photo by: Nick Krug

After seven years as Lawrence Public Schools superintendent Rick Doll will be resigning at the end of June and will become an associate professor and executive director of the Kansas Educational Leadership Institute at Kansas State University. Doll is pictured Thursday, May 26, 2016, outside of Pinckney Elementary, which is set for a major renovation.

In Rick Doll’s first year as superintendent of the Lawrence school district, about one in six seniors failed to graduate from high school. As Doll prepares to resign his post, one thing he’ll leave behind are better odds.

Doll’s first year as superintendent was the 2009-2010 school year. In 2010, the average graduation rate of Lawrence and Free State high schools was 83 percent. The most recent graduation data, for 2015, shows that number has increased to 92 percent. This week, 700 students graduated from the two high schools, likely dozens more than would have under previous rates.

“That’s a lot of kids and a lot of people that have a better chance in their future as a result of institutionalized changes that we made specifically targeted at getting more kids to graduation,” said school board President Vanessa Sanburn.

District leaders say both targeted and overall efforts have helped to improve the achievement of students, including narrowing achievement gaps between student groups, implementing more personalized lessons and increasing access to technology. Many of those changes also presented challenges, but Doll said seeing students graduate was an encouraging reward.

“I’ve always tried to stay focused on individual students, and it’s a great pleasure to attend the graduation ceremonies and watch students walk across the stage,” Doll said.

Doll, 62, announced in the fall that he would resign his position at the end of June. He has accepted a full-time position as associate professor and executive director of the Kansas Educational Leadership Institute at Kansas State University.

Before coming to Lawrence, Doll was the superintendent of the Louisburg school district. Doll earned his bachelor’s degree in history at McPherson College and his master’s and doctorate in educational administration at Kansas State University.

Achievement gaps

Much of the improvement in graduation rate was due to large jumps made by certain student groups. Among those students not handed a diploma every spring, a disproportionate number are minority students and those with low socioeconomic status.

In 2010, the average graduation rate for black, Hispanic and multiethnic students in the Lawrence district was about 60 percent. Data from the five years since shows the achievement gap between white and minority students has improved. Over that time period, average rates for minority students increased by more than 25 percentage points. Rates for students who qualify for free lunches have increased by about 15 percentage points, from about 65 percent to 80 percent.

Sanburn said a key factor in those gains was diversity training and consistently comparing data among various student groups, such as suspension rates, the makeup of advanced placement and gifted classes, and standardized test scores. She said she thinks having administrators review those numbers each year helped to reinforce lessons from diversity training about institutional bias.

“The fact that we have seen steady progress on shrinking that gap tells us at least we’re doing something right,” Sanburn said.

Quail Run Elementary teacher Paula Barr agreed that addressing the achievement gap was a main focus of Doll’s. Barr said those efforts helped change a lot of teachers’ mindsets and resulted in more individualized education for students.

“We started to look at our students differently, I think,” Barr said. “We started to see them as all having different needs, not just because of their academic differences, but because of the differences of who they were and possibly what their backgrounds were.”

Despite the gains seen in graduation rates of different student groups in the district, Doll said the achievement gap of minority or impoverished students is an ongoing issue, both nationally and locally.

“We want to get to a point where we can’t predict achievement based on poverty or the color of a child’s skin,” Doll said. “And we’re not quite there yet, but we’ve made some great strides in that area.”

Technology and blended learning

Another effort that district leaders tout as helping to raise student achievement is the addition of technology and more personalized teaching methods, such as blended learning.

The blended learning method “blends” lecture-based instruction with small-group or individual activities that often rely on technology, such as web-based activities or online simulations. Because students are broken into smaller groups, the method also makes it easier for students of different abilities to work at their own pace.

Throughout the district, about 300 blended learning classrooms are in place. Over the next few years, the district plans to expand use of the method to all of the district’s classrooms, which number more than 700.

“Capitalizing on the power of technology for kids to personalize their learning is something that’s a nice accomplishment for the district,” Doll said.

Barr said that prior to Doll’s arrival, the district had limited technology that was outdated and slow. In contrast, blended learning classrooms operate with one device for every student. It’s a method Barr began using in her classroom four years ago, and she said giving students more experience working with technology is an important part of their education.

“We’re sending them out into a new world where that’s going to be a major part of what they do every day, so we needed to get that tech in their hands,” she said.

School renovations

Perhaps the most visible change recently made in the district has been the renovation of all the district’s schools, as well as the addition of the Lawrence College and Career Center. The final four of 21 construction projects will begin this summer.

The path to those improvements was a long one. After talks began in 2010 about consolidating the district’s 15 elementary schools to save money, district leaders ultimately only closed one, Wakarusa Valley.

“A lot of them were old and decaying,” Doll said. “So they had debates about whether to close or not to close. I just kept saying, ‘Look, if we’re going to keep them open, let’s fix them up. If we’re going to keep them open, let’s turn them into 21st century learning environments.'”

Lawrence voters approved the $92.5 million construction bond issue in 2013. The funds went to expand and renovate all 20 of the district’s buildings, build the LCCC and ultimately preserve what are often referred to as the city’s “neighborhood schools.” Sanburn said the results of school board and community discussions regarding school consolidation and a potential bond issue were clear.

“The only path forward was to make an investment and keep this neighborhood school philosophy that Lawrence truly appreciates,” Sanburn said.

Return to teaching

Sanburn said that one of the main things she appreciates about Doll’s leadership style is his focus on students.

“He is there working on behalf of students,” Sanburn said. “I think he truly believes that all students have the capacity to succeed.”

Doll’s decision to resign, in some ways, also has to do with his interaction with students. Doll said that as superintendent, he missed being able to teach. In Louisburg, which only had about 2,000 students, Doll continued to teach.

“Before coming to Lawrence, as a superintendent (at Louisburg) I still taught a high school government class,” Doll said. “So I’m a teacher at heart.”

At Kansas State University, part of Doll’s position will be teaching students seeking their master’s degrees in educational administration. He will also be the director of KSU’s Kansas Educational Leadership Institute.

“I’m going to have my hand in both the education of new administrators and the mentoring of administrators in their first year on the job,” Doll said. “I’m very excited about that.”