Missouri hires consultant to study how to improve unaccredited schools

Missouri has hired a private education reform group to analyze why Kansas City schools keep underperforming and to help devise a turnaround plan for unaccredited schools. The Kansas City Star says the the State Board of Education also has directed staff to increase oversight of Missouri’s three unaccredited school districts--Kansas City, Normandy and Riverview Gardens--when a state law takes effect Aug. 28 and gives the agency greater powers to intervene in troubled schools. The $385,000 contract with the Cities for Education Entrepreneurship Trust seeks recommendations by January. The state says the contract is being funded by the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation and the Hall Family Foundation in Kansas City.