By Mark Tallman

“The first thing is you have to have an alignment between the board of education, administration, student population, and the community.”  - Ottawa School Board President Harold Wingert.

Ottawa USD 290 is located about 50 miles southwest of Kansas City with about 2,400 students. Its 2022 graduation rate was 96.3 percent, up almost 10 percent over five years. The rate was almost 8 percent above expectations based on district characteristics. The average percentage of students from low-income families plus students with disabilities is 70.6 percent. This is about ten points higher than the state average among districts with 1,600 to 10,000 students. 

Ottawa education leaders say their results follow years of changes designed to remove barriers and help students succeed. I visited the district to find out how they were getting these results. I heard from students, staff, and key members of the public.

They told me the community has come together around a long-term vision to better prepare students, and that has made possible the kind of deep changes required for higher results.

Ottawa leaders say the foundation for improving the graduation rate was laid over a decade ago. “We spent three years in focused efforts to bring the community into the school and focus on relationships with parents,” said Superintendent Ryan Cobbs, who was high school principal at that time. That led to the passage of a $64 million bond issue in 2014. Cobbs said it also built up public and parental trust.

At the same time, the district was confronting some big challenges. “Our graduation rate was about 70 percent in 2012,” said Cobbs. “We had policies that made it very easy for us to remove students. We began to realize our schools were more of a barrier to success than an invitation to success.”

Raising the graduation rate over 25 percent began with changes to the district’s alternative education program. Cobbs said the previous system focused on removing students for behavior or academic reasons, with little chance of either returning to the regular school setting or graduating. In its place, Ottawa has developed a range of options. One is a program called Engage that focuses on addressing behavioral issues. Another is an alternative high school that provides a more flexible learning environment. For families better suited to online learning, the district offers a closely tied virtual school option.

Participation in the Kansas State Board of Education’s School Redesign Project spurred other changes. “When I became the principal of Ottawa High School in 2018-19, we were in the implementation mode of redesign,” said Ottawa High School Principal Kelly Whittaker. “That allowed me as an instructional leader to take a staff that was really eager to do things differently for kids, to ask what more can we do.”

One major change was the school’s daily schedule. Because of jobs, school activities, or taking care of siblings after school, students didn’t  have time to see a teacher for help. “So, we changed our schedule to allow kids to both eat lunch and then have time to have access to their teachers during the school day,” said Whittaker.

Ottawa also strengthened its Individual Plan of Study efforts, helping students and families identify their postsecondary goals and how best to prepare for them. The district has expanded Career Technical Education pathways to help students gain job skills. Leaders praised their partnership with Neosho County Community College, which allows students to take a range of college courses through concurrent enrollment. 

 “We offer some 40 hours of credit through NCCC,” said Cobbs. “These are in addition to the Career Technical Education (CTE) courses the state pays for. Most of this is at no charge to students.” This is important to a number of Ottawa families who could not cover the costs themselves. As a result, over half of juniors and seniors are enrolled in courses for college credit, and nearly 90 percent of students graduate with some advanced CTE courses. When I talked to high school students, they praised the range of opportunities for coursework, college options, clubs, and activities, saying it helps keep students excited about school.

Like many successful districts, Ottawa employs methods promoted by the State Board of Education’s Kansans Can vision and accreditation system. These include expanded early childhood programs, a Multi-Tiered System of Support (MTSS) model to identify student needs and provide interventions, expanding mental health and guidance services, a strong student intervention team, and collaboration with community agencies, They also emphasized the development of positive parent and family connections.

Similar to other successful districts, Ottawa leaders stressed the need for collaboration across all grades and schools. They praised teachers for strong efforts to build meaningful relationships with students.

Board President Harold Wingert, a businessman and OHS graduate said that data drives district decisions and leads to change.  “We give permission to try new things,” he said. “As a board of education, I want to have the partners that we're dealing with, whether it's the staff, the student body, or the community, be willing to take chances to get better.”