K.C. to test school reform ideas

? A program that will cross school district and state boundaries to help the schools in Kansas City, Mo., and Kansas City, Kan., might be copied throughout the United States if it’s successful.

Kansas City’s Partnership for Regional Education Preparation, or PREP-KC, is being led by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, with backing from local charities, including the Hall Family Foundation and foundations affiliated with Sprint Corp. and H&R Block Inc.

The bistate, nonprofit organization, which was to be announced Thursday, has raised $2.8 million and will expand on strategies already being used in the Kansas City, Mo., and Kansas City, Kan., districts. The districts will be able to continue their own academic reform efforts while also collaborating.

“The Kansas City area is on track to become a national model for effective and sustained school reform that focuses on academic rigor, relevant courses that prepare students for college and work, and more personalized working relationships between students and teachers,” said Tom Vander Ark, executive director of education for the Gates Foundation.

As planned, 80 percent of the organization’s funding would go into classroom support for such things as instructional coaches for teachers, leadership development and alternative education strategies. Fifteen percent would go to efforts to explore expansion to other districts and to develop teacher-education programs at colleges and universities. The rest is to go toward operating and administrative costs.

The PREP-KC is counting on reforms used in the Kansas City, Kan., district’s 9-year-old First Things First and the Kansas City, Mo., district’s 3-year-old Achievement First.

First Things First has focused on teacher training, small student work groups and strengthening relationships between schools and families. Achievement First was modeled after First Things First but also used other reform efforts.

But the initiatives have critics.

Some teachers say the development classes rely on curriculum that is defining and scripted. Also, the reforms call for additional documentation, meetings and phone calls.