What do closed swimming pools and “market value assets” have to do with post-high school success at the Shawnee Mission School District near Kansas City, Kansas?<\/p>\n
No, it’s not some scheme to turn a big profit by buying up abandoned real estate. Rather, it has everything to do with putting students on track for successful futures in college and the workforce, says Superintendent Michelle Hubbard<\/a>, whose district covers 14 suburban cities.<\/p>\n The market value assets\u2014also known as “MVAs”\u2014that Hubbard wants students to leave high school with include nine hours of college credit, a professional certification, a 120-hour internship or completion of a client-based project. It’s that last asset that was earned by about 300 sophomores from Shawnee Mission South High School when they helped the city of Overland Park open its swimming pools last summer for the first time since COVID.<\/p>\n The problem was a lack of lifeguards. The students, as part of their English classes, investigated the labor shortage, which required them to get feedback from the Overland Park city council on the way to reopening the pools. “It was a project where kids learned, they did the research and were able to solve the problem,” says Hubbard, who was recently named Kansas Superintendent of the Year.<\/p>\n And here’s the achievement of which she says she’s proudest. In 2022-23, more than double the number of African American students, English learners, special education students, and students on free and reduced lunch not only graduated but also earned a market value asset. By 2030, the district expects to have every student graduate with a diploma and an MVA.<\/p>\n