By Mark Tallman

“School is practice for the real world. We have the ability within a school system to teach those (career and workplace) skills integrated in their daily work, right along with math or English. It gives kids confidence that they are smart, that they can show excellence.” - Topeka USD 501 Superintendent Tiffany Anderson on the Topeka Center for Advanced Learning and Careers and the College Prep Academy.

In September I visited six districts in North Central Kansas that had graduation rates and postsecondary success rates well above what would be expected, based on their enrollment and percentage of high-needs students. This next series begins with a visit with leaders of Topeka USD 501, one of the state’s largest districts.

Topeka not only has more than ten times the number of students as the largest of the first six districts I visited, but it also has far more high-needs students. The total percentage of low-income students plus students with disabilities is nearly 95 percent.

Because there is a high correlation between the number of high-needs students and academic achievement, it is challenging for USD 501 to reach the state average. However, when you apply the formulas used to predict student success, you will find that Topeka’s 2022 state math and reading performance is nearly five percent higher than predicted. Its 2022 graduation rate is nearly seven percent higher than predicted. This performance is better than any public or private system in that enrollment category.

In fact, Topeka is the only school system in that group, which includes the state’s largest accredited private school system, to perform above the predicted level on all performance measures tracked. In USD 501, this trend extends back over several years using multiple measurements.

I asked Topeka Public Schools leadership to talk about how the district is beating expectations and was invited to the Topeka Center for Advanced Learning and Careers (TCALC) to visit the building housing most of the district’s Career Technical Education programs and its innovative College Prep Academy (CPA).

“The first thing you might notice as we walk through our building is that we did not build it to look like a traditional high school,” said Jessica Williams, associate principal at TCALC.

Indeed, it does not. There are no lockers or rows of seats in classrooms. The students I saw were engaged in activities: phlebotomy students practicing drawing blood, teams working on engineering design, and building websites for local business partners. The Teaching as a Profession classroom was empty because the students were all out preparing projects they will use to teach K-8 students at the district’s Kanza Energy and Science Park, a partnership with Evergy Energy to promote science education.

In the last four years, enrollment in programs at TCALC has tripled to about 400 students, with nine career pathways. The goal is for students to become a “completer,” which means earning at least three credits in a single CTE pathway and achieving an industry-recognized certification or a passing score on a third-party pathway assessment. That means, for those concerned that a high school diploma is simply an attendance certificate, these students receive an independent validation of career skills.

Each pathway includes work-based learning experiences that can lead to a paid internship and the ability to earn a professional certificate or industry-recognized credential. Topeka also paired these pathways with area employers: Law Enforcement with the Topeka Polic Department; Medical Professions with a Stormont-Vail Regional Medical Center; Animal Science with Hills Pet Nutrition, etc. Partners provide work-based learning, speakers, funding, and even teachers in some programs.

In addition to instruction and experience, each pathway also allows students to participate in Career and Technical Student Organizations, which provide leadership training, employment skills, and competitive activities at the state and national level. Most classrooms are decorated with awards and certificates.

“We think about developing the whole person, not just one career path,” said Williams. “For example, phlebotomy students are going to have to talk to patients when they come in; they're going to have to be personable. You have to learn how to build relationships in your workplace.”

That emphasis was on full display when I entered a math class for the College Prep Academy. I was immediately greeted by Simone Holloway, who introduced herself as a seventh grader at Jardine Middle School and first-year college prep scholar. She brightly asked me how I was doing, and then patiently asked my name when I failed to introduce myself properly. She then introduced me to her classmates and explained the topic of the day, which was transversals, angles, and triangles (and helpfully explained transversals to me). I watched the class at work, which included students presenting before the whiteboard and being critiqued for speech and eye contact.

I asked Simone and her classmate Kaylon Smith what attracted them to the program. Like other CPA students I have met before, both talked about having more challenging material and being with other students who want that challenge. Both said they welcomed the rigor of math instruction two grade levels above where they would normally be.

There is a strong sense of purpose and community for students in the program, who enter with a “jacketing” ceremony where students receive a special jacket (paid for by donors) to wear at TCALC. Being jacketed and wearing a tie helps students learn to be business ready for important and formal occasions like interviews and presentations.

 “This is work. You come to work dressed for work. You interact with people like you would do at your job,” said Superintendent Tiffany Anderson. The program is relatively new, having graduated its first class of seniors just last year. Its academic results are striking, with nearly 90 percent scoring at the highest levels on state assessments of reading and math. A majority of graduating seniors earned full scholarships to college. Working with Washburn University’s early college program, students can earn an associate degree in liberal arts at the same time they graduate with a high school diploma.

Students are chosen through an application process and principal referrals in Topeka middle schools. Although the students come together at the TCALC facility for English and math courses and other programs, they aren’t isolated. Students attend their home middle or high school for half a day for other classes, activities, and involvement with other students. College Prep Academy teachers, who were selected by Anderson from some of the highest-poverty schools in Topeka, spend part of their day working with teachers in other schools. “This really is like a learning lab,” said Anderson. “Any school, any district, can replicate what we do here. We’ve climbed to this new space with college prep, and we’re lifting others to that same space.

Bright Idea: The Topeka Center for Advanced Learning and Careers features a state-of-the-art presentation room where students can practice communication skills. “Here we have all of our students make presentations in this room at least once or twice throughout the year to see what it's like to have an audience, have a podium, have screens, learn how to stand, and how to move about the space,” said Williams. “To put them in a space like this elevates that class speech or project.”