Kansas City schools under Green
Stephen Green took over the superintendent’s job in 2011 while the district was in turmoil and lost its accreditation due to failing academic performance — it met only three of 14 standards on the state’s annual performance report — and because of instability in district leadership. The system received provisional accreditation in August 2014 because it showed minor gains in points for student growth, and for improved attendance and college readiness measures.
Graduation rates*
In 2011, 50 percent of high school seniors graduated; in 2012 63 percent did, in 2013 it was 67 percent, and 2014 was 63 percent.
Testing*
The Missouri Assessment Program (MAP) involves yearly grade-level tests that measure whether students are acquiring the skills and knowledge they should. Students in grades 3 to 8 are tested in math and language arts. The achievement levels from lowest to highest are: below basic, basic, proficient and advanced. The 2104 provisional accreditation noted scores were not improving consistently.
Kansas City third-graders achieving below basic in language arts were 23 percent in 2011, 25.9 percent in 2012, 26.6 percent in 2013 and 29.5 percent in 2014.
In 2011 there were 57.9 percent of students at basic level, 55.7 percent in 2012, 50.3 percent in 2013, and that rose back to 54.5 in 2014.
There were 13.2 percent of 3rd graders who achieved proficiency in 2011, 12.1 percent in 2012, 13.9 percent in 2013 and 10.9 percent in 2014.
Those who tested as advanced were at 5.9 percent in 2011, 6.3 percent in 2012, which rose to a high of 9.2 percent in 2013, but dropped to 5.1 percent in 2014.
Eighth-grade math tests in 2011 show that 42.5 percent of students tested at below basic, 38.8 percent in 2012, 52.2 percent in 2013 and 49.9 percent in 2014.
Those testing at the basic achievement level was 37.3 percent in 2011, 34.2 percent in 2012, 37.7 percent in 2013 and 37.3 percent in 2014.
Students testing at the proficient level were 15.1 percent in 2011, 19.2 percent in 2012, 7.9 percent in 2013 and 10.4 percent in 2014.
Those testing at advanced level were 5.1 percent in 2011 and 7.7 percent in 2012. Results from other years were not available.
*obtained from the Missouri Department of Education
Kansas City public schools
About 14,700 children*
Nearly 2,700 teachers and administrators
37 schools
Superintendent salary: Stephen Green’s is just over $300,000 according to the school district’s website. (He signed a five-year contract in October 2013 at a base salary of $250,000 a year, with the possibility of increases based on the district’s accreditation status during the contract period.)
*Enrollment shrunk over the years from about 77,000 in the 1960s as people turned to adjacent public school districts, private schools or charter schools while the district’s racial composition went from mostly white to mostly nonwhite. A decades-long, $2 billion, court-ordered effort built 15 new schools but did not reverse the decline, and almost half of the schools were closed in 2010.
DeKalb County public schools
Nearly 99,000 students
More than 13,400 employees
136 schools
Superintendent salary: $307,501.64 for the year that ended June 30, 2014, according to the Georgia Department of Education.
With DeKalb County Schools’ turnaround not yet fully realized, Board of Education Chairman Melvin Johnson said he wants the next superintendent to be capable of continuing the work started by outgoing superintendent Michael Thurmond.
R. Stephen Green is the board’s choice to do it. He was named Wednesday by DeKalb school officials as the single finalist to replace Thurmond, whose contract ends next month.
When Green, 61, took over Kansas City Public Schools in 2011, he became the fifth superintendent in less than 10 years for the system dealing with financial mismanagement, frustrated teachers and students with bad attendance and worse test grades.
The Kansas City district just celebrated its third consecutive clean financial audit. Student attendance is up, and so are many test scores.
“I like his experience, his management style, how he clearly understood the role of the superintendent and the board,” Johnson said Wednesday. “When he went into (KCPS), he had to assess a situation and provide an improvement plan that has proven successful every year. That’s what I anticipate him doing here.”
Green was named interim superintendent after the abrupt resignation of predecessor John Covington, who was leaving to head up a state-operated school district in Michigan. Green had already built a reputation in the Kansas City area through his job as president and chief executive at Kauffman Scholars, a program aimed at increasing the number of college graduates from Kansas City’s urban schools.
Ray Weikal, a spokesman for Kansas City Public Schools, described the district as being on the verge of state takeover at the time Green was hired. Covington had brought with him several ideas about education that were implemented during his time, then scrapped immediately after his departure.
Enrollment, which fell nearly 50 percent between 2000 and 2010, continued its downward decline to as low as 14,100.
Two months after Green became the district’s interim superintendent in August 2011, the Missouri Board of Education voted to strip the district of its accreditation, citing poor test scores and the flux in leadership and general lack of stability. Weikal said enrollment was declining, staff morale was low, and test scores even lower.
“He took the job and ran with it,” Weikal said.
A focus on student progress has helped improve scoring on the Missouri Assessment Program, annual tests that measure whether students are learning what they should, Weikal said. Student enrollment for this year was up slightly, to 14,700.
“In a very short time, he helped lead a remarkable turnaround,” Weikal said. “People had written this district off.”
If Green and the board agree to a contract in the near future, he would take over leadership of the third-largest school district in the state.
With work still to be done for DeKalb County Schools, what Green has done in Kansas City has impressed local board members.
Johnson said someone willing to work with the board was a must.
“I wanted to make sure that we have someone with excellent management skills to be transparent, that we operate in a collaborative way,” he said. “Be fiscally responsible, transparent and holding each board member accountable for serving the board. In order to do that, you have to have a superintendent who understands the role he must play in carrying out the policies, visions and goals of the board.
Board member Vickie B. Turner, who credited Thurmond with balancing finances and putting the district on the right path when it comes to accreditation, said the immediate goal of Thurmond’s successor is to tackle issues affecting student achievement.
“What I was hoping to find (in the superintendent candidates) was someone able to hit the road running and be able to come in and deal with curriculum and instruction,” Turner said. “That deals with student achievement. We need a strong individual to deal with that to stave off state takeover. We need to address that first first thing out the gate.
Green “comes with the experience and I think he’s well able and equip to handle those challenges.”
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