Fast Facts
•Graduation Rate: 78.4%
•Average SAT Score: 1752
•Average ACT Score: 22.0
•4th Grade NAEP Math Score: 48%
•8th Grade NAEP Math Score: 40%
•4th Grade NAEP Reading Score: 36%
•8th Grade NAEP Reading Score: 36%
•Per Pupil Funding: $10,300
•Public School Enrollment: 474,489
Kansas
The Sunflower State has a less than sunny outlook for reform, making it more difficult for parents to find new and more effective options for their children. Like other rural states, Kansas offers some access to digital learning modalities, but other than that, parents have few choices and few assurances that teacher quality is acceptable.
Choice for families is restricted to public schools within their district.
SOURCE: The Friedman Foundation for Educational ChoiceKansas has one of the weakest charter laws in the country and the law is often considered “one in name only.” Charters are not separate, independent public schools, but operate more like alternative district schools.
SOURCE: The Essential Guide to Charter School Law 2013 National Ranking and ScorecardWhile Kansas does not have a statewide virtual school, it has a diverse set of district-only online activities. The state’s law provides students access to multiple providers, but overall options would improve by updating the approval process.
SOURCE: Digital Learning Now!Teacher evaluations in Kansas do not explicitly use student growth, are mandated annually only for the first three years of a teacher’s career, and after that they are required once every three years. Neither tenure decisions nor licensure advancement and renewal are connected to objective evidence of teacher effectiveness. Ineffective classroom performance is not a ground for dismissal. Performance is not considered in layoff decisions.
Kansas state law permits districts to provide bonuses to teachers, but does not explicitly support performance pay.
SOURCE: National Council on Teacher QualityWhile school performance reports are easy to find, the data is old and attempts to generate fresh reports came up short. Information on charter school options also is provided in a fairly accessible directory. Elections are held on the 1st Tuesday in April of odd-numbered years for the 301 local school boards.
Scoreboard
52%
Best Performing Outlets
- Fort Leavenworth Lamp - Online 75%
- HDNews.net 75%
Total stories:
Total media outlets:
Worst Performing Outlets
- McPherson Sentinel - Online 0%
- Associated Press (AP) - Topeka Bureau 17%
Be the Power
- Won't Back Down
- Evaluate Your School
- Explore Choice Programs
- Explore Schooling Options
- Find a Charter School
- Explore Digital Learning Opportunities
- Information is Power!
- National Council on Teacher Quality
- The Friedman Foundation for Educational Choice
- Digital Learning Now!
- Parent Revolution
- American Federation for Children
- iNACOL
- BAEO
- Your Story
- Action Ideas
- Charter Schools are innovative public schools designed by educators, parents or civic leaders that are open by choice, accountable for results and free from most unnecessary rules and regulations governing conventional public schools. For more information about CER's annual charter law rankings, click here.
- School choice means giving parents the power and opportunity to choose the school their child will attend. States that give all parents the opportunity to choose the best school for their child – whether public, private, parochial or charter – ensure Parent Power!.
- Teacher quality comes with strong, data-driven, performance-based accountability systems that ensure teachers are rewarded, retained and advanced based on how they perform in adding value to the students who they teach, measured predominantly by student achievement, along with skills and responsibilities.
- Transparency in education means giving parents access to good and objective information about their schools, student and teacher performance and options.
- The movement toward improving education in the U.S. today includes a strong focus on online learning, an approach that involves a myriad of delivery mechanisms via online tools for students, no matter where they live or attend school. Online learning is opening up classrooms to the world and ensuring students access to some of the best content and educators.