{"id":1609,"date":"2024-09-25T12:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-09-25T19:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/carnegie25live.wpenginepowered.com\/?p=1609"},"modified":"2025-12-16T11:06:26","modified_gmt":"2025-12-16T19:06:26","slug":"scaling-real-world-learning-how-kansas-city-is-preparing-students-for-the-future","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.carnegiefoundation.org\/scaling-real-world-learning-how-kansas-city-is-preparing-students-for-the-future\/","title":{"rendered":"Scaling Real-World Learning: How Kansas City is Preparing Students for the Future"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Delve into this thoughtful Q&A with Dr. Bill Nicely, Educator-in-Residence for Real World Learning<\/a> at the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation<\/a>. In this conversation, Bill delves into the Real World Learning initiative, sharing the initiative\u2019s origins, goals, and the remarkable impact of Market Value Assets on students in the Kansas City region. He reflects on the Collaborative\u2019s efforts to help high school students in the region graduate with immersive, profession-based learning experiences and skills.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bill has 32 years of service in public education, including 11 years as Kearney School District (KSD) superintendent and five years as a small school superintendent in Leeton, Missouri. He is a former high school principal and assistant principal at Sedalia Smith-Cotton High School and began his career in education teaching high school chemistry and physics in Louisburg, Kansas. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tell us a bit about the Real World Learning Initiative supported by the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation Kauffman Foundation. What are you hoping to achieve?<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

The Real World Learning Initiative (RWL)is a Kansas City area collaborative that operates with support from the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation to prepare the Kansas City region, students, and employers for the future. The Initiative includes 34 school districts, ranging from as small as 350 students to as large as 25,000. These districts are located across the urban core, which includes primarily students of color and an increasing immigrant population, to suburban areas, and even rural outskirts. Diverse districts are working together with a common goal, aiming to impact all high school students\u2014just under 100,000 students in total. The shared goal is for every high school student to graduate with a standard diploma and a deep, immersive learning experience that is profession-based.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To be clear, it\u2019s the school districts, business and community partners, and parents that really drive this work. However, the Foundation provides critical support to the collaborative by providing resources, listening to community members, gathering feedback, and reflecting and reporting back on findings and research. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

What is Real World Learning\u2019s origin story and how has the initiative evolved?<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

The Real World Learning initiative began in 2018. At the time, I was a public school superintendent at one of the first six participating districts that make up Northland CAPS, part of the CAPS Network<\/a>. My colleague at the Kauffman Foundation, Donna McDaniel, posed a critical question: We know profession-based experiences, like Center for Advanced Professional Studies (CAPS) programs and tech centers, are life-changing for students. But if they\u2019re good for some students, can they be good for all students? The answer was an emphatic \u201cYes.\u201d We then asked ourselves, how can we create opportunities for all students to have these experiences? What would that mean for public education? With support from the Kauffman Foundation, the Real World Learning Collaborative was born.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Originally, we thought four to six school districts would be participating in the initiative. As it turned out, 16 districts and charter schools accepted the challenge. That alone is a testament to the value of these deep, immersive experiences for our students. The Foundation provided individual grants to districts to develop plans and move forward in this direction. It really all started with a collective vision\u2014our \u201cPortrait of a Graduate,\u201d which still exists today. In 2022, we followed up with an RWL collaborative strategic plan, and we continue to review our thinking through strategic refreshes. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Interestingly, many agree that the pandemic actually contributed to the cooperation and teamwork within our RWL Collaborative. We began meeting virtually and connecting personally about our struggles and to strategize around what was best for kids. We realized that regardless of whether members were from a charter school, a large affluent suburban district, or an urban core school each facing different challenges, we were able to help each other navigate those challenges and provide support. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Real World Learning website highlights your ambitious aim of ensuring all students in the Kansas City region graduate with one or more Market Value Assets by 2030. Can you explain what these Market Value Assets are and why Real World Learning is so focused on them?<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

We refer to the learning experiences that help students build resilience and prepare them for success beyond high school as Market-Value Assets (MVAs). These experiences come in four categories:<\/p>\n\n\n\n