While there is a lot of controversy surrounding Kansas City schools, there are great opportunities for providing our children a quality education. Parents throughout the midtown area are working hard to make schools even better because they love living here. The links below can help you to navigate the many options.
ShowMeKCSchools.org
This site provides everything you need to find the current school options in Kansas City. It has information on all schools; district, charter, private, and parochial. Information includes maps, test results, application information, and profiles of each school.
Midtown Community School Initiative
The Midtown Community School Initiative is a grassroots organization working to provide better school options for the rapidly increasing number of families living in the Midtown neighborhoods of Kansas City. Several of the organizers are Valentine residents.
Kansas City Public Schools
The Kansas City Public Schools (KCPS) District, which was formerly the Kansas City, Missouri School District (KCMSD), is the traditional public school district for the area of Kansas City that includes Valentine. Our district elementary school is Longfellow, which is profiled here.
Kansas City Charter Schools
Charter schools are also public schools that receive funding from the same sources as the District. According to the Missouri Charter Public School Association, “The charter school model is simply a different way of organizing and operating a public school. Citizens of the World is located just a block from Valentine on Broadway.
Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education
Funding and standards for Kansas City District and charter schools is overseen by the Missouri Department of Elementary & Secondary Education (DESE). “Accreditation” is the means used by DESE to provide accountability of schools to the public. Districts must meet a minimum set of criteria to be accredited. A district can be “provisionally accredited” if it meets most but not all of the criteria. KCPS is currently not accredited. This does not affect a student’s ability to graduate or go to college since colleges have their own entrance exams and requirements. The KCPS District’s accreditation status is based on cumulative data from all schools. So there can be, and there are, good schools within the District. DESE compiles “report cards” for each individual school, including charter schools. These can be found here. When using this site, the “District” drop-down lists KCPS as “KANSAS CITY 33” and each charter school is listed separately. DESE is also empowered to approve and revoke a charter school’s “charter” which is what allows it to operate and receive public funding.