How do you define and measure a successful school system? Then, how do you make it happen?  

Kansas Education Commissioner Randy Watson has highlighted several schools in Kansas for high and improving outcomes under the State Board of Education's “Kansans Can” vision. I visited one of these schools, Caney Valley, USD 436, a 760-student district in Montgomery County. 

On the way to Caney, I took a short detour to the Laura Ingalls Wilder "Little House on the Prairie" site on my way to visit. My mom read those classic Little House books to me as a child until I could read them on my own; my kids read them with me, and they are still among my favorites.  

If you read and remember those books, education was a constant theme in the story of settling the frontier and building community. Laura became a schoolteacher, and nothing made me prouder of my service on a local school board than knowing that Laura's beloved "Pa" Ingalls served on a school board when the family moved to South Dakota. I wanted to see what education means 150 years later in a community like Caney Valley.  

Commissioner Watson highlighted Caney Valley because of its progress in the three "objective" measures of success under Kansans Can: academic learning, graduation rates and students in postsecondary programs after high school. While state assessments for most public and private school systems have declined since 2015, especially after the COVID pandemic in 2020, Caney Valley's reading, math and science results have increased. Caney Valley moved from having lower results than the state average on these measures to significantly surpassing it.  

Caney Valley's graduation rate improved from 90.8% in 2016 to 96.5% in 2021, a faster increase than the state average, which rose from 86.1% to 88.1%. The percentage of students in each graduating class of seniors who graduated high school and either earned or are continuously enrolled in a postsecondary program two years later increased from 50% in 2017 to 58.7% in 2020. Caney Valley's five-year average rate is 55%, well above the "predicted range" of 42.9% to 50.3% based on the district's student risk factors. (That means the district exceeds other districts with similar poverty rates, mobility, absenteeism and disabilities.)  

To get the story behind these numbers, I spoke with teachers, students, administrators and parents in Caney. They linked improving academic results, rising graduation rates and postsecondary success to the less measurable Kansans Can outcomes: kindergarten readiness, social and emotional learning, and individual plans of study based on student interests.   

KSDE’s design principles support these efforts: a balance of solid academics and social-emotional support; strong partnerships with parents, businesses and the community; more individualized education plans for students; and more relevant, "real world" experiences and learning. Perhaps most importantly, Caney praised its dedicated staff and supportive community, which are committed to improving student success.  

I first met with four students to discuss their experiences in Caney Valley High School.  

Jadon Doane was one of 23 students from the region awarded a prestigious paid and credit-earning internship at ConocoPhillips in Bartlesville, OK, where he works in supply-chain management. He loves that it involves working with other company employees worldwide.  

Morgan Hall will graduate this year with a high school diploma and an associate's degree from Coffeyville Community College (CCC), shaving two years and considerable cost off her planned medical studies. She credits the school with helping her arrange a schedule of in-person concurrent enrollment hours and online courses to complete her college degree.  

Rope John says he candidly "hates school" but worked with the school staff to complete all required high school courses online in three years. He plans to complete a welding program, which he started working on in high school, at CCC next year and go to work as soon as possible.  

Brett Cashman will graduate from high school this year just three credit hours short of an associate's degree in applied science. Like Rope, he began a welding program in high school which he plans to complete next year, and he plans to study film at Wichita State University.  

"I can justify that because I know if film school doesn't work out and I decide it's not something I want to do, I can still leave and get a job making $20-$30 an hour with a (welding) certificate that I mostly earned in high school," Cashman said.  

Caney Valley High School helped these four students develop a more individualized schedule based on their needs. It helps to have a strong partnership with nearby CCC, which makes college courses available through dual or concurrent enrollment and offers lower costs and scholarships. But they acknowledge that not all of their peers take advantage of what is available, estimating that only about half of students have a clear life plan after high school.  

Like many students, Jadon Doane has had to balance different demands such as schoolwork, playing football and caring for three siblings because his parents work out of town. “My parents try to be home when they can, but there's not a lot of jobs available around here, and you have to make ends meet," said Doane. He says the school has given him support and flexibility to try sports and other activities, like the chess team.  

Welding is popular in Caney's agricultural and oil area, but surprisingly, so is chess.   

"Chess is an activity that helps train students' brains in ways that will benefit them in the future, but it's fun," said high school math and chess team coach Jameson Price. "They don't think of it as a class for a grade. It isn't schoolwork. It's a game. But it teaches them logical reasoning, critical thinking skills, problem-solving, making plans, and then adjusting your plans as you need by drawing inferences. These skills will be needed in any class, any career they might pursue. But the way it's packaged is just playing a board game. It's just chess.”  

Southeast Kansas is a hotbed for competitive scholastic chess, I learned from Price, an officer of the Kansas Scholastic Chess Association. KSCA offers competition for school teams and individuals as young as K-3. Caney Valley has expanded its chess teams to the elementary level, and with the ability to play on IPADs and other devices, students can play it anywhere at any time. "Our elementary kids will have brothers and sisters in the junior high," said middle school principal Tiffany Bruce." At basketball games, they'll bring their chess boards, and they'll sit out in the commons area and play chess instead of watching the game." By mid-January, Caney had qualified ten elementary and 11 high school students for the state competition.  

Chess makes learning fun, at least for some kids. Price also stresses showing students the relevance of a subject like math, which many students are unenthusiastic about. “Anytime there is a "real world" application, I try to emphasize this is where it would be used. It's a lot easier in the geometry construction class I co-teach with our woodshop teacher. The emphasis is where geometry applies to the building trades. With my consumer math classes, it’s how you manage your money, how the banking system and the economy work."  

Other high school teachers also stressed giving students challenging but relevant experiences.  

Business teacher Brendan Murdock leads a business entrepreneurship program in the Web and Digital Media career pathway. Murdock moved from a career in the graphic industry to education through the Pittsburg State University Transition to Teaching program. He started a successful entrepreneurship program in a neighboring district. He recently moved to Caney to create a similar program that has already generated a lot of interest. It will eventually open a student-run store, with items developed, manufactured, and marketed by students in the class and with other programs.  

"It's an opportunity to provide students with both academic skills for credit and practical skills for the workplace. It's like in the work environment," said Murdock. "You have to work with someone you may not know and be comfortable with. In this class, we do our projects. We develop a business plan. It’s like getting a paycheck. Basically, if they come in and do their work for the day, they get their points for the day. If they come in and goof around, they don't get their points.”  

Another example is an engineering program through Project Lead the Way, a national science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) program. Caney started this program two years ago in high school, supported by a John Deere grant, and expanded to middle school last year with another grant.   

"Right now, we have two courses; intro to engineering design and digital electronics," said science teacher Josh Kristalyn. "The first is a lot of projects to give a real-world experience, assigning a problem task and then going through different design templates, making the pros and cons list, picking a design and modeling it, printing it out, testing it, things like that. The digital electronics class is pretty advanced. There would be more circuits, either simulating them digitally or physically putting them together."  

I asked him whether students have the academic foundation to do this level of work. "I'll be honest, when I was taking my course (to teach this material) over the summer, I was kind of worried," Kristalyn said. "I wasn't sure which students would want to take all this on. But I saw this group of kids really does have the foundation in mathematics and creativity and desire. That's a big thing. Just like anything else, if the kids are really interested in it, they can do a lot more than you might think."  

Kristalyn also credited the district's rising results to a dedicated faculty working together and strong support from the community. Two other high school "core" teachers, Teffany Brandon in English and Charlene Sutton in math, agreed with him.  

"My starting place (for improving student results) is that I feel like I belong to a family here," said Brandon. "We come together as a staff, we all truly care about these kids, and we try to figure out what their needs are. And I feel like we have an administration that listens to us, that jumps and is just right there with us along the way. I've worked for administrations that I don't feel were as actively involved.”  

Sutton added. "I think it encourages us to focus on kids and makes the whole unit as a school more cohesive. It makes integrating what we're doing (across all grade levels and departments) easier because we're having meaningful conversations. We do work as a team. I feel like that's unique to this school. It wasn't like that when I came; it was fragmented, and our (test) scores were terrible."  

Caney teachers say these four things lead to success:  

Teachers working together  

Frequently looking at data to see how students are progressing 

Intervening to give students help if they are missing something 

Providing professional development that teaches educators how to improve both individually and collectively 

The district's professional development coordinator received a lot of praise. 

"She listens to us about our needs and gives us time to spend together, as a math department or an ELA (English Language Arts) department or whatever. She sees to it that we get time scheduled for meaningful work," said Brandon 

“We sit down after our local testing and have a department-wide meeting. Where are we? Where are we falling short?” said Sutton. “For example, early on, we saw we were falling way behind in statistics and geometry. As a department, we had to figure out how to address this across multiple grades."  

After visiting with high school students and teachers, I went to the district office and met with superintendent Blake Vargas and his team of school principals and other district leaders. We discussed what the district has done over the past five years that coincided with the rise in student success. According to Vargas, it started with a commitment to improving and using data to support that improvement.  

"There was a concern by the school board that things were good here, but they felt like maybe there was a little bit of stagnation," said Vargas. "How do we go from a good district to a great district? We became aware that we were having success, but we didn't know why. So, we began to break down and dive into what are the things that we're doing well, and what are some things that we need to put in place to do better."  

The result was a new strategic plan and a lengthy list of initiatives.  

Supported by a federal 21st Century Learning grant, the district started an afterschool program three years ago to fill a childcare void in the community and provide additional learning time. Staffed by teachers to help with homework and teaching and assisted by high school students, the program now serves about 100 of the district's K-6 students.  

Also supported by the 21st Century grant, the district started a summer school program serving 75-80 students, which will be in its third year this summer. It includes academic programs in the morning and afternoon. It has activities like field trips, swimming lessons, community service outreach and projects like partnering with a local church to make a free meal for the community. The district also partners with the local Boys and Girls Club. Both the afterschool and summer programs provide additional learning time for students, help meet parental childcare needs and allow students opportunities for community interaction.  

The district established a district assessment position, which also coordinates professional development to continually look at academic and other results to guide professional development and focus on areas where results were lagging. Caney Valley uses a Multi-Tier System of Supports plan to address different student needs, which means specific interventions for students where needed, with varying levels of support based on those needs. It provides 45 minutes of MTSS (Multi-Tiered System of Supports) time each day for that individual assistance at the elementary school. The district also added an intervention specialist position to help classroom teachers work with students who are behind.  

Vargas praised the district's elementary teachers for their work in meeting students' individual needs. They receive kids below grade level and are excellent at personalizing instruction to get students to grade level and beyond anticipated outcomes. If you were to ask any teacher about any student in their class, they can talk specifics about strengths and areas for improvement and the interventions they have in place to challenge them to meet their fullest potential." Vargas said Caney Valley was designated as a National Elementary and Secondary Education Act Distinguished School for Exceptional Student Performance and Academic Growth for two or more years and was the only school in Kansas to receive this national award in 2021-2022.  

"I refer to it (our system of meeting individual needs) as a well-oiled machine because time and time again, teachers take students to levels that are beyond what is predicted based on their risk factors," Vargas said. "The positive and strong relationships that exist among all staff and students are truly amazing to see."  

To increase postsecondary opportunities for students, the district dramatically expanded its Career and Technical Education pathways from "a handful" offered five years ago to 14 this year. "We look forward to adding opportunities next year by partnering with the college to bring in CDL (Commercial Driver's License) driving," said Vargas. “Our goal is that even if they don't end up going into welding or driving a truck, if they leave with an OSHA 10 certification and a CDL they can have great opportunities in the summer breaks to be able to get a high paying high rates or skill demand job opportunity.”  

“We have every junior take the ACT WorkKeys (assessment of workforce skills)," said high school principal Jimmy Littleford. “We do that because even if you are a college-bound student, you may be working while in college, and the WorkKeys test will allow some of those kids to earn a higher wage based on their score. The first year we took it, maybe one student scored at the gold level and a couple at the bronze. I believe we had three or four platinum students this past year and probably 10 or 15 gold students."  

The district has also added more high-level academic courses, like Project Lead the Way and college composition II, and is looking at adding more college math. Several leaders said the goal of meeting individual student needs means addressing students that are exceeding general expectations, as well as those who are behind.  

Littleford says the efforts have helped change the mindset of students. "We have helped kids want to do well on tests. They want to do well on state assessments. It's been our goal to make it, for lack of better words, cool to do well at school. We want to create an environment where it's not good to sit and do nothing in your class. Everybody wants to learn."  

Caney Valley High School has added an academic advisor to focus on students' educational needs, which allows the school counselor more time to deal with mental health needs and support academic success. The district has also partnered with the community mental health center in Coffeyville to place a mental health therapist on-site in the district.  

"I feel the emotional support has made all the difference in the world academically for students," said central office secretary Stacy Stapleton, who has children at multiple grades. "Our school-based therapist is like a celebrity at the grade school – there's no shame in going to see her. I think that's made a huge difference for the kids, especially coming off of COVID. Like that was a tough time. Many kids in our district, including mine, were at home alone for a good portion of the day managing their school stuff and all of that. When we came back to school, things were not normal for a while. And she just helped keep things going."  

Middle school principal Cameron Traxson agreed. "With the way she approaches it, the stigma of mental health is no longer what it used to be, with parents too. There are multiple times a week I will give out her information or send somebody home with a packet based on their needs and their student's. She's done remarkable things with some of those students."  

As always, I asked how the district deals with the social-emotional needs of students because some have raised concerns that schools are emphasizing social-emotional learning at the expense of academic education. Caney school leaders I spoke with strongly disagree with that statement.  

"Kids can't learn if they're not in a good place, whether physically, mentally, or emotionally," said Littleford. "I think those pieces must be in place before they can learn. However, academic pieces also are important. I think that balance starts with the staff understanding what our kids go through."  

"Speaking as a parent and a teacher, in a perfect world, kids all show up with no trace of trauma," said Dottie Good, a district parent and full-time substitute teacher. "Even our kids that don't have a traumatic background are not always showing up prepared, engaged, and ready to learn. If you think about the hierarchy of needs, some of these kids are down here. Many of these kids do not have these needs met at home."  

"I have a young man that has struggled to make it through one single day of my class this semester," she said. "He's either falling asleep or crying or needing to go to the counselor, and our counselor is phenomenal. She has invested so much time in that young man. I know we want to look at data and results. Today, this morning, he made it through a whole class. He asked me if he could sit in the front to stay awake. He did two assignments. He took a quiz and turned it in on time. We're making progress. He's moving forward. But there are no test scores for that progress."  

Most of the things I heard about in Caney Valley are policies that can be adopted, positions and programs that can be added. But something everyone I spoke to in Caney praised is an attitude: the close-knit, "family” feeling in the school system and community.  

“I feel like we're constantly surrounded with people that care, and there are a lot of people working really hard in this district to make things as good as they can,” said Good. “I am constantly overwhelmed by the amount of support, concern, and effort everyone puts into striving for excellence for our kids.”