public education

Kansas City Public schools combined two football teams last year due to low participation. With growing enrollment and a middle school feeder program, Central has its own team again this year.

Special education advocates said Park Hill is one of the better districts at meeting students' needs, but some negative experiences reveal problems in special education that plague even the best-resourced districts.

A new policy at Kansas City Public Schools has changed the minimum grade from zero to 40%. Hear how it’s intended to help struggling students catch up.

Margie Vandeven has spent seven years at the helm of Missouri public schools, but she’ll step down at the end of June. The outgoing commissioner shares her thoughts about key issues facing Missouri schools. Also, headlines from across the metro.

Outgoing Commissioner of Education Margie Vandeven said recruiting and retaining high-quality teachers is a key factor to helping students succeed.

Leaders in the Hickman Mills School District say the goalposts to reach full accreditation keep moving — and pushing the state's stamp of approval increasingly out of reach.

Missouri State Auditor Scott Fitzpatrick's office said the Independence School District audit was not prompted by citizen complaints, but selected because of its four-day school week and because it’s one of the state’s larger school districts.

Incumbents prevailed in some Missouri school board elections, while other Kansas City-area boards saw shakeups that could shift how they handle book challenges, diversity initiatives, class instruction time and how to best support students.

Missouri and Kansas public schools enroll thousands of fewer students compared to before the pandemic, in part, because of a homeschooling boom and declining birth rates.

Legislation filed by Sen. Ben Brown, a Republican from Washington, would also roll back state oversight. Democratic Sen. Maggie Nurrenbern of Kansas City said she is concerned about “simply not knowing which students are being homeschooled.”

Kansas public school leaders in some high-demand districts say they’re already hearing from families who want to switch schools to take advantage of a new open enrollment law. But the new law won’t be simple, and they’re not ready to just throw open their doors.

Karla Eslinger, a Republican state senator from Wasola, will succeed current commissioner Margie Vandeven in the state's top education job in June 2024.