New report cards for Missouri schools show 'impact' of teacher shortage, pandemic

Long-awaited annual report cards for Missouri schools and districts were released Tuesday, with results that reflected higher, and different, expectations as well as the effects the pandemic and ongoing teacher shortages have had on student performance.

The Annual Performance Report, or APR, assigns points based on the results of state-mandated and standardized exams, academic growth over time, attendance and graduation rates, climate and culture surveys, and tracking the success levels of the graduates.

The sixth and latest iteration of the Missouri School Improvement Program — criteria used to evaluate the progress of schools and, ultimately, decide accreditation levels for districts — saw a significant drop in the number of districts scoring in the highest category, which includes those that received 95% or more of the possible points.

Only four districts hit that benchmark for the 2021-22 year compared to 320 districts four years earlier. None were in southwest Missouri. The highest-scoring district in the Springfield area was Nixa, which scored 93.9%.

“MSIP 6 is designed to distinguish the performance of schools and (districts) in meaningful ways to help identify areas in need of support and recognize models of excellence,” said Commissioner of Education Margie Vandeven, in a news release. “For the release of this pilot year data, we encourage stakeholders, including community partners and families, to focus less on the APR score and more on the underlying data to learn how they may better support student learning.”

Springfield, the largest district in Missouri, captured 73.7% of the available points and fell into the average category where the bulk of districts statewide — 435 of them, in all — landed. Four years ago, only 219 districts, or less than half, were in that category.

“Our APR results prove that Team SPS is focused on continuous improvement, where we earned 92.3% of the points possible (in that category)," said Springfield Superintendent Grenita Lathan, in a news release. "I am especially proud that our district received full credit in recognition of our four-year graduation rate.”

Lathan, partway through her second year in the district, said her team has implemented a series of changes aimed at improving students' academic achievement and meeting the revised state expectations.

The steps include a five-year strategic plan unanimously approved by the school board, increased support for career and college access, expansion of choice programs, a realignment of school supervision to provide more coaching support for principals, use of evidence-based instructional practices, and implementation of a K-12 universal screener called Galileo that evaluates student progress at the beginning, middle and end of the school year.

In interviews prior to the public release, state education officials made it clear that this year's APR establishes a new baseline by which school schools and districts will be evaluated going forward.

Lathan echoed that in her comments. "It is not possible to make direct comparisons to prior reports due to new criteria and methods for measuring progress."

“This is one tool, administered at a specific point in time — nearly a year ago. Our internal assessments allow us to measure student achievement and progress in real-time, throughout the year," Lathan said, in the release. "We are optimistic that the results monitored during the 2022-2023 school year indicate that our students are growing academically with support from extraordinary educators and support staff.”

Springfield's score was lower than many of its suburban neighbors but was higher than nearly all of its "benchmark" districts in other parts of Missouri, including Jefferson City, Kansas City, Independence, Columbia, Joplin, St. Joseph, Ferguson-Florissant and St. Louis City.

This year, 114 districts scored below 69% on the APR — including two below 50% — and must make progress in the next few years or risk the possibility of falling short of expectations required for full state accreditation.

"This is new and it is one criteria"

The Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education recommended provisional accreditation Tuesday for one district, called Success, in Texas County.

Doug Hayter, executive director of the Missouri Association of School Administrators, said while it remains unfair to compare past performance on the APR to this year's new scoring guide, there are unanswered questions about why this year's scores are vastly different.

"This is a snapshot. This is new and it is one criteria and it needs to play out over time to see exactly where we are," said Hayter, a former superintendent.

Hayter said educators and school leaders want to improve and "be realistic about the data" so they can use it to help kids get better each year.

He questioned why the number of districts that scored at 95% or higher dropped so dramatically with the new set of criteria for evaluating districts under this iteration of MSIP.

"If you look at the contrast of where we were and where we are, it seems pretty diametrically opposed," he said. evoking an analogy. "If you are driving down the road and you get a tire off the road, the best thing you can do is stay calm, correct, figure out where you are."

Sticking with that analogy, he questioned if the state "overcorrected" with the new criteria.

"If you overreact and jerk your wheel, you're going to end up on the other side of the road in the ditch," he said. "I just hope we haven't overreacted to try to differentiate between districts because it does seem like there is a huge disparity between where we were and, at least apparently, what is being said about where we are now."

"Students must be present to learn"

In comments to media outlets last week, Vandeven said the results may reflect, in part, on the use of teachers that are not fully certified in the content areas they are teaching and the overreliance on substitutes amid an ongoing teacher workforce shortage in some districts.

"In 2022, DESE issued over 18,300 substitute certificates compared to the prior ... average of 12,160," she said. "We are very grateful to our substitute teachers and recognize the important void that they fill. However, research is also clear that relationships matter with students and highly skills, highly trained teachers impact their learning."

Vandeven said the scores shed light on the challenges that schools and families have experienced during the COVID-19 pandemic, which continues to play out.

She noted that chronic absenteeism is a "lingering concern" and appears more prevalent in districts that did not offer in-person learning options for extended periods.

"Students must be present to learn," she said, noting it is a factor in student success in school and the workforce.

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She said academic achievement data included in the APR showed students are not yet performing at the same level as before the disruption.

"No matter how we slice the data, initial results infer that student performance has been impacted and to varying degrees. It is our hope that schools can use these data, along with local assessments and other key data points to inform their comprehensive school improvement plans and to use this unique period of time in education to solve issues moving forward," Vandeven said.

"Like many other industries across the state and nation, we are standing at a time when we can reimagine education while getting some of the basics like reading and math right."

"What do we need to do next?"

Nicole Holt, deputy superintendent of academics in Springfield, said the district has been meeting with principals to talk about specific results and identify what is working well that can be replicated.

"We are large. We recognize that our students have needs that are unique to this community and this area that some other district have and some do not. We like to understand and know where we are, in comparison," Holt said, noting the district has a game plan moving forward.

"We have to stay focused on doing things for our kids what we know are going to help them master content that they need to be successful."

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That game plan includes proven instructional practices, working toward mastery of learning standards at all grade levels, identifying gaps in students' academic skills and knowledge, providing academic interventions as early as possible, and providing support for teachers and students.

"We want to look at the places where we earned a lot of points and ask ourselves a lot of questions about what is it about the way in which we're teaching or the curriculum that we're using, and what is it about those pieces that helped us be successful?" Holt said. "And, then, what do we need to do next?"

How Springfield-area districts scored on the APR

There were 435 districts that scored between 70-95% on the Annual Performance Report scores. Here is a look at the scores for all districts in Greene and Christian counties plus "benchmark" districts in the Springfield area and across Missouri.

• Nixa − 93.9%

• Mansfield − 91.8%

• Rockwood − 91.1%

• Ft. Zumwalt − 90.8%

• Walnut Grove − 90.2%

• Republic − 88.8%

• Webb City − 88%

• Ozark − 87.3%

• Lee's Summit − 87.2%

• Parkway − 86.2%

• Ash Grove − 85.7%

• Bolivar − 84.3%

• Strafford − 83.9%

• North Kansas City − 83.7%

• Marshfield − 82.6%

• Fair Grove − 82.3%

• Fordland − 82.3%

• Reeds Spring − 81%

• Chadwick − 80%

• Sparta − 79.9%

• Branson − 79.7%

• Willard − 79.6%

• Logan-Rogersville − 78,4%

• Billings − 77.2%

• Lebanon − 77.2%

• Clever − 76.8%

• Springfield − 73.7%

• Spokane − 72.3%

• Jefferson City − 70.9%

• Kansas City − 70.7%

• Independence − 70.2%

• Columbia − 70%

The area or benchmark districts that scored 69.9% or below:

• Joplin − 69.1%

• St. Joseph − 67.6%

• Ferguson-Florissant − 66%

• St. Louis City − 63.9%

Claudette Riley covers education for the News-Leader. Email tips and story ideas to criley@news-leader.com.

This article originally appeared on Springfield News-Leader: New MO school report cards show fewer schools performing at top level