By Dean Hubbard, Kansas City Star Editorial Advisory Board Columnist

Thursday evening, Nov. 19, the Park Hill School District will formally be presented with the 2009 Missouri Quality Award. The district, located just north of downtown Kansas City, is the first K-12 school district in the 17-year history of the award to be so honored.

Park Hill serves 10,000 students in nine elementary schools, three middle schools and two high schools.

The significance of this achievement reaches far beyond the students and residents of the district. In order to win, the district had to demonstrate to outside experts that its students are uniquely advantaged as a result of the management strategies systematic deployed by the district over the past several years.

Student performance at Park Hill was compared to five other schools in the area plus state averages. On a host of important measures they score at the top or among the top of their peer group. For example, as measured by the ACT College Readiness Benchmark in English Composition, Algebra, Social Science and Biology they score above their peers and the Missouri average. The percentage of Park Hill graduates going to college is consistently at or near the top of their peer group. Also, the gap between minority and majority performance on all measures is less at Park Hill than the state average.

The importance of all this to the rest of the state is that it proves that student performance can be improved through the consistent application of better practices. Every other school in the state ought to benchmark the Park Hill district to learn for themselves what has led to this remarkable achievement.

Congratulations to superintendent Dr. Dennis Fisher and all of his supporting team.