ST. LOUIS — Harris-Stowe State University, which for decades produced most of the teachers in ºüÀêÊÓƵ, has failed to meet standards for training new teachers and risks losing accreditation with the state education department.
The university was the only educator preparation program out of 43 statewide to receive a letter of noncompliance this month from the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education.
Leaders in the Harris-Stowe College of Education failed to submit the number of education majors who enrolled and completed the program in 2023 as required for its annual performance review, according to the Nov. 6 letter from the state. Harris-Stowe awarded 24 bachelor’s degrees in education in 2022, federal data show, enough to fill fewer than 20% of the teaching vacancies in ºüÀêÊÓƵ Public Schools.
The Missouri State Board of Education will consider Harris-Stowe’s accreditation status at its February meeting, the letter states.
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A statement released by Harris-Stowe on Monday said, “a proactive plan is outlined to prevent similar oversights in the future, illustrating the institution’s commitment to timely addressing and averting such issues.â€
The setback is the latest in a long series of troubles for the historically Black public university.
One year ago, the Higher Learning Commission placed Harris-Stowe “on notice†for being at risk of falling out of compliance with accreditation requirements. The university was ordered to correct the issues by February 2024 before a follow-up visit from the accrediting body in the spring.
The commission found fault in several components of its accreditation criteria, including a late audit of fiscal year 2021, inadequate tracking of student academic outcomes and a lack of strategies to improve retention and graduation rates.
Harris-Stowe is the only school on notice out of 109 Missouri colleges rated by the commission and one of only three in the country along with Morton College outside Chicago and Wilberforce University in Ohio. Of the eight campuses nationwide on probation, a higher-level sanction, one is in Missouri — Hannibal-LaGrange University.
A 2019 state audit of Harris-Stowe found several areas of concern including a lack of oversight of payroll and accounting systems and violations of Missouri’s Sunshine Law for public transparency.
Last year, university President LaTonia Collins Smith called the past few years “an unusual time†for the school with three presidents and one interim president overseeing the campus along with challenges related to the pandemic.
Enrollment has fallen by one-third since the pandemic started — down to 1,084 students last year from 1,630 students in fall of 2019. All of the university’s students receive financial aid to help cover the $6,000 annual tuition. Harris-Stowe’s graduation rate of 20% in six years is among the lowest in the country.
Collins Smith, who was named president in March 2022, said the university made a “hard reset†by hiring new chief financial and academic officers, appointing a new comptroller and compliance officer along with refining the oversight procedures.
Harris-Stowe’s origins started in the 19th century as separate colleges to train white and Black teachers for ºüÀêÊÓƵ Public Schools. Prospective white teachers attended Harris Teachers College, and prospective Black teachers attended Stowe Teachers College, an extension of Sumner High School.
The ºüÀêÊÓƵ school board merged the two colleges in 1954 as part of the effort to integrate public education in the city. For decades, most SLPS teachers came from Harris-Stowe.
Harris-Stowe College became part of the state system of higher education in 1979. The renamed Harris-Stowe State College expanded beyond education majors in 1993 and gained status as a university in 2005. Education is now one of the university’s less popular majors, behind biology, business, criminal justice, liberal arts and social sciences.