Missouri school districts can’t be penalized for poor performance until 2024 under the state’s new school accountability process, already delayed by the pandemic.
The sixth version of the Missouri School Improvement Program will measure test scores, student growth, graduation rates and school culture among other factors, state education commissioner Margie Vandeven said Monday at a hearing of the state Senate’s interim committee on education.
Annual performance scores will be released in December, but accreditation decisions won’t be made until two years of data is available in fall of 2024, Vandeven said.
By then, school districts will have had a 10-year reprieve from losing their accreditation status.
“This was a very unusual period of time,†Vandeven said. “We had four test changes in five years ... we also had legislation that would not allow us to negatively impact a school district on a new test and then we had the pandemic.â€
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In 2021, 45% of students statewide tested proficient in English and 35% in math. Some districts scored in single digits in one or both subjects, including Ferguson-Florissant, Jennings, Normandy and Riverview Gardens and Biome, Eagle, Hawthorn, KIPP, La Salle and Lift for Life charter schools in ºüÀêÊÓƵ.
Charter schools receive annual performance scores but are exempt from the state’s accreditation system.
Currently, five out of 518 districts are provisionally accredited, including Normandy and Riverview Gardens. No school district in the state is unaccredited, which would trigger a state law allowing students to transfer to higher performing districts.
The delay in accreditation decisions lets the state avoid a repeat of 2013 when thousands of Normandy and Riverview Gardens students transferred out, nearly bankrupting the two districts.
“I feel like that label of accredited is meaningless if 99% of districts get fully accredited,†said Susan Pendergrass, director of research and education policy for the Show-Me Institute, which advocates for school choice. “As parents and taxpayers, we need to know if schools are getting better or worse and we don’t have that information.â€
According to an improvement plan implemented in 2016 under federal law, at least 82% of Missouri’s students must be proficient in English and 74% in math by 2026.
That goal is unlikely to be met, since test scores and attendance rates have fallen steeply during the pandemic when most students moved in and out of virtual learning.
The lower performance scores could damage school districts’ reputations and ultimately, the willingness of legislators to boost education spending, said state Sen. Doug Beck, D-ºüÀêÊÓƵ County.
“Scores going down for school districts has the potential to undo everything,†Beck said.
Vandeven said she expects to see a “significant number†of school districts with declining performance scores when the numbers are released in December. The state education department plans a public relations blitz to explain the new school rating system and the circumstances that could have led to poor performance, she said.
“Accountability has a place but we need to stay focused on kids learning every day (and) making sure we’re finding the very, very best teachers in the classroom,†she said. “These reports can help us or hinder us.â€