goes all-in on reform

In the mid-1990s, the Kansas City School district was at a low point: Achievement was dismal but teachers were 鈥渋n pretty much of a 鈥榳e鈥檝e always done it this way鈥� mode and we were just kind of cruising,鈥� says Ray Daniels, assistant superintendent for personnel at that time (he was promoted to superintendent in 1998). A local philanthropy, the Kauffman Foundation, was looking for an urban district in which to try a whole-district reform model based on research about the importance of relationships in student motivation.

Designed by the Institute for Research and Reform in Education (IRRE), a New Jersey-based nonprofit, the model, called First Things First, combined a number of ideas that were gaining currency at the time: small learning communities, 鈥渓ooping鈥� 聽(in which teachers stay with the same students for multiple years), and changes in teaching practices to emphasize engagement and rigor. Some elements of the reform, including a family advocate system designed to bring families and schools closer together, were developed as the initiative moved forward.

Kansas City, Kan., went all in, and First Things First began operations during the 1998-99 school year.

鈥淲e put them all together and with the KCK folks figured out how to implement them in an integrated way so they could enhance each other,鈥� says James Connell, co-founder and president of IRRE.

Teachers were assigned students to monitor and guide toward their academic goals. They were also given a common planning period to discuss student progress and problems and consider ways to make lessons more rigorous and engaging.

Reports about the initiative say a crucial aspect of its success was the district鈥檚 wholehearted support 鈥� including moving personnel from the central district office to the schools and convincing a skeptical police department and community that it was a good idea to let all the students in the system out early on Wednesdays so teachers could have the common planning time.

鈥淚t was an astounding amount of change,鈥� says Mr. Daniels. 鈥淭he fact that the district was able to pull that together and make all those changes with a lot of pushback 鈥� for a few years there were a lot of people not very happy with what we were doing 鈥� I think it was pretty incredible.鈥�

At first, the Kauffman Foundation provided only the cost of technical assistance, to the tune of about $100,000 a year. But when the early results began to demonstrate the efficacy of its framework, the foundation awarded First Things First a five-year grant of $9.6 million in 2001.聽

A 2005 research study by the MDRC, a New York- and Oakland, Calif.-based research group, found that Kansas City high schools produced and sustained a 鈥渄ouble digit鈥� improvement in the percentage of 11th-graders reading proficiently and a dramatic decline in the percentage of students scoring 鈥渦nsatisfactory鈥� on the state test. Middle schools also produced large improvements in reading and math scores. Attendance improved among middle and high school students.聽

鈥淲e really think something significant happened there,鈥� says Janet Quint, a senior research associate at MDRC.

A study by Brett Lane, president and founder of the Institute for Strategic Leadership and Learning, an education research and policy consulting firm, reported that the percentage of students in the district proficient in math increased by over 50 points and in reading by over 40 points between 1996 and 2008. Graduation rates rose from 52.5 percent in 2000 to 78.4 percent in 2007.

Former Superintendent Daniels remembers receiving admiring visits from as far away as New York, Boston, and Chicago. 鈥淎ll these big districts came, and what was amazing was how many would say, 鈥榃e can鈥檛 do this in our district. We鈥檇 never get away with it.鈥� I think [it was] just the amount of things we had to do,鈥� he says.

Nevertheless, other cities did begin to copy the Kansas City model, although early results didn鈥檛 show conclusive progress in the first two or three years. By 2005, the First Things First approach was in use in more than 70 schools in nine districts across the country, according to MDRC.

Not everyone was impressed. Daniels remembers some skeptics questioning聽the validity of the jump in state test scores, noting the fact that Kansas City students鈥� average ACT scores 鈥� which he remembers as being in the 15-17 range 鈥� had not improved as much as the state scores.

鈥淭here were people who really didn鈥檛 believe the reports,鈥� he says. 鈥淏ut I think what people didn鈥檛 realize was we didn鈥檛 perform a miracle. It wasn鈥檛 that all of our kids were suddenly performing in the 90th percentile and were scoring 30s on the ACTs. The mantra around the district when I retired was, 鈥榃e鈥檙e pleased with what鈥檚 happening, but we鈥檙e not satisfied.鈥� We knew we still had a long ways to go.鈥�

The money runs out

The Kauffman funding ended in 2006, but by that same year, the Legislature had increased education funding in the whole state by more than $700 million in response to court orders resulting from a suit by several Kansas districts arguing that the state underfunded poor districts.

But when the recession hit, the state began cutting back again on its appropriations.

In the 2008-09 school year, Ms. Lane was chief financial officer. 鈥淲e had to cut almost $11 million out of our budget and it was extremely painful,鈥� she remembers. 鈥淎nd I was asked by the superintendent to lead that work. So going line by line through our budget and putting people鈥檚 names on paper that we knew we were going to have to lay off was really impactful to me.鈥�

When she became superintendent in 2010, one of the first decisions to cross her desk was whether to join a new suit against the state. Kansas City became one of the lead plaintiffs.

Before the cuts, 鈥渨ith the resources to provide tutoring and extended school day and all the other supports that our kids needed, we were beginning to really see meaningful change,鈥� she continues. 鈥淎nd then you could see the performance begin to decline as we had to cut back on people, human resources and all kinds of things to support our students.鈥�

At the same time, it became clear that the gains on test scores weren鈥檛 necessarily adding up to long-term success for students. The district heard from returning graduates 鈥� who had been proficient on the state exams 鈥� that they had had to take remedial classes at college, according to the district鈥檚 David Smith.

So, the district applied to the US Department of Education for a waiver that would allow it to use the ACT as its high school completion exam and began requiring it of students in 2012. The district also embraced the new Common Core standards, despite controversy elsewhere. The standards were intended to get students ready for college with an increased focus on a conceptual understanding of math and evidence-based writing.

And, beginning with the graduating class of 2021, the district added an additional challenge, a program it refers to collectively as Diploma+. To graduate, in addition to regular requirements, students will have to do at least one of the following: complete a year of college courses, earn an industry-recognized technical certificate, or score at least a 21 on the ACT (one factor that can guarantee admission at five out of the state鈥檚 six public universities).

The district鈥檚 high goals for its students have been driven in part by high expectations from the community, Smith says. A series of meetings with parents and community members preceding Superintendent Lane鈥檚 taking over the job had a common theme. 鈥淭hey wanted excellence,鈥� Smith says. 鈥淭hey wanted us to be able to compete with kids anywhere.鈥�

So, the district is not letting its constricting financial picture dull its ambitions on behalf of its kids. 鈥淥ur kids need these initiatives,鈥� Smith said. How to pay for them? 鈥淭hat鈥檚 our job to figure it out.鈥�

A question of funding

In 2010, Sam Brownback was elected governor and declared in his first state of the state address that he wanted to lower taxes. In the spring of 2012, he signed into law what The Kansas City Star referred to as 鈥渕assive鈥� tax cuts. At the time, the Star reported, Brownback promised the cuts would create 鈥渢ens of thousands of new jobs鈥� in the state.

His predictions have not been borne out by time. After projections in late 2014 showed that the state would bring in $1 billion less than expected, the governor began cutting state agency budgets, and the Legislature enacted a temporary series of block grants that froze education funding for two years.

Education is a fluid business. Students arrive and leave, and the number of students in a district requiring extra funding changes, according to John Robb, a lawyer for Schools for Fair Funding, a coalition of districts supporting the lawsuits against the state. The block grants ignored those shifts and ignored inflation of about 3 percent per year, says Mr. Robb. 鈥淸The district has] eaten that 3 percent cut since 2009. That鈥檚 seven years 鈥� a 21 percent bite. With increasing insurance premiums, the cost of paper, the cost of fuel for your buses 鈥︹��

The block grants were instituted after the state also reduced equalization payments to poorer districts like Kansas City, whose lower property values mean they cannot raise as much for education, Robb says.

At the same time, Robb added, Kansas already spends too little per pupil.

The current base state aid per pupil is $3,852, $252 more than it was in 1992. That amount is just over half of what it would be if the 1992 amount had been adjusted for inflation 鈥� to approximately $6,000, according to Robb.

In an e-mail, Eileen Hawley, spokeswoman for the governor, disputes the notion that education funding for the Kansas City district or the state in general had declined. She says that the Kansas City district received nearly $30 million more in state funding in 2016 than it did in 2009.

But Smith says that a $30 million increase did not begin to cover the district鈥檚 growth in enrollment, including an increasing number of students with limited English and special needs. 鈥淚n raw enrollment numbers alone, the district grew four times the size of the median school district in Kansas, so of course we got more money,鈥� he says. 鈥淏ut we clearly did not get enough additional money in 2013-14 to cover our changes in demographics and student count.鈥�

And, he adds, the funding was 鈥渟till below what the Kansas Supreme Court in 2005 said was a constitutionally adequate level of funding.鈥�

In February, the state Supreme Court ruled that the block grants were unconstitutional and gave the state until June 30 to propose a new solution. The Legislature responded with a bill called HB 2655, which was signed into law by the governor. There is sharp disagreement among legislators and others as to whether it will meet the court鈥檚 requirements.

鈥淭he governor believes we have great schools in Kansas and we do not know why the courts would threaten to shut them down,鈥� Ms. Hawley writes in an e-mail. 鈥淗e wants to keep schools open and ensure our students continue to have access to a quality education. The governor appreciates the hard work of the Kansas Legislature in passing a bill to address equity in school funding and asks the Court to review that legislation with appropriate deference.鈥�

Robb, for his part, believes the bill is unlikely to pass muster with the court.

Trying to insulate the classroom

In the meantime, the Kansas City school district has done its best to absorb the hits by making cuts in the central office, increasing student-teacher ratios, delaying maintenance, and eliminating most travel for professional development.

It has also been slow to renovate and construct new buildings, though the average age of Kansas City school buildings is 60 years.

鈥淲hen we have the money to put aside to do something then we鈥檒l do it,鈥� Smith says. He adds that a recent study commissioned for the board indicates that the district has some $850 million worth of construction and maintenance needs, $120 million of it 鈥渄escribed as critical.鈥�

The district has found some smaller amounts of support for its newest initiatives from local foundations and even from a utilities tax rebate. And it has found more savings. For instance, district leaders were able to reduce the district鈥檚 textbook budget by delaying upgrades to new textbooks, according to Alan King, the district鈥檚 curriculum director. The Common Core standards led the district to databases where teachers can download the nonfiction reading heavily emphasized in the standards.

Despite efforts to keep cuts away from the classroom, though, teachers haven鈥檛 been immune from the shortfall. In particular, salaries have lagged.

鈥淲e鈥檙e not really competitive in regards to compensation of staff,鈥� Smith says. 鈥淔requently we鈥檒l have teachers start here, work four or five years, gain experience, and then transfer and get a significant bump up in pay. So that we become kind of the farm team, the training ground.鈥�

Curriculum director Mr. King notes that many more teachers than expected attended a recent meeting about retirement. 鈥淎 lot of people are considering it who might have been thinking about sticking around a few more years,鈥� he says.

Smith says one place teachers frequently go after leaving the Kansas City schools is to neighboring Johnson County, where higher property values allow it to raise more money for schools.

Asked what she would do with the state funds if they were suddenly increased, Lane didn鈥檛 hesitate. 鈥淟ower class sizes, immediately,鈥� she says. 鈥淲e鈥檝e got elementary classrooms sitting with 32 and sometimes 35 kids in a classroom, and that is just not the way to do business if you鈥檙e trying to make sure every student is succeeding.鈥�

Lane says she is hopeful about the possibility of an increase in state funds. 鈥淭here are days when it doesn鈥檛 look likely,鈥� she says. 鈥淏ut the energy across our state with citizens who are getting engaged and expressing their concern gives me great hope that our legislative leaders will [reverse] those tax cuts that caused this dramatic shortfall.鈥�

'Our kids deserve it'

State politics had not dampened the enthusiasm of a group of math teachers assembled for one of several sessions at Schlagle High School on a Wednesday afternoon in February. Students had been released early, a carryover from the First Things First reform.

Teacher leader Edwin Wright led a session on measuring students鈥� comprehension and progress; the group of perhaps 30 teachers vigorously discussed ways to measure how kids are learning 鈥� and the difference between 鈥渙btrusive鈥� and 鈥渦nobtrusive鈥� assessment.

Afterward, J.C. Harmon High School math teacher Allison Hajek said she was proud of the rigor the district demands. 鈥淥ur kids deserve it,鈥� Ms. Hajek says.

In her five years at J.C. Harmon, Hajek has begun to see the district鈥檚 higher expectations pay off, especially in the case of the Common Core. 鈥淓very year it just keeps getting easier,鈥� she says.

Mr. Wright says that working for Superintendent Lane, knowing she has testified before the Legislature against the funding cuts, and being part of a district that is one of the lead plaintiffs in a lawsuit over the constitutionality of state funding has fueled a sense of solidarity and a fighting spirit.

Teacher leader John Scanlan said that he feels fortunate to have landed in Kansas City after years of working in business. 鈥淓verybody鈥檚 heart is in the right place. Everybody鈥檚 trying,鈥� he says. 鈥淎nd if you鈥檙e not, you鈥檙e almost scorned by your peers.鈥�

But based on his business experience, Mr. Scanlan worries the state cutbacks have already gone too far. 鈥淲hen you make budget cuts, the first round 鈥� 10 percent 鈥� can actually be healthy. Twenty percent pushes the limits of healthy. You鈥檙e going to lose good people. You鈥檙e not going to have time to do the right things. We鈥檙e at that 20 percent threshold,鈥� he said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 starting to hurt.鈥�

This story was produced by The Hechinger Report, a a nonprofit, independent news organization focused on聽inequality and innovation in education.