By JEFFREY SPIVAK and TOM PERRIN - The Kansas City Star
Date: 03/08/01 22:15

As a reward to an area urban school district showing progress, the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation on Thursday approved its second-largest grant ever, awarding $9.66 million to the Kansas City, Kan., School District.
     The grant, spread over five years, will go toward a program called "First Things First," which the foundation terms "one of the most comprehensive school improvement efforts in the nation." That effort already has shown promise with higher reading levels and lower dropout rates.
     "In philanthropy, you take a lot of risks and bet on a lot of proposals, and if one works and works well, then you don't back off. You reinforce grants that are working," said Steve Roling, the Kauffman Foundation's senior vice president for youth development.
     Kansas City's largest foundation already has invested $4.5 million in the Kansas City, Kan., reform effort. The new money will be used in four areas: recruiting teachers, reducing class sizes, training administrators and getting parents more involved in schools.
     "This proves...the quality of education in Kansas City, Kansas, is as good or better than anywhere, and that we're doing the things we need to do for children in the district," said Board of Education President Gloria Willis.
     Last year, U.S. News & World Report highlighted Wyandotte High School as one of five formerly troubled high schools that had made "dramatic turnarounds," thanks to First Things First.
     "When you look for return on investment, there's not too many school systems in the region that can have that much effect on that many kids," Roling said about Kansas City, Kan.
     The Kauffman Foundation's commitment, approved at a board of directors meeting Thursday, is its largest outright gift after a $25 million donation to help develop Science City at Union Station. The foundation typically focuses its money on two areas: youth development and entrepreneurship.
     Despite Kauffman's rank as one of the 25 largest foundations in the country, multimillion-dollar grants by it are rare. Last year, when its charitable giving amounted to $52.2 million, the foundation gave at least $50,000 to more than 150 programs, and only four got more than $1 million, besides the foundation's own entrepreneur programs.
     Between July 1999 and June 2000, though, Kauffman's net assets rose 38 percent to $2.4 billion, allowing charitable giving to almost double during this fiscal year.
     "We've got more money now than we've had in our history," Roling said.
     The decision to put more of that money into Kansas City, Kan., directly related to the district's use of First Things First.
     First Things First was developed by the New Jersey-based Institute for Research and Reform in Education, a nonprofit organization dedicated to social change. To change schools in low-income communities, the organization's research identified seven criteria. Among them were smaller class sizes, longer class periods and teachers empowered to set learning guidelines.
     What that means in a classroom sense is such things as having teachers stay with the same students year after year.
     Kansas City, Kan., schools began using the program in 1998. This year is the first that it has been in place for all schools in the district. Education experts say it usually takes up to seven years to see results from reforms, but the Kansas City, Kan., district already is seeing some good signs.
     At Wyandotte High, suspensions have dropped 57 percent. At Washington High School, 289 students -- or one-quarter of the enrollment -- increased their reading levels by three or more grades just in one year.
     Districtwide, the proportion of first-graders reading at or above grade level has jump 22 percent, while at the high school level, the jump has been 45 percent. Plus, the dropout rate has been cut in half.
     Meanwhile, the district has severe problems filling teaching vacancies. It has resorted to using substitutes who lack state certification to fill some jobs. Some of the Kauffman money will be focused on this problem.
     And with a referendum looming in April on the district's $120 million bond issue to renovate schools, school and community officials are ecstatic about an outside organization such as the Kauffman Foundation casting a positive spotlight on their work.
     "I'm hopeful that that gives a great message to the community when it looks toward the bond issue," said Craig Gaffney, chairman of the Kansas City Kansas Area Chamber of Commerce. "The Kauffman Foundation has a great reputation, not only in Kansas City, but all over the country. When an organization like that puts money into the district, that says a lot."

To reach Jeffrey Spivak, civic affairs reporter, call (816) 234-4416 or send e-mail to jspivak@kcstar.com.

To reach Tom Perrin, Wyandotte County education reporter, call (816) 234-5993 or send e-mail to tperrin@kcstar.com.