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This story is part of our SPOTLIGHT series focusing on the state of education in Missouri. Read more here.

Parents should not need a degree in education policy or a spreadsheet full of state data to understand whether their child’s school is working. Schools are not in the dark about their performance. Student growth, reading and math proficiency, and other measures provide educators with data throughout the year about whether students are learning.

The problem is that families and communities have not always had the same clear line of sight.

That is why my organization, BLAQUE Kansas City, supports Gov. Mike Kehoe’s establishing an A-F school report card for Missouri schools and districts. Not because we believe a letter grade can tell us everything there is to know about a school. It cannot. 

We support the idea because families deserve accessible information about whether schools are delivering academically for their children and because transparency creates the conditions for accountability.

For Black families in Kansas City, that distinction matters.

In the urban charters and districts we serve, 51% of students are enrolled in schools that rank in the bottom 10% statewide. Achievement gaps between Black and Latino students and their peers in English and math have grown since 2019. White students are more likely than Black, Latino and English learner students to attend quality schools.

Those disparities are not simply statistics. They represent children whose access to educational opportunity remains profoundly influenced by race, ZIP code and socioeconomic status.

At our organization — which advocates for every child in Kansas City to have access to a quality school — we are clear that no single performance score can capture the complexity of teaching and learning. We also understand the conditions under which many Missouri schools are being asked to succeed. Our support for an A-F accountability system is not rooted in ignorance of these realities.

It is precisely because we understand them that we believe transparency about school performance matters.

We cannot allow our children to spend year after year in schools that are chronically underperforming. Black children, low-income children and children growing up in historically disinvested communities cannot afford another generation of broken promises.

Public education has long been described as a great equalizer. If we believe that promise, then we must be willing to ask whether our schools are actually delivering it. 

And in Kansas City, we know better is possible.

The value of an A-F system is that it can translate extensive school performance data into something parents and communities can more readily understand.

Under the governor’s executive order, schools and districts will receive annual A-F ratings based on measures that include academic achievement and student growth. An A-F grade should therefore be a starting point for inquiry.

If my child’s school receives an A, I should be able to ask: What is this school doing well, and are all groups of students benefiting?

If it receives a C, I should understand where improvement is needed and what school leaders are doing about it.

And if a school repeatedly receives a D or F, families should be empowered to ask: How long has this been happening? What is the improvement plan, and how long should children be expected to wait?

For too long, educational accountability has largely operated among state agencies, superintendents, and school boards. Families are frequently presented with information after decisions have been made or asked to navigate technical systems that were never designed with them in mind.

Transparency can begin to change that power dynamic.

The cost of underperformance extends beyond the classroom

The stakes go beyond test scores.

Schools educate children, but they also help determine the economic trajectory of regions. About 40% of new jobs in Kansas City require a bachelor’s degree, while the college graduation rate for students who attend KCPS and charter schools hovers around 30%.

When schools continue to show weak academic performance, particularly those that have remained near the bottom of the state for years, the consequences accumulate. For Black students, those consequences intersect with generations of unequal access to educational and economic opportunity. That is why school quality cannot be separated from economic mobility.

The question is not whether schools alone can solve poverty, racism or decades of disinvestment. They cannot.

The question is whether children confronting those realities should also be asked to accept an education that leaves them less prepared for the future.

The answer is no.

At BLAQUE Kansas City, school governance is one way we work to improve educational outcomes. Since 2022, we have trained and placed 51 community leaders on boards across more than 14 Kansas City schools.

We expect those board members — and the school leaders they govern — to use this new report card as one tool for greater accountability.

That will require courageous conversations, particularly when schools consistently fail to deliver the outcomes students deserve. Governing responsibly means confronting evidence when children are not learning and insisting on a credible plan for improvement. But imperfection cannot become another reason to delay transparency.

A report card is only the beginning

Missouri’s first iteration of an A-F accountability system will not be perfect. Our organization will pay close attention to what is measured, how performance is communicated, whether families understand the information and whether the system reflects student growth alongside proficiency.

Accountability systems should themselves be held accountable.

But imperfection cannot become another reason to delay transparency.

Recently, our organization to begin examining what A-F report cards and greater transparency could mean for Kansas City. Over the next year, we will continue helping families understand this new accountability measure and how to use the information it provides.

Because a letter grade alone will not improve a school. What happens after the grade matters more.

Some Kansas City communities have been waiting decades for better schools, but our children do not have decades to wait.

Report card season is coming to Missouri. The measure of its success will not simply be the letters our schools receive.

It will be what we, as adults, are willing to do once we know the grade.

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