.....Kansas City’s persistence in the face of the funding shortfalls raises questions reformers across the nation have battled over for decades: Can districts raise expectations and improve achievement on a shoestring? How little money is too little for schools to function well, and what could be achieved with more? Whether Kansas City maintains its optimism or loses ground as the belt tightens could begin to suggest answers.....

.....Designed by the Institute for Research and Reform in Education (IRRE), a New Jersey–based nonprofit, the model, called “First Things First,” combined a number of ideas that were gaining currency at the time: small learning communities, “looping” (in which teachers stay with the same students for multiple years) and changes in teaching practices to emphasize engagement and rigor. Some elements of the reform, including a family advocate system designed to bring families and schools closer together, were developed as the initiative moved forward.....

.....Teachers were assigned students to monitor and guide toward their academic goals. They were also given a common planning period to discuss student progress and problems and consider ways to make lessons more rigorous and engaging.

Reports about the initiative say a crucial aspect of its success was the district’s wholehearted support—including moving personnel from the central district office to the schools and convincing a skeptical police department and community that it was a good idea to let all the students in the system out early on Wednesdays so teachers could have the common planning time.....

.....A 2005 research study by the MDRC, a New York- and Oakland, California-based research group, found that Kansas City high schools produced and sustained a “double digit” improvement in the percentage of 11th graders reading proficiently and a dramatic decline in the percentage of students scoring “unsatisfactory” on the state test. Middle schools also produced large improvements in reading and math scores. Attendance improved among middle and high school students.

“We really think something significant happened there,” said Janet Quint, a senior research associate at MDRC.....

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