KANSAS CITY, Mo. — It was a packed auditorium at Woodland Early Learning Community School Friday morning.
Dozens of Kansas City Public Schools teachers, faculty, staff and families gathered to celebrate the district's latest scores from the 2018 Annual Progress Report.
The district received 82.9 percent of possible points, placing the district in the accreditation category.
When the scores were revealed, cheers erupted in the Woodland auditorium.
"This is based off the hard work of our students, removing tons of children from below basic into basic," KCPS Superintendent Dr. Mark Bedell said. "And starting to get them a better opportunity now that they can begin to move into proficiency. We are very excited about that, but we were very methodical about that work."
Bedell said the score is a reflection of rewriting the curriculum, redesigning professional development and overhauling principal meetings.
He said that while there is a lot to celebrate, the district will continue to work on advocacy and attendance.
"Our call out to our parents is that we have to get our kids to come to school every day, we have to," Bedell said. "It's no excuse that we have kindergarten, first, second and third graders and they're below 90-90, and that's our Achilles' heel right now."
In order to receive full accreditation, the district must have two consecutive years of a score between 70 percent and 100 percent.
