Blue Valley Superintendent Dr. Gillian Chapman wrote to parents last week, stating that the community “deserves honest, informed conversations about public education.” Most of what followed was anything but honest.
Chapman’s email was prompted by an opinion in the Kansas City Star by paid contributor Patrick Tuohey, entitled “Blue Valley schools are flush with cash. Why are academics slipping?” Tuohey noted that ACT scores dropped from a high of 25.9 in 2016 to 22.8 in 2024, and that Blue Valley middle-schoolers are losing ground on state assessments compared to the national average.
Chapman didn’t address those facts or say anything about declining outcomes in the district. Instead, she tried to deflect attention from the issue. She cited rankings from U.S. News & World Report that sound good, but didn’t mention the statistic that matters: according to U.S. News & World Report, the highest college-readiness among Blue Valley high schools is 50.7%, at Blue Valley Northwest. College-readiness at Blue Valley West is just 39%, and the others are in the 40s. Outcomes matter, not rankings that obscure middling performance.
This is a standard tactic among education administrators; they speak of rankings and changes, but when was the last time you heard they speak of actual outcomes?…