I've been visiting Kansas schools that have won national or State Board of Education recognition for showing improvement in the State Board's Kansans Can outcomes: academic achievement, graduation rates and preparing students for postsecondary success.
Westview Elementary in Olathe, USD 233, was one of two ESEA Distinguished Schools in Kansas. (ESEA is the federal Elementary and Secondary Education Act.)
Westview was recognized for closing the achievement gap between student groups. It's the most "high needs" elementary school I've visited, in the largest district and most urban area. What I heard was a passionate commitment to improving outcomes for its students to give them the skills to be successful in life, regardless of background.
Based on most education trends, many might expect Westview's students to struggle. Although located in Johnson County, one of the state's most affluent areas, almost 72% of Westview's students are low-income, compared to a state average of 43% and nearly three times its district average of 24%.
Westview, with an enrollment of about 170 students, only 25% of its students are white, compared to a state average of 63%. Nearly 70% are Hispanic and over 50% are English Language Learners, meaning they are learning to speak English at the same time they are learning to read and write it with their peers. The state average of ELL students is 9%. Finally, 22% of Westview students receive special education for disabilities, well above the state average of 16 percent.
Low-income, Hispanic, ELL and disabled students often fall behind their peers in test scores, graduation rates, and postsecondary attendance. These statistics are accurate for both public schools and private schools that report data to the state. The gap has been widening on state assessments, and new state research shows that higher performance on state tests is linked to higher graduation rates, ACT scores, and postsecondary success.
But Westview's results have been remarkably different. Since 2018, the percentage of students scoring at the lowest level on state assessments, labeled "Limited," has been cut in half, from 51% in English Language Arts (reading) in 2018 to 25% in 2022 and in math from 52% to 16%. Students scoring in the top two levels (Effective and Excellent) in reading and math doubled from less than 20% to 40%.
Here are the most common attributes of a successful school and how Westview Elementary applies them to its students and staff.
Urgency to improve student success means changing how things are done
I began my visit to Westview with kindergarten teacher Tanya Mathieu, a 10-year veteran in the school whose experiences made her the perfect person to introduce what the school was doing and why.
"About eight years ago, we started realizing our students just weren't learning the way we were teaching," she said bluntly. "We were trying to come up with ideas for how to reach them. They were really apathetic learners. We wanted to get them engaged and actively participating in their learning; seeking information in the world around them."
Based on those discussions, the school applied to the State Board to become a Kansas Redesign school, one of the first seven "Mercury" schools to experiment with changing how education is delivered. Mathieu said that began a lengthy process that led to the current results at Westview. Everyone at Westview expressed a deep belief that they needed to change their school if their students were to achieve a middle-class, "American dream" life, which is increasingly based on doing well in high school, completing some postsecondary education and having skills sought by employers.
"As our kids move through the grades, they go to Olathe West High School," said Mathieu. "That's a pretty affluent school, and to be honest, our kids are kind of the underdog in both middle and high school. We don't see many of our kids' names on the list for a sports team, band, dance, or cheerleading team. So, we try to make sure that our students understand they have so much to offer."
A graduate of Olathe schools and with children in the system, Mathieu says she was a stay-at-home mom and college drop-out before coming to work at Westview as a kindergarten aide and then paraprofessional. It was a step that changed her life.
"I really want to make sure everyone understands that this school is truly different," she said. "It feels different, it's small, and it feels like family. And it inspired me to go back to college while working full-time. I got my teaching degree and my master's degree, and this year I was actually awarded the Teacher of the Year for our district. I've seen how education matters and what it can mean for our kids."
Strong core instruction for all students with individual attention as needed
Math specialist Jess Kilby and literacy specialist Shelly Todd work with Westview and other schools in the Olathe district to implement the district's MTSS program, which stands for multi-tiered system of support. MTSS is an educational approach promoted in Kansas for a decade and has received praise from many successful schools I've visited.
"It means that we are putting procedures in place to reach ALL of our kids," said Kilby. "Whether that is at that 'tier one' level, meaning everyone in the classroom, or whether we need to provide support for students in a more specialized way."
The first tier is the general grade level expectations in core subject areas – particularly reading and math. The following tiers are designed to help students who are not reaching those expectations through various kinds of support or intervention. That's why MTSS is often illustrated by a pyramid, with a larger base or core at the bottom and smaller bands at the top for students needing extra help.
But Westview teachers I spoke to stressed that simply having this system isn't enough. There are important requirements for it to work.
“Tier one is where we want the most effective, research and evidence-based teaching," said Todd. Kilby, Todd and other Westview teachers agree that not all teaching is equal.
In reading, the state is pushing the so-called "science of reading," using brain-based research on the need for strong use of phonics. Both KSDE staff and teachers at the successful schools say the evidence is clear that many earlier approaches to reading are less effective. "We've changed to explicit phonics instruction, and it's been a humongous shift," said Todd. "This is not how we learned or were trained in college, so the shift has been really tough, but our teachers are always using data to drive instruction."
"Very similar to reading, a lot of research and science has come out about math," said math specialist Kilby. "We realize things like inquiry-based learning is not best practice for math. Explicit instruction is the best practice for math. Students need practice and rehearsal. You have to practice it in order to get better at it."
Using effective teaching for all students is critical. "If we have a strong base and foundation in the classroom, then find it's not working for some children, we look at how to intensify our instruction and find more of a personalized approach for these kids," said Kilby.
At Westview, that means regular screening of students to see how they are doing and setting aside time for individual or small group interventions, which helps more students be successful. "With the shared commitment of the teachers here at Westview, specifically, it's just a recipe for success because these teachers have really high expectations for our students," said Todd. "At the same time, we provide a safe and nurturing environment where kids feel safe to learn, make mistakes, grow, and set goals. It's something that the whole staff is committed to doing."
The need to have high expectations for Westview students was repeated throughout the day. Educators say the challenges of poverty, language barriers and moving to a new country are precisely why high expectations are so important. Their students start with fewer advantages. Without the power of an education, they will remain behind.
School leaders, parents and community members credit Principal Cindy Kapeller for keeping that goal in focus. I had a long talk with Principal Kapeller about the challenges of serving children and families from poverty and with other special needs. She has spent most of her career in schools with high numbers of such students. We discussed the balance between poverty and other factors being seen as a reason for low achievement that needs to be addressed or as an excuse for lower expectations and outcomes.
"I feel like it's been a cultural shift for us," Kapeller said. "It has been about showing or demonstrating to the teachers that our kids are capable of more. It's putting teachers and students in situations where they can demonstrate success and then celebrating the heck out of it. It's feedback to teachers about taking risks and trying things that are outside the box. But really, it's a mindset about what our kids are capable of."
She continued, "It drives me crazy when someone says, 'Well, look at their home life. They don't have any support at home.' Home life is not a single determining factor in what a child is capable of accomplishing. It is important to respect, not insult a child's history and home life. It has always been really important to me and our teachers to help our kids understand why we have such high expectations for them and why we expect them to work hard – we want to make sure they are prepared for life. We want our students to have opportunities and choices in life."
Kapeller took me on a short tour of the building as high school students – some of whom had attended Westview – spent time tutoring and mentoring the elementary kids. The hallways were filled with small clusters of kids reading to, listening to and responding to patiently encouraging older students. It's been striking how nearly every successful school I've visited has a structured way to use older kids to work with and mentor young students – benefiting both.
During that break, we visited the classroom of Jennifer Allen, a fourth-grade teacher, a 20-year veteran, and a bundle of enthusiasm. The walls of her room were plastered with words, numbers, symbols, and expectations for learning, behavior, and character, and stacks of binders of each child’s progress – which they record for themselves daily.
"You can ask any child in my room: What do you need to know?" said Allen, as she gestured to a 'what I need to know for mathematics' display, "I need to know my nines, my tens, my elevens. They have to get 100% four times to earn recognition. Then my kids reflect on everything."
She showed me a child's data binder. "They've set goals, then they graph their work and tests and then reflect. A student may say, ‘I was getting 100%. Now I've slipped a little. So, what am I missing? What am I going to do?' The key is for me to give them immediate feedback, get their stuff back to them, and let them reflect."
"The kids have pride in what they're doing," Allen continued. "If I don't get papers back to them, they're on me. They know that they have to do well. They will have families to take care of, their mom and dad. We talk about being good citizens inside and outside our school. It's just part of what they do.”
"Jennifer is describing students being accountable for their learning,” said Kapeller. "Our kids are great. But, in the past, our students were very compliant. They would do whatever their teacher asked them to do. But the learning never belonged to them. I believe that when a student genuinely learns, they've been changed in some way; for example, their depth of understanding of the content, their perspective on an issue, or their multi-layered connections with a topic. When you go into classrooms today, our students look like learners. They understand they're responsible for what's happening. The learning belongs to them, not the teacher."
Using standards and data for teaching and intervention
Like it or not, the most visible way schools are measured is by state assessments. Those assessments are designed to measure how students are mastering state academic standards. So, it stands to reason that if schools are not covering what is included in these standards, students won't do very well on the tests.
Westview teachers told me the standards ensure that the school follows state and district expectations for all students to learn and keeps everyone on the same page.
"The district guides us to use four questions," explains Sarah Jost, a "Title" math teacher funded under Title I of the federal Elementary and Secondary Education Act to help students who need additional support. "It’s basically asking: what do we want our students to learn? What do we do if they haven't learned? What do we do if they have? How do we respond to the data that we have? In the last couple of years, we've focused on that first question of what we want our students to learn. We may think we're teaching the standard, but we really hadn't done the work of breaking it down piece by piece and understanding every component of what our students need to know. Then we use the data from our screeners and our assessments for intervention."
"Intervention groups usually focus on our lowest kids, but we're also able to focus on kids that are ready for enrichment, or kids that are on grade level but need deeper understanding," Jost continued. "Every kid is getting what they need when we have so many adults available to break our kids into groups."
"There has been a lot of research on acceleration versus remediation," said Jess Kilby. "For example, say you have a fourth grader performing at a second-grade level. They won't catch up if you don’t know how to target for that and provide second-grade instruction. What Westview, and really Olathe, does is look at what specific skills are missing. We will backfill those but connect them to their grade level, so they can see the connection and accelerate to where they should be."
Third-grade teacher Becky Caldwell, a 29-year veteran of the classroom, says another part of the school's success is the ability to teach in small groups. "It's important that everybody knows the same things after they're done with third grade. But there are a lot of kids with holes in their learning and missing items and pieces from past illnesses or moves or whatever. It's really hard to get them caught up if you're not meeting with them individually or in a small group of kids with the same needs.”
"But we also move ahead with students who are ready," she said. "I can take that group of third graders and say, 'Today we're doing fifth-grade math,' and they get totally excited. You're always going to have a few kids that don't get it yet. They're just not developmentally there.' Caldwell repeated something I've heard in many other successful schools. "If you have a great relationship with a kid, even if they don't quite get why they need to be trained to do their best in something like a state test, they still want to do their best for you."
Caldwell praised the district for providing classroom teachers with more specialized support to meet individualized needs.
My "Kansans Can" Checklist
At each successful school I’ve visited, I asked about elements of the Kansans Can outcomes and design principles, including those that have become more controversial and the major challenges educators see. Here is a quick review from Westview.
Kindergarten Readiness. Westview used to have a preschool program in the school but doesn't currently. Students may be able to attend Head Start or district preschool at other schools before beginning kindergarten, but Westview educators say many more students would benefit if they could.
"Most of our kindergarteners come to school unprepared for kindergarten," said kindergarten teacher Mathieu. "They don't have any experience in the classroom; they haven't had an experience in academic situations, and they maybe haven't been read to; they often don't know English." Barriers include funding for preschool openings and lack of awareness on why early education is essential."
Social and Emotional Learning. SEL has become controversial, with some concerned it detracts from academics. Westview educators focus on five character traits: Integrity, Empathy, Accountability, Self-discipline and Courage. They say these qualities have supported the school's academic success. The parents I spoke to were supportive as well.
"My kindergartner will come home and talk about the goals that she has set," said counselor Whitney Burns. "As a parent, that's huge because it holds her accountable for her learning. And from a parent perspective, I see how it affects their relationships when my child will say, 'Mom, that character was showing empathy."
Challenges. While everyone at Westview acknowledges the benefits of small size and strong support from the school district for special services, there are other issues in a high-poverty school. "We have parents working 15-17 hours a day to make ends meet," said Burns. "It's harder for them to be involved in parenting because they are so busy working. It's harder for their children to be in sports or activities or get mental health services if they need it, maybe because of cost, maybe because they don't have transportation."
English Language Learner teacher Louise VonAhnen noted the situation is compounded for many immigrant families. "Some of them have come from very traumatic situations. It's pretty overwhelming to come into a new school, but even more to not know the language and not necessarily know the culture either. There's a lot of learning that takes place there. Other students will help them understand things, help them understand directions, ask them to play out for recess and sit with them at lunch. That's part of everyone working together."
Working together for students, families and the community
Everyone I spoke with at Westview praised that "team effort." Instructional coach Christy Farr, who works with Westview and other schools for the Olathe district, began her position at Westview 17 years ago; then, she left to work in different schools but came back four years ago. "One of the very special things is just that whole idea of that collective efficacy. The staff are truly there for one another. They have a common vision. It has always been a hard-working staff and would do everything for the kids, but I feel like they've just put it together somehow in that interim of time."
Physical Education teacher Angela Kivett explained. "I think as a specialist, we all are contributing our part by doing interventions. The librarian, art teacher and I help with reading; the music teacher does math. If I'm not doing my PE class or they're not doing art, then we are doing an intervention, so it's like kind of all hands on deck for everybody."
"Teachers help each other, solve problems together, and we don't give up on each other," said ELL teacher VonAhnen. "That's one of the biggest differences I see from other schools. Speaking as an ELL teacher, sometimes there's the attitude that those are 'your' students. Here, they are all 'our' students."
Parents and community members I spoke with also voiced that sense of solid relationships. The Westview school community reflects a mixture of long-term Olathe residents and newcomers who helped make USD 233 the second-largest district in the state, trailing only Wichita. Because Westview serves a large Hispanic or Spanish-speaking community – and seems to serve it well – it draws more members of that community.
Natividad Mora, a parent of three children who attended the school and spoke with me through the school's interpreter, Laura Thomson, said she chose Westview after researching other schools and had nothing but praise for her children's experience. She also valued the ability of her children to become bilingual, learning English at school but continuing to use Spanish at home "because it is very important to keep your native language."
Mora compared Olathe's schools favorably to schools in California, where her children attended previously. "In California, students can't necessarily achieve what they want." She said her older son had attended high school at Olathe North and earned a scholarship to the University of Kansas to study chemistry and an internship at the KU Medical Center.
Parents also praise the school's work with their children who have disabilities. Maria de Jesus Muniz Fuentes, who also spoke with me through the interpreter, said her daughter had come to school with a "little bit of a speech problem and a little bit of a learning disability. But now, she has improved to the point where she's at the same level as her peers and above some in some areas."
Matthew Gulick, a graduate of Olathe schools himself, credited the district for working with his son in specialized classrooms in other schools until he could handle a regular classroom at Westview, their home school. He also likes that his son is picking up some Spanish through his classmates.
Janice Smeall said she and her family have attended Olathe schools for generations. She has a great-granddaughter at Westview who she said fell pretty far behind during the COVID pandemic. "To me, the greatest thing the school does is meet every student where they are. Through doing that, we got her extra help, and a year and a half later, she is at the top of her class and reading. You know, each individual child gets what that child needs." She also values the school's diversity. "The kids get a really good view of the outside world."
Aura Obando told me about her son who has ADHD and struggles with social settings like lunch and recess. She said the school suggested pairing her with a volunteer community mentor to have lunch every other week with her son. "They didn't just tell me there was a problem; they were proactive about making suggestions that would help him."
Westview leaders say strong community partnerships, including faith-based groups, are critical to their success. I talked with two community members who coordinate school partnerships with their churches. Bob Arnold, local missions chair for Community Covenant Church, started an afterschool program at Westview using volunteers, some former or current educators, to help give kids structured time to fill the gap between school and home. Liz Tatham is a faith partner for Journey Bible Church's community Adopt a School program.
"It's not surprising to me at all that they won this (national) award," said Tatham. "Every time you come in here, you can just feel it. They are passionate about what they do." Arnold agreed: "The kids are thriving because they're seeing that passion, and it's exciting to work with."
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