Lawrence High School, left, and Free State High School are pictured on Friday, Nov. 6, 2015.

Perspectives vary regarding the differences in student populations and academic performance at Lawrence and Free State high schools, but there is one concern district administrators, teachers and students seem to share.

“I think both buildings have kids that come to school who might have slept in their car, might not have had breakfast and might not know where the next meal is coming from,” said Sam Rabiola, who has taught at both high schools. “If they have those larger needs, they may not be focused on what I’m doing in class.”

Lawrence schools Superintendent Rick Doll told the Journal-World earlier this month that district administrators know poverty predicts achievement, and the district is working at making that not predictable. But which supportive programs or efforts to expand or add is a more complex question.

Addressing differences in achievement

For several years, one of the Lawrence school district’s three focal points has been equity, calling more attention to disparities among schools and subgroups of students. The school board sets annual equity and achievement goals toward the beginning of each school year. One goal this year is making sure curriculum and instruction function “to raise the achievement of all students.”

Lawrence high school students’ graduation rates, standardized test results and ACT scores exceed state and national averages; however, numbers show a persistent achievement gap between the two high schools. Though Lawrence High approaches Free State’s numbers, differences in the percentage of students not meeting standards in reading (10 percent versus 3 percent), enrolled in advanced classes (36 percent versus 46 percent) and seniors taking the ACT (59 percent versus 76 percent) stand out.

District administrators, teachers and students seem to agree the primary factor in these disparities is socioeconomic status.

“I think any teacher who has ever spent time in a classroom knows that that 50 minutes, that hour, that hour and a half you have with a student is a small portion of that student’s day,” said Michael Carriger, English department chairman at Lawrence High. “For learning to occur, sometimes with that student you’re battling through a number of walls that have been erected around that student. I have found one of the greatest to be social class, economic stability.”

This school year, 43 percent of students at Lawrence High are enrolled in the free and reduced-priced lunch program, compared with 31 percent at Free State. Of those students, about 550 Lawrence High students meet the lower-income guidelines that qualify them for free lunch, compared with about 400 at Free State.

Carriger, who has taught both on-level and advanced English at Lawrence High, said a student’s socioeconomic status is not insurmountable.

“For every story where you say that was probably the determining factor for that student’s lack of success, you could also find a story where a student countered it somehow,” he said.

Preconceptions about each school

The district-wide average of students enrolled in the free and reduced-priced lunch program is 39 percent, making Free State’s rate of 31 percent below that average and Lawrence High’s rate of 43 percent slightly above. But students say the numbers get overgeneralized, sometimes accompanying false notions that Free State is “better.”

“Because of the locations of the two schools and the socioeconomic differences between some of the people that go to the schools, I think that there might be some conceptions based off of that,” said Zia Kelly, a senior at Lawrence High.

Trenna Soderling, a senior at Free State, said Free State has a reputation of having higher-income students and Lawrence High is known for its diversity, but most students don’t take those preconceived notions seriously.

“You have both ends of the scale at both schools, I think,” she said.

Kelly said though the differences in socioeconomic status shouldn’t be overgeneralized, they do come into play. It’s important for the district to research the topic to provide the resources that are most effective in helping students, she said.

“I don’t think it needs to come down to redistricting or where the schools are, or what school they go to,” Kelly said. “I think that it’s a matter of providing every kid who could need extra help with that help.”

Enabling success of all students

Kelly said extra help for students could mean that support programming at the schools differs in expansiveness or function. For instance, Lawrence High could get more counselors or additional funding for AVID (Advancement Via Individual Determination), a program that offers tutoring and academic support for students who want to pursue advanced classes and college.

“I don’t think it’s about which school gets more, it’s about making sure that each student has the same chance to succeed,” Kelly said.

As far as teaching staff, Kelly thinks staffing should be adjusted where it counts, such as reducing class sizes for core subjects, so that a wider breadth of the student body gets more one-on-one interaction with the teacher. In other words, “devoting more staff to places where we know those students are,” she said.

Rabiola, who currently teaches English at Free State, said that since he began teaching, he has seen the funding formula change several times and that in his nearly 30-year career he has seen his teacher load increase from about 120 to 143 students.

“That doesn’t sound like that many more kids, but that’s essentially another class of students,” he said.

Expanding AVID, which is now in its third year, is one potential strategy, Doll has previously said. The program currently serves students in eighth through 12th grades, and the district is considering expanding the program to include more students overall, as well as adding sixth and seventh grade. Carriger said he thinks Lawrence High is finding some early success with AVID.

“I think (students have) found a shared family system in the building that has helped them understand the rigors of the advanced option,” he said.

For non-college-bound students, Carriger noted, the programs available to students who would like to pursue careers or other trades after high school are solid.

This is the first school year for the Lawrence College and Career Center. Courses at the LCCC are available to high school juniors and seniors at Lawrence High, Free State and the Lawrence Virtual School in seven areas, such as health care, computers and manufacturing.

Looking forward

Behind these conversations is also the knowledge that additional programing and institutional support require resources.

Rabiola said expanding AVID, adding counselors or increasing staffing to decrease class sizes in core subjects would all be beneficial. But unfortunately, he explained, funding limits the options.

“It’s not that we’ve got more funding, so let’s do all three,” he said. “It’s almost always, ‘Is it this or is it that,’ and honestly it takes a multipronged approach.”

In March, the Kansas Legislature repealed the school finance system in place since 1992 and replaced it with block grants for the next two years, during which time legislators will put together a new school funding formula. The block grants provide essentially flat funding to schools in the meantime. The old funding formula provided “equalization aid” to offset lower collections from property taxes and weightings that provided more funding for subgroups of disadvantaged students.

Another important element in student success is the relationship between teachers and students, Carriger said.

“We have this population we desperately want to reach,” he said. “We know relationships are important. This faculty really tries to nurture, foster good relationships in the classroom. I think it goes a long way.”

Including multiple aspects — programs, class sizes, support staff and enabling more one-on-one interaction — is necessary for effective student support and requires a complex funding formula, according to Rabiola.

“It has to be a nuanced, multifaceted approach to try to deal with this,” he said, “because we don’t have a one-size-fits-all kid that comes into the building and there is a variety of things to make each kid successful.”