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Using Accreditation to Boost High-Poverty Schools

At the back-to-school celebration in Jennings, Mo., six years ago, then-superintendent Tiffany Anderson announced preliminary test scores that guaranteed the high-poverty suburban district would regain full state accreditation, a goal that had been elusive for years.

Anderson told the educators in a packed auditorium that the milestone had far-reaching implications beyond the school district in north St. Louis County and its 3,000 students, 96 percent of whom qualified for federally subsidized lunches. The success in Jennings, she announced, is 鈥済iving hope to every district that looks like us.鈥�

That includes the high-poverty Topeka Unified School District 501 in Kansas, where Anderson was hired in 2016 to lead 30 schools and 14,000 students.

External Buy-in

The high-performance bar for effective schools is aided, she says, by an accreditation and/or continuous school improvement process that the community sees as a shared experience, with support for programs, policies and procedures that help students and families overcome barriers that prevent a deeper school engagement.

Poverty-fighting measures include working with local food banks to open onsite and mobile pantries; placing washers and dryers in schools, where the cost per load is one hour of community service; offering comprehensive, school-based health care; providing shelter for homeless and foster children; expanding after-school programming; and monthly data checks to track and review student progress, attendance, finances and social-emotional well-being.

鈥淲hen you go to the doctor, you鈥檙e sitting on the bed, they take out a computer and pull up your health history,鈥� Anderson says. 鈥淭here鈥檚 no difference here. We pull up a child鈥檚 academic health history.鈥�

None of this is possible, she explains, without strong community buy-in and partnerships with key players, including businesses, colleges and universities.

鈥淕alvanizing the community around the success of students in the name of accreditation, or continuous improvement, or whatever you want to call that,鈥� Anderson says, 鈥渋t鈥檚 still at the end of the day collaborating with the community and getting them centered around the achievement of families, on growing adults.鈥�

Holistic Treatment

Anderson points to a moral imperative in ensuring students in high-poverty districts are taught properly, tested soundly, treated in a holistic manner and prepared from an early age for college and career readiness 鈥� including for jobs in the school district itself.

鈥淚f we use poverty as a reason why we can鈥檛 meet state standards, and the nation has more than 50 percent of its public schools students on free lunch,鈥� she says, 鈥渨hat are we saying is going to happen to those schools that face poverty conditions?鈥�

Saying they can鈥檛 meet state standards is 鈥渟cary,鈥� Anderson adds. 鈥淭he stronger statement is that we as school leaders who take on great challenges, we are responsible for using systems thinking to help create a sustainable model to move beyond the issues that poverty presents.鈥� 

鈥斺赌�LINDA CHION KENNEY