By MARK TALLMAN
Kansas Association of School Boards
I was honored this summer to be asked to visit with two community gatherings, in Goddard and Haysville, to welcome students, parents, staff, and patrons to the 2022-23 school year.
I saw the usual excitement about getting back to the business of teaching students. I felt hopeful optimism that the worst of the COVID pandemic is over, and we are closer to "normal" than ever. And I heard concerns about continuing criticism of public schools regarding academic performance and parent input.
As a lobbyist for KASB for over 30 years, I was asked how school supporters can be more effective advocates for their public schools. My answer: advocacy is communication. As school leaders, we must continuously communicate our vision and the outcomes we are trying to achieve; the results we are getting, both good and bad; what we are doing as school leaders to improve those results; and finally, what help we need from others.
What are schools trying to do: improve student success individually, socially and economically.
When people are asked what they expect schools to teach, the first thing most will say usually is something like the traditional "reading, writing and arithmetic." These skills are the foundation of most other learning. But asking people what they want students to learn often gives different answers, like practical or "life skills," problem-solving and communications, employment or workforce skills, which for most jobs will require some education beyond a high school diploma.
Last summer, 5,000 Kansans participated in State Board of Education meetings to discuss the State Board of Education's Kansans Can vision and overwhelmingly agreed with responses collected almost five years ago: to be successful as an adult, students need not only foundational academic skills, they also need personal skills for healthy individual lives; they need interpersonal skills to function in a democratic society and their community; and they need to be able to support themselves and their families economically.
Those skills are reflected in state education goals called the "Rose capacities" identified by the Kansas Supreme Court and adopted in state law by the Legislature, as well as the State Board's Kansans Can vision.
What are the results: long-term success, short-term challenges; high standards.
The Kansas Constitution requires a public school and higher education system for educational improvement. Over the long term, we have succeeded. The latest data from the U.S. Census shows that educational attainment – the percentage of the population finishing high school, attending college and completing postsecondary degrees – has never been higher. Kansas continues to exceed the national average in these areas.
That's never been more important because employers increasingly require more education, and salaries for higher-skill jobs have risen accordingly. That means schools are expected to bring more students to higher skill levels than in the past. Based on adult attainment levels, we have done that.
However, short-term measures are more concerning. After improving during the 2000s, since the early 2010s, Kansas academic test scores have been dropping. After a decade of growth, high school graduation rates and postsecondary degrees flattened or dropped in the past two years.
What changed? School funding shortfalls and an unprecedented health emergency.
Through 2009, K-12 funding increased but fell behind inflation and the U.S. and regional average for eight years from 2009 to 2017, with a loss of 2,000 educators and support staff and declining teacher salaries and student support programs. In response to the Gannon school finance decision, the Kansas legislature adopted a six-year plan to restore funding to 2009 levels after adjusting for inflation, beginning in 2018. The final step will be this school year. However, just as new funding began to flow, schools were hit by the COVID pandemic, cutting learning time and increasing stress on students, families and educators.
The impact of COVID was not unique to Kansas. It has been called the most significant event to damage educational progress in at least decades. The full impact on schools in Kansas and across the nation is still not clear.
Another change is that the State Board of Education adopted new state academic tests with higher standards, aiming to get 75 percent of students to "college ready" levels, similar to the ACT or SAT test. These new state tests and standards are the most rigorous in the nation when benchmarked against the National Assessment of Educational Progress. For example, no state has over half of its students meeting such standards on the NAEP. Even Kansas's highest performing schools – public or private – have only about 50 percent or fewer students meeting these high standards.
What is the plan: kindergarten readiness, academic skills, health and safety, civic engagement, individualized plans, postsecondary success.
How do we recover from past underfunding and COVID learning loss and get more students to meet higher standards and success after high school? The Kansans Can vision addresses those issues in six areas which are also the basis of the new Kansas school accreditation system. As a new year begins, school leaders should share their local plans, progress and challenges, and support needed in these areas.
Kindergarten readiness is an education issue, a family issue and an economic issue. Quality preschool programs help all students arrive in kindergarten ready to learn, assist parents as their child's first teachers and allow parents to participate in the workforce. Research shows investing in early childhood education improves long-term educational outcomes, and school-based preschool programs have been expanded. However, child care remains out of reach for many because of cost or lack of programs.
Academic skills mean students acquire fundamental reading, writing, math and other academic and cognitive skills to function individually, in society and in the workforce. Students need to reach levels of competency that give them options for postsecondary choices. Students dealing with poverty, disability and health issues often lag behind on these measures. More students are falling into these categories, and these students were most impacted by the pandemic. State and federal funding has been increasing in some of these areas, but part of the increase is temporary, and funding for special education has fallen far behind actual costs.
Health and safety programs are designed to allow students to learn in a safe and healthy environment and understand physical and mental health. Schools work with families, communities and other partners to address issues that interfere with students' ability to learn. Aided by state and federal funding, districts have been strengthening these efforts.
Civic engagement means students learn about political and economic systems and cultural heritage with an opportunity to engage with their community. Many believe students will be more successful as adults if they learn to make connections, give back to their communities, and understand the key concepts of government, politics and economics in their own lives, so districts are expanding programs in these areas.
Individualized education helps students develop skills for education and employment after high school based on their interests, including broader skills than academics alone. This includes more flexibility in when, how and where students can learn and more hands-on learning experiences. It's based on the idea that students are more likely to learn if they see relevance and make connections to the real world. This requires changes in the design of schools to a more individualized and personalized approach, which the state and school districts are working to implement.
Postsecondary success means students acquire the skills needed for individual economic security and meeting workforce needs in an economy where 90 percent of jobs will require a high school diploma and about 75 percent of jobs will require education beyond high school. These are levels of achievement Kansas has never before reached. The first five areas all support this goal, as well as specific programs to encourage graduation, expanding dual enrollment programs with colleges to give students a start in high school, and helping students prepare for the transition from school to college. These are particularly important for students who are the first generation to make this transition.
Who is responsible: everyone.
Your district's "back to school message" is particularly important because this is the time of year when education may be getting the most focus from everyone: students and parents, school leaders and staff, and the entire community. This is when school advocates have the best chance to make an impression and share their message.
Advocating for public education means recognizing that schools cannot achieve these goals alone. Some of the help required is the financial resources and authority determined by the Legislature, State Board of Education and federal government. Other help is less material: stronger partnerships with families to support personalized learning; with businesses to provide real-world experiences; with communities to find more effective and efficient ways to serve students and families; and with postsecondary education to help students who are making the transition.
To enlist this support, school advocates must help their communities understand the wide range of work underway across the six areas listed above and, equally important, understand why that work is essential. It means presenting honestly the needs, challenges and successes in each area.
Finally, like all true communications, it means listening to those you seek to enlist.
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In addition to writing The Tallman Education Report, Mark Tallman also serves as the associate executive director for advocacy for the Kansas Association of School Boards.