K-12 Education

By Lewis Diuguid, Kansas City Star Editorial Board Columnist

In a workshop, Patty Bode provided a wonderful definition of multicultural education and how it can be put to use effectively to boost student achievement.

By Lewis Diuguid, Kansas City Star Editorial Board Columnist

Robert Cook gave people at a multicultural education convention in Denver a patriotic history lesson that was different from any that most people had heard before.

By Lewis Diuguid, Kansas City Star Editorial Board Columnist

La Vonne Neal surprised everyone at the opening session Wednesday of the 19th Annual International Conference of the National Association for Multicultural Education Convention in Denver.

By Larry Marsh, Kansas City Star Midwest Voices columnist

The U.S. Department of Education is looking to spend $650 million. The money is to go to innovative school districts and nonprofit organizations that can come up with new ideas to enhance our educational system. Now is the time to think in bigger, bolder terms.

By Dean Hubbard, Kansas City Star Editorial Advisory Board columnist

By Juanell Garrett, Kansas City Star Midwest Voices panelist 2008

The paid progenitors of political punditry have told you about President Obama’s upcoming speech on Sept. 9 but have, thus far, not seen fit to mention his speech on Sept. 8.

By The Kansas City Star Editorial Board

On the second day of classes this week, Kansas City School Superintendent John Covington got more than a morning coffee when he stopped at a service station across the street from Central High.

By Lewis Diuguid, Kansas City Star Editorial Page columnist

Far too many students enter college each year unprepared because of deficiencies in elementary and secondary school education.

By Yael T. Abouhalkah, Kansas City Star Editorial Page columnist

The new ACT test scores, out nationwide today, give plenty of homeowners reasons to be proud of where they live -- or outright concerned about their future property values.

Consider my Kansas City example.

I live in a part of the city that's in the Raytown School District.

By Yael T. Abouhalkah, Kansas City Star Editorial Page columnist

Hate to bust Omaha's bubble. But it's not going to catch up to KC anytime soon when it comes to population.

The recently released Census Bureau numbers mean nothing. You know, the "official" 2008 ones that showed KC with 451,572 people and Omaha with 438,646.

By Lewis Diuguid, Kansas City Star Editorial Page columnist

A woman behind me murmured something profound when Kansas City School District officials said answers to questions at budget and school-closing hearings this month would get posted on the district’s Web site.

“Some of us don’t have computers,” the woman said.

By Barb Shelly, Kansas City Star editorial page columnist

Soon the holdouts may be down to three.

Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon said today he's committed to joining the push for uniform math and reading standards in the nation's public schools.

By The Kansas City Star Editorial Board

As early as tonight, the Kansas City school board may decide how to cut millions of dollars from its budget. Members must slash the district’s payroll and decide whether to close up to 13 school buildings before classes start in the fall.

Kansas City Star Wednesday editorial

Uniform goals for what America’s students should learn each year in school increasingly make sense.

Kansas City Star Tuesday editorial

The need to shut down Kansas City School District buildings isn’t in dispute. As the district’s enrollment continues to shrink, school closings are needed to save money and shore up academic performance.

The school board last week gave people an early look at 13 buildings on the chopping block. Now district patrons will have their say.

By Barb Shelly, Kansas City Star editorial page columnist

Kansas City Mayor Mark Funkhouser is still pushing his idea of a citywide education summit.

A news release from his office today:

By The Kansas City Star Editorial Board

The Kansas City school board appears to have made a promising choice with its unanimous selection of John Covington to be the next superintendent.

By Barb Shelly, Kansas City Star editorial page columnist

I've long since stopped thinking that the right superintendent was the cure for the ailing Kansas City School District.

The dysfunction in the district's administration is deeply entrenched and the community at large lost faith in the schools a long time ago.

Still....

By Yael T. Abouhalkah, Kansas City Star Editorial Page columnist

Mayor Mark Funkhouser skipped Tuesday's police board meeting -- the one where the board discussed and then voted on the controversial 2009-10 budget for the department.

Funkhouser reportedly was in Lincoln, Neb., on personal business, according to a top aide.

In less than a year Teach for America has merited a gold star in the Kansas City School District.

“It’s an absolute gift,” school board member Airick Leonard West said after Teach for America founder Wendy Kopp’s lecture Tuesday at the Plaza Branch of the Kansas City Public Library. “I couldn’t be happier.”

By Mary Sanchez, Kansas City Star columnist

I heard a cold truth again this week: “Not everyone is college material.” It was reiterated by a former teacher. Not one of mine, but a woman who had worked with enough students in her decades of secondary school teaching to make the claim with some authority.

By Barb Shelly, Kansas City Star editorial page columnist

Barack Obama's challenge to the youth of America may be lost in the economic content of his joint address to Congress. But it shouldn't be.

On its face, a citywide education summit has an appeal. The need to improve education is critically important to Kansas City’s youth and community.

But with Mayor Mark Funkhouser at the helm, the unfocused and expensive idea is a non-starter.

By Yael T. Abouhalkah, Kansas City Star Editorial Page columnist

Mayor Mark Funkhouser attacked the white business community recently by saying, "These people have basically written off the Kansas City School District."

But the mayor's tactless blast was mis-aimed. In fact, a lot of black people also have "basically written off the Kansas City School District."

Over the past 30 years, supporters of the Blue Springs School District have stepped up at 23 consecutive elections to support valuable educational programs.

Voters get the chance to approve the 24th straight bond issue on Tuesday. That will require a two-thirds majority in favor of projects costing up to $86.5 million.

By Larry Marsh, Kansas City Star Midwest Voices columnist

In theory the "new math" conceptual approach is much better than the traditional "memorize and drill" approach to learning mathematics.

By Emily Allen, Kansas City Star Midwest Voices columnist 2009

I read with interest the article on page 2 of the local section in Thursday’s Kansas City Star, "Schools searching for savings." Some schools in the state are implementing a hiring freeze, a blow to small class sizes and better learning. Kansas legislators said they will consider cuts in school funding.

By Yael T. Abouhalkah, Kansas City Star Editorial Page columnist

Kansas City School District superintendents come and they go. Now one has gone off to prison.

It's Henry Williams, who led (to use the term loosely) the district in the mid-1990s -- until the school board bought out his contract.

By Judy Morgan, Special to The Kansas City Star

Kansas City school board members Marilyn Simmons and Arthur Benson were absolutely correct in their recent “As I See It” column when they said, “The district has been failing our children.”

When it comes to educating preschoolers, cultivating social skills can be as valuable as hammering home the ABCs, a recent study shows.

The study, conducted by Penn State University, divided children enrolled in Pennsylvania’s Head Start program into two groups: half were taught under a standard curriculum and the other half were also taught a component on social skills.