The failure in Kansas City is striking for the huge sums of money spent, and it informs the national debate as lawmakers in state after state wrestle with how to save urban districts in crisis. In Boston, Chicago, Cleveland and elsewhere, failing districts have lost their autonomy to state or mayoral takeovers. In the Detroit area, nearly 350 schools are at risk of losing their accreditation because too many of their students flunked state exams. That's why this spring's round of state exams is critical. Students prepared for the tests for months, cramming in their classrooms and attending weekly Saturday prep sessions.
Tension is high as administrators and principals await the exam results, due out in early fall.
They may not be large enough gains to get us more points toward accreditation, but they're gains all the same. The district's 30,000 students have mighty far to go. Though meaningful integration was successfully resisted for years to come in Kansas City, the fear of it contributed to white flight from city schools. Voters stopped supporting the district's frequent requests for tax increases, and the schools literally crumbled for lack of care. Micky Seever, a former high school teacher, recalls picking up erasers and seeing cockroaches skitter away.