Missouri students making slow, steady progress

Jul 30, 2010 — St. Louis Post-Dispatch

Elisa Crouch and David Hunn

Jul. 30, 2010 (McClatchy-Tribune Regional News delivered by Newstex) -- Missouri schoolchildren are making gains in reading and math but not at a fast enough pace to satisfy federal requirements of the No Child Left Behind Act.

Scores on the state's standardized test -- the Missouri Assessment Program -- made public today show improvement across the region, from the strongest districts to the worst performing ones. At the same time, more and more districts statewide are falling short of rising standards that many education officials call impossible. Seventy-nine percent of Missouri's 438 school districts missed the mark this year, according to the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education.

"That number is pretty telling," said state Education Commissioner Chris Nicastro. "I don't know that anyone would say that 79 percent of our districts are not quality districts."

Locally, Clayton, Lindbergh, Ladue and Kirkwood school districts boasted the highest passing rates again this year. At least 75 percent of students in each of those districts passed the tests given in the spring. But even they will find it difficult to meet the federal mandate of 100 percent of students passing the tests by 2014.

"Student growth based on a single factor with a specific date in mind is not particularly realistic," Nicastro said. "The point here is that we move all kids towards proficiency."

And that's the picture emerging over the past five years. A Post-Dispatch analysis of test scores shows schools in the metro area have generally made slow-and-steady progress in math and communication arts, raising their overall passing rates to 53 percent of students from 44 percent in 2006. That's just a smidgen lower than state averages.

School districts in St. Charles, Franklin and Jefferson counties did better than the state average.

In the unaccredited St. Louis Public Schools, the largest district in the state, students improved in all areas except one -- third-grade communications arts.

In fact, 50 of 57 districts in the region showed some improvement.

"No one is resting on their laurels," said Robert Taylor, an area supervisor for the state department of education. He later added, "I'm cautiously optimistic. What I've seen are people taking hold in identifying what needs to be done to really improve rather than retool the plans they had the previous year."

For example, St. Louis school officials are studying scores to see the effects of changes made last year. Elementary schools received new textbooks for English and math. Teachers got more training. Five pilot schools were tailored to improve learning.

Results varied widely, but more students passed the test this year at two-thirds of the district schools. The largest gain overall was in fifth-grade math, with 27.9 percent of students passing, compared with 16.8 percent last year.

St. Louis schools Superintendent Kelvin Adams said he is pleased, but not satisfied, with the results.

"We're so far behind in certain areas, no amount of growth is sufficient," he said. "This is positive growth. It is headed in the right direction."

setting goals

Interest in test scores has grown in recent years as each state tries to comply with No Child Left Behind. States set their own yearly goals for reaching total proficiency by 2014.

This year, Missouri schools were supposed to have at least 67.4 percent of students proficient in communications arts and 63.3 percent in math.

Illinois expects to release its test scores in late October.

Schools that fail to meet yearly targets face an escalating series of sanctions, such as providing after-school tutoring, allowing students to transfer to more successful schools, and changing curriculum and staff.

In some of the lowest-performing districts, superintendents made drastic changes last year. All teachers in Riverview Gardens have had to reapply for their jobs. St. Louis has new principals. Normandy shook up its administrative office.

Charter schools, public schools that provide students an alternative to the St. Louis school system, once again did worse as a whole than the struggling city schools.

Four charter schools -- Imagine Academy of Environmental Science and Math, Ethel Hedgeman Lyle Academy, Paideia Academy and Imagine Academy of Academic Success -- all posted less than 10 percent total passing rates, among the worst in the region. (Of those, Lyle and Paideia were set to close this summer.)

However, some charter schools improved much more than the city district as a whole.

For example, pupils at City Garden Montessori, a southside charter school, improved its scores by almost threefold -- from one-fourth passing last year to almost two-thirds this spring.

And about 33 percent of fifth-graders at the new KIPP charter school passed the math test, compared with 28 percent in St. Louis Public Schools. KIPP's students did not fare as well as district schoolchildren in communications arts.

"By the end of eighth grade, we want them to be on par with students in any school district in the area," said school leader Jeremy Esposito.

more than test scores

The U.S. Department of Education is working on new rules that consider more than test scores in evaluating schools.

Meanwhile, parents should pay more attention to how schools fare on the state's annual performance reports rather than simply consider test scores, Nicastro said. The state reports consider advanced courses, ACT scores, attendance and graduation rates, among other factors.

No Child Left Behind has forced districts to focus on closing achievement gaps among various groups of students. If students in one group, such as special education or low-income, fall short, then the district fails to meet its annual goal.

No district in St. Louis County achieved that this year. Even the best districts struggled.

For instance, 75 percent of students passed the tests in Clayton, Lindbergh, Ladue and Kirkwood. Each of those districts has improved its passing rate by about 10 percentage points over the past five years.

Yet none is on track to reach 100 percent proficiency.

"It's a worthy goal," said Chris Tennill, spokesman for Clayton schools. "It has forced us to thoughtfully consider how we're reaching and teaching our students. But the end game of No Child Left Behind and 100 percent proficiency isn't going to be that 100 percent of your students are proficient. It's going to be that 100 percent of your school districts are failing."

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