On Monday, the State Board of Education received an update from CEE-Trust (Cities for Education Entrepreneurship Trust) about their process of creating a comprehensive plan to address the needs of children in the unaccredited Kansas City school district.

CEE-Trust Executive Director Ethan Gray made the presentation to the board, along with Bryan Hassel, co-director of Public Impact, a consulting group that works with education leaders and policymakers.

“This project is a rare opportunity to study effective, concrete strategies that improve education for children in a district where dedicated educators have been stymied by systemic challenges,” said Commissioner of Education Chris Nicastro. “Our goal is to have a plan to make significant improvements for kids in this district and districts across the state that need support and intervention.”

Preparing Missouri students for college and career is a primary goal of the Top 10 By 20 plan, which aims to place Missouri among the top 10 performing states in education by 2020.

There are six factors involved in the CEE-Trust planning process:

• Identify conditions that foster great schools
• Examine interventions that have worked, those that haven’t and the reasons for each
• Draw on the best around the country and the world
• Solicit community input
• Develop a statewide system that provides both support and intervention as necessary
• Provide a transition plan

CEE-Trust is using research focused on Kansas City to develop recommendations on a long-range plan. Kansas City Public Schools lost accreditation in 2012.

Interviews and focus groups began in September and will be conducted through Dec. 2013. CEE-Trust anticipates presenting a plan to the Department and State Board in January 2014, with public engagement to follow.

The Department secured the services of CEE-Trust in Aug. 2013 through the bid process, and their work is supported through private donations.