NICK GOSNELL
Hutch Post
HUTCHINSON, Kan. — For the class of 2022, the four-year graduation rate for all Kansas public school districts reached 89.1 percent, the highest ever. Mark Tallman with the Kansas Association of School Boards traveled across the state last school year trying to figure out what schools that increased their rate are doing right.
"The common things that I tended to hear about, one is just what I said, a heavy stress on we monitor every child in high school for early warnings," Tallman said. "What many said is, we don't wait for the kid to be failing some classes or falling behind in credits. We're watching every week to see kind of how they're doing, so that's a big one. They say, we pay attention to a kid's status and when we see there's a problem of any kind, we talk with them immediately. We try to find out what's going on. We try to provide them other supports."
Helping kids see the relevance of school to the job market is another success point.
"Many of these successful districts say a big part of it has been working harder to help kids see connections with what they want to do," Tallman said. "CTE programs, concurrent college courses. So you're getting a start on college or a technical college or a technical degree while you're in high school so you have a sense of where that is. Are kids connected in other ways? Do you have a lot of, do you have activities? Do you have sports? Do you have clubs? Do you have things that help students find a personal connection to someone, whether it's their peers, whether it's a teacher, whether it's a coach, something beyond just, again, kind of going through the classroom stuff so they feel a part of something."
That is one of the goals of a new graduation requirement for those entering as freshmen this year. It's a requirement for two 'post-secondary assets' to graduate high school.
"It's really saying we're going to show that you've done something beyond what's required in the classroom for credit," Tallman said. "I think the requirement is you're gonna have to have two of those. That might be earning a career tech credential of some kind or an industry certificate in an area that shows, you know, you've mastered a certain skill in a work, in an occupational area. It might be that you have demonstrated a high level of score on an ACT course or something like that. It might be that you're involved in a work learning program. State Board is still in the process of defining those."
The intent is to have students be connected to something outside of the traditional school day, and as Tallman's trips have shown, when that happens, kids are more likely to stay in school and eventually walk across the stage.