KC district considers smaller, specialized schools

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) -- While details are still in the preliminary stages, the Kansas City school district is considering following a national trend and opening several small, specialized high schools.

Superintendent Anthony Amato wants the district to open the smaller high schools this fall, with the goal of retaining students who might otherwise leave the district.

If the school board approves the idea, Kansas City would join several large cities across the country that have opened the smaller schools, which specialize in certain subjects but still meet core graduation requirements and state testing standards.

Amato said the schools each would enroll fewer than 400 students.

"The big zoned school is going to become a thing of the past," said Jeanne Nowaczewski, the director of the Office of Small Schools in Chicago, where the school district wants to create 100 small high schools by 2010.

Details such as costs and staffing still need to be worked out. Students in the smaller schools may give up some extracurricular activities, but advocates for the smaller schools say students would gain new experiences -- and college credit -- in schools with fewer students and teachers.

The suggestions for Kansas City include a science-focused school located next to Science City in Union Station. Other possibilities include a college-prep school with the University of Missouri-Kansas City, and a business and technology school with Metropolitan Community College-Business and Technology.

Science City's board would have to approve the science school plan.

"This would be good for both entities," said Raymond Shubinski, Science City director. "We're all very excited about it."

The district also is working with the African-centered education task force to establish a school to provide African-centered curriculum from preschool through high school.

One or more of the schools might partner with the College Board, the administrator of the SAT college entrance exam, which has helped create dozens of college-prep-oriented schools in New York. Students at those schools could earn college credits while still in high school.

Missouri-Kansas City Chancellor Guy Bailey said students could earn up to 60 hours of college credits from the high school/college hybrid.

"That is two years of college," Bailey said. "This would save families money. They would end up having to pay for less college."

The main goal of such a plan is to keep students in the district who might transfer to other districts if they don't qualify for Lincoln College Preparatory Academy or Paseo Academy for Fine and Performing Arts.

"It has everything to do with adding choice," Amato said. "There is a multitude who don't make it (into Lincoln or Paseo) who feel they have to go shopping elsewhere. We're losing tons of kids."

Small schools have obvious advantages but also obvious problems, said Matthew Lenaghan, deputy director of Advocates for Children in New York City, where nearly 200 small secondary public schools have been created.

The smaller pupil population allows students to form stronger connections with teachers, counselors and principals.

But costs and staffing can present problems, because it generally is more expensive to provide specialized staffing.

Lenaghan said New York schools have struggled with accommodating student with special needs in the smaller schools. And some worry that the special schools will take most of the higher-achieving students from other schools.

"It's great that people are thinking about these things," Lenaghan said. "But many at-risk students are being left out."

Amato said the smaller schools would save money by not providing all the extracurricular activities of the large schools. And he said upper-level students could take specialized courses through interactive online instruction or teachers who travel between different schools.

"There are a lot of ways to do this," Amato said. "People are

too set on what the old structure looked like."

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Information from: The Kansas City Star, http://www.kcstar.com