MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:
We often hear about school districts with high poverty, terrible test scores and budget problems. We often don't hear those words along with academic success used in the same sentence, but school superintendent Tiffany Anderson in Jennings, Mo., is determined to change that. Since she began leading the district of 3,000 students, she's opened a food pantry for poor students and their families, a shelter for homeless students and a district-based health clinic. With the help of grants, she's revived arts and other extracurricular programs, all while raising scores and expectations.
The turnaround story has turned Anderson into a national figure in education circles. She's spoken at the Aspen Ideas Festival, at Harvard University and was recently profiled in The Washington Post. And Jennings school superintendent Tiffany Anderson is with us now. Welcome, and thank you so much for speaking with us.
TIFFANY ANDERSON: Thank you for having me.
MARTIN: What is it that drew you to this school district?
ANDERSON: My mother actually was living in Jennings around the time that I was being recruited to come there, so that was part of the draw. The other part of the draw really are the challenges. You know, I believe that schools that are high poverty can perform at very high levels, and poverty does not have to be a factor that determines the quality of education that you receive. And so that was also a pretty significant draw for me.
MARTIN: One of the things that has gotten you a lot of national attention is the fact that the scores have moved up tremendously, but also schools that had kind of been on the border of accreditation have all been fully accredited now. What is the number or the metric that most pleases you?
ANDERSON: There are a couple of things. You know, one of the piece - certainly the academics. You know, we - no one person can do this, so I have to say that, you know, I'm most proud of the staff, the teachers, the board - how they have worked together collectively to demonstrate that our kids can succeed at very high levels.
This past year, we have met 81 percent of the state standards. And we have a hundred-percent college and career placement rate, meaning that when students graduate, a hundred percent of them will either attend a postsecondary institution - so it's college or some other postsecondary institution - or they will be placed in a job. When we talk about being proud of any of those things, it really starts with the people that we serve and the collective energy that has caused for a district to improve at very high levels rapidly, which we know can happen, and it's scalable in any district.
MARTIN: Can you just take us back to the roots of your philosophy here about what informs your - what's your North Star?
ANDERSON: I believe that poverty can be interrupted, and the best interrupter is education. You cannot expect children to learn at high levels if they come in hungry and tired, and so we remove those barriers. So the barrier of food - we have a food pantry, and we give out 8,000 pounds of food a month. The health care - if a child breaks an arm, come to school. We have a pediatrician there. I mean, so it's really understanding the needs of the community and then meeting those needs. That's what every child deserves. They deserve the very best.
MARTIN: A lot of times, though, when people raise these kinds of - these ideas, you hear people say, well, teachers there are there to teach. They're not social workers. Did you hear that, and what did you say?
ANDERSON: We spend a lot of time building relationships. You know, we change how we serve people. Recently, we just did a poverty simulation where many of our teachers were placed in poverty for what felt like an entire week. And many were ready to give up before the week was out. And so this idea of first training those that you're serving so that they understand the barriers that poverty creates. And so with building those relationships first, our teachers - they want our children to succeed. They really do, and we've given them a path to make that happen.
MARTIN: People might be familiar with the area near St. Louis where you are located because of all the attention on Ferguson, Mo., last year after the death of Michael Brown. And I do want to mention that there were controversies in some of the surrounding school districts because there were students who wanted to demonstrate or they wanted to somehow, you know, express their concern about what had happened to Michael Brown. You talked about this at the 2015 Aspen Ideas Festival. I just want to play a short clip from what you said.
(SOUNDBITE OF 2015 ASPEN IDEAS FESTIVAL)
ANDERSON: I told the students, we're going to march. They said, back down so you don't get fired. I said, I am? Well, this better be a good march. You all better show up. And the first thing was we do not walk out of school. We stay in school because you have to be educated in order to get the power that you need in order to make changes. And so we're going to march before school. So if you want to meet me at 6 a.m., you show up.
MARTIN: How did you come up with that?
ANDERSON: It's a teachable moment. And so you can't really prepare for students saying they're going to walk out. When they say they're going to walk out, however, again, it's a teachable moment. And the students - they showed up. We took a bus part of the way because we wanted to make sure that we got back to school on time, which we did. The students had three demands. They wanted body cameras, minorities on the police force, community policing. I think that's a pretty good list for kids. You know, our scholars - we just gave them a voice.
MARTIN: Were you worried about getting fired?
ANDERSON: No, I'm not worried about getting fired. I think if you worry about getting fired, you probably wouldn't do half of the things that we've done in Jennings. I this work is courageous, bold work. It takes risks. I'm not worried about that. My concern is serving the underserved.
MARTIN: You know, I appreciate your desire to share credit, but I still want to hear more about Tiffany Anderson. And I just - I still want to understand what's the source of this vision for you?
ANDERSON: You know, I live in Kansas, and so I drive about four hours every other day to work. And I often listen to books on tape and sermons, and I most enjoy, you know, Martin Luther King and listening to his old sermons. And there's one where he quotes John Donne. And the piece that he quotes - he talks about - I can't do well unless you do well, and you can't do well unless I do well. So until we see ourselves as interconnected individuals, change can't happen. My role as a teacher is to teach other ways to approach people. It's to teach how to break barriers. And so even now with Jennings, I suspect people will say it's not replicable. We can replicate this at any scale we choose if it is important enough to us to make it happen.
MARTIN: So what's your wish for the new year?
ANDERSON: From a spiritual perspective, I tend to say the Lord leads, and I follow, so we will see what's next. One of the things we've been talking about is having a dental clinic, you know, so we can give full dental care to all of our students. And then a lot of the programs that we currently have in place - just continuing to perfect those and grow those. Academically, we're a work in progress, and so we will continue to work towards ensuring all of our students exceed at high levels.
MARTIN: Tiffany Anderson is the superintendent of schools in Jennings, Mo. She joined us from Kansas City member station KCUR. Superintendent Anderson, thanks much for speaking with us, and happy New Year to you.
ANDERSON: Thank you, and happy New Year to you and your listeners.