What can be done to improve student achievement and ensure everyone who graduates is college and career ready?

Recent district data demonstrates both the academic excellence of MRH as a whole, leading the state in crucial benchmarks of performance, and also unsettling achievement gaps among economically disadvantaged and racially minoritized students. And as much as the national narrative has shifted away from pandemic-era learning discrepancies, there are obvious lingering effects among our older students in academic, social, and behavioral contexts. Proactively addressing inequity and pandemic-era learning delays as they affect classroom performance has to (continue to) be a priority in the next five years if we are to maintain or improve on recent success.

As of the most recent publicly available data, six in ten MRH graduates report attending two- or four-year colleges and one in three start their careers immediately after completing their degrees. Collectively, 90% of MRH alums either go to college or enter the workforce upon graduating. That’s an impressive number but it is short of surrounding districts, which report a much higher rate of graduates attending four-year colleges and closer to 95% of graduates either attending college or entering the workforce. (DESE Data Dashboard, accessed 3 January 2026). If our goal as a district is to send more graduates to four-year colleges or to enter the workforce upon completing their degree, then we have some work to do to catch up with surrounding districts (e.g., Clayton, Webster Groves, Kirkwood, Brentwood). I think that is a laudable, attainable goal that begins in early childhood. But I don’t think it is necessarily the only goal for this moment. 

I think the most profound action the district can take to improve student achievement and preparation for life after high school is to listen to students and build practices that meet their needs and aspirations. As the economy continues to change and as college becomes more unobtainable without significant family resources or taking on crushing debt, I would love for our district to be at the forefront of framing primary and secondary education not as passthroughs to careers but as foundations for a life that may or may not play out as planned. MRH does an exceptional job, I think, at demystifying the college preparation and application process and no doubt opens pathways for many first generation college students. I think that needs to be celebrated more. And the partnership with South Tech as well as the focus on apprenticeship at the HS build opportunities and confidence for a whole range of students. But the choice between career or college cannot be the only measures of student achievement that matter to the district. 

One of the biggest benefits of attending college, if my own students at SLU are any indication, is the opportunity to confront ways of being human that are unfamiliar to us. Whether it comes from studying and living with people who are different from us or encountering the works of people, past and present, that shift our perspective on the world, time and again students will reflect that no matter what they major in or what careers they start, the most lasting lessons from college were those that expanded their horizons and pressed their understanding of the world around them. MRH is a small district in a big metropolitan area. I think one important measure of success can be how well we prepare students to encounter difference and disagreement with curiosity and courage, whether they plan to attend college, enter the workforce, or take another path. I think our teachers already do this, but too often they do it without the material support of the district. I would welcome the opportunity to work with educators and educational support staff at all levels to learn from their experiences with students and to prioritize district budgets to meet the needs of both today and tomorrow.