March 1 - Kansas City, Kansas Public Schools

But there are concerns. The principals who have to monitor the complicated evaluating system may not haveenough time to lead academic instruction in their buildings, Reznikov said.“The principal doesn’t want to be just an evaluator, but a mentor,” she said. “We’re trying to find the right balance.”Obama’s ideas• Recruit a new generation of teachers. Give extra pay to top teachers. Move bad teachers out of the classroom.• Improve early childhood education by expanding Head Start, increasing access to child care and doing more forchildren with special needs.• Challenge states to adopt uniform, world-class academic achievement standards and assessments.• Open more charter schools.• Lengthen the school day and the school year, ending a competitive disadvantage with other countries.• Reduce dropout rates.• Increase the number of Americans with a college education or career training.Charter schools popular in KCOne-fifth of the public schoolchildren who live in the Kansas City School District are enrolled in a charterschool.Missouri law allows charter schools —public schools governed by independent boards —within the Kansas Cityand St. Louis school districts. Charters must be sponsored by a higher education institution within the city or anadjacent county.Recently proposed legislation would let charters open outside those two districts’ boundaries and would allowsponsors to come from farther away.Neither Missouri nor Kansas limits the number of charters.Kansas City has 18 charter schools. On the Kansas side, the Kansas City, Kan., district has one, and the SpringHill district has a charter virtual high school.