Real World Learning Updates from the Collaborative - April 2025

Updates from the Collaborative

Real World Learning School Districts Hitting Their Stridewith Market Value Asset Attainment

Market Value Assets (MVA) are a cornerstone experience for students who participate in Real World Learning. One might say MVA’s are the “what” of Real World Learning, and MVA Outgrowths are the “why”, as they are the characteristics students gain, or “grow into,” as a result of their MVA experience. Each year, 34 RWL school districts and their 80+ high schools representing nearly 100,000 high school students share both student information (deidentified) and MVA attainment data with Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation’s independent data acquisition contractor, MDRC This effort constitutes one of the largest school data sharing cooperatives in the country.

Results for the 2023-24 school year are a clear indication that RWL School Districts are hitting their stride when it comes to removing barriers and creating opportunities to access, meeting the needs of every student.

2024 Graduating class with MVAs

14,614

7,066

Of the 34 Kansas City Area school districts that make up RWL Cohorts 1-4, 67% (14,614 students) of all 2024 graduates and 48% of all high school students (35,899 students) earned at least one Market Value Asset.

Of the graduates, 17.5% earned two MVAs and 20.3% earned three or more MVAs.

For each of the five categories of MVAs, total MVAs acquired were represented by the following:

17,113

5,014 5,897

9,776 10,022

A detailed explanation of each category of MVA can be found at the link above or by viewing the Real World Learning Market Value Asset Guidebook.

One of the most exciting data points in this year's report on MVA Attainment is the Regional Gap Analysis. Over the last four years of data collection, underserved student populations have gained more and more access to MVA experiences. Specifically, Black Students, IEP Students, and Free and Reduced Lunch Students have all shown consistent gains in access to MVA experiences in relation to their make-up of the total population. Why is this important? Market Value Asset experiences lead to student growth in unique ways that can’t be obtained by classroom learning alone. A recent study by the Urban Education Research Center showed student gains in all ten Market Value Asset Student Outgrowths as a result of participating in a Client Connected Project. Some of these outgrowths are particularly beneficial to students in underserved communities. For example, growing in confidence when contacting a business professional for feedback, or valuing input from that person as a mentor, or growing comfortable working in new contexts with unfamiliar people are all valuable attributes for students, but particularly for students who don’t typically have opportunities to connect with adults in a professional setting.

Kansas City’s Real World Learning educators at every level are removing barriers and creating purposeful, targeted MVA opportunities for more students, and in doing so, they are observing a significant increase in student MVA attainment. Even more inspiring, as a result, students are gaining new levels of confidence, self-advocacy, and agency, which in turn prompts those very educators to work even harder in an effort to reach all students.

Gap in MVA Attainment, by Race

Gap in MVA Attainment, by Gender

Gap in MVA Attainment, Students with Special Statuses

On April 10th, over 300 educators and community partners joined more than 100 students for the first-ever Real World Learning Summit. This event combined three previously scheduled events –Student Voice Presentations, a Communities of Practice, and the second RWL Leadership Retreat. The rationale and benefit of combining these disparate convenings was to provide school district leadership with first-hand perspective on RWL from their own students, and the opportunity to reflect on those student testimonials alongside recently released MVA data from third-party evaluator, MDRC.

The bulk of the programming revolved around two core elements First, Student Voice Presentations highlighted the challenges of accessing RWL opportunities in students’ respective districts, and potential solutions. Second, two panel sessions of subject matter experts discussed implementation of RWL strategies in grades K-8, and on best practices to engage student populations which districts find the most challenge in engaging typically, English language learners, those with IEPs, and those already struggling academically.

Student Voice presentations were culminations of months of work that Student Voice Ambassadors engaged in to uncover the obstacles and workarounds surrounding RWL in their home district. Many of the students found commonalities among their seemingly very different school districts – issues with awareness of RWL in the community, scheduling as a barrier to take part in projects or internships, and insufficient transportation solutions for students to be in the community. After students presented, school district leaders from students’ respective schools had a chance to ask deeper questions about their findings and discuss potential ways to overcome barriers Finally, Student Voice Ambassadors enjoyed a celebration to acknowledge their hard work and cap off a year of work with the RWL team.

The ‘K-8’ and ‘Gap Closing’ panels featured panelists from across the region. The K-8 practitioners emphasized the importance of exploratory activities and opportunities for student reflection on aptitudes & interests. ‘Gap Closers’ detailed the need to personalize RWL for every student and to find creative ways to reach students who may be disengaged Between the panels, Student Voice presentations, and whole group announcements, school district teams had the opportunity to revisit their intentions & strategies for the coming year. The RWL walked teams through a change management framework to create urgency, form the right change-making teams, and measure what matters to make change sustainable.

As the RWL team’s last event of the year, it was an excellent send-off for educators and students, the most important to this work!