Kansas leads the world in the success of each student.

Posts are intended to inform the North Ottawa County Schools Patrons about Kansas Education, education trends, and what is happening in our own local schools.

The new vision, which was adopted in October of 2015, "Kansas leads the world in the success of each student," calls for a more student-focused system that provides support and resources for individual success.  The Kansas State School Board has adopted the following five outcomes that school districts will be required to measure and show growth over a five year period with the new accreditation model known as KESA.

• Kindergarten Readiness
• Individual Plans of Study based on career interests
• Graduation Rates
• Post-secondary attendance and attainment
• Social/Emotional Growth measured locally

This process does not begin when students enter high school, nor does it begin with kindergarten, but it starts with building the relationships prior to kindergarten with families and maintaining a partnership throughout the student's education.  A KSDE study showed that children who entered kindergarten with strong school readiness skills were more likely to maintain this success at least into third grade.

Individual Plans of Study based on career interests will begin in the junior/senior high working with our students giving them opportunities to explore their interests.  Elementary students will also be given career exploration opportunities as well but not as a plan of study.  Each year students head off to college frustrated, eventually wasting dollars, because they do not know what they want to do.  It is our hope that by having the conversations with the students and their parents early in their education about career choices will potentially save the family's money and lead them to a successful career.

Those without a high school diploma qualify for only 17% of all jobs, primary in sales and office support, food and personal service and blue-collar jobs.  (Georgetown Center on Education)  Many of these jobs may not provide a living wage or health care benefits.  By 2020, 71% of jobs in Kansas will require some type of post-secondary education and/or training. (GCE)

It is extremely important that the students, families, and schools recognize that not all students need a four-year degree. Many of our students will elect for a 2-year college, a technical college or join the military, which are all very valuable in the workforce today.

Academics are not the only thing that assures a student will be successful after high school.  We believe that our students will need to learn teamwork, perseverance, have critical thinking skills, learn to set goals, have empathy for others and be able to maintain and build relationships with others.

The Kansas State Board of Education defines a successful Kansas high school graduate as someone who has the academic preparation, cognitive preparation, technical skills, employability skills and civic engagement to be successful in postsecondary education, in the attainment of an industry recognized certification or in the workforce, without the need for remediation.

This is just a snapshot of what is taking place in our Kansas schools today,  in my future posts I will share with you the why, the what and the how North Ottawa County Schools will be addressing these five outcomes.