Steele: KC Super Wins Best In State…Seriously

R. Stephen Green

Sad but true: The Missouri Association of School Administrators has named Kansas City Public Schools Superintendent R. Stephen Green “it’s (sic) 2015 Pearce Award winner.”

Bad enough is the glaring grammatical error in the second sentence of the press release from the School District’s PR office. Worse is the rationale for awarding Green the state’s top honor.

Says the release, “Under Dr. Green’s leadership since 2011, the district has used laser-like focus to increase student achievement, to prepare students for college and career success and to help students become collaborative, creative, and caring critical thinkers and communicators.”

I appreciate alliteration as much as the next guy, but whoever came up with the phrase “collaborative, creative, and caring critical thinkers” should be fired on the spot. No, make that executed.

Caring critical thinkers? Huh?

To verify the “unprecedented gains” in test scores of the which the release boasts, I checked one high school at random, Central High. Here is what Green’s “laser-like focus” has accomplished.

In 2011, 21 percent of the Central students were rated proficient in the Algebra I section of the Missouri Assessment Program (MAP) test. In 2014, that number was 9 percent.

Henry Bloch

In 2011, 8 percent of the students tested were proficient in biology. In 2014, that figure was 7 percent. Over the three years of Green’s tenure, the scores declined as well in government, biology, and English II.

The only subject that showed improvement was English I, but the take-away from that test is that four-fifths of the students at Central are NOT proficient in English.

And the Kansas City Star is worried about ratings inflation at UMKC’s Bloch School?

Rich Steele is a citizen journalist and head of the NSAAS (Non-Smokers Against Anti-Smoking).