The latest round of student test scores show fewer Missouri public school districts and charter schools in jeopardy of losing accreditation, though this year鈥檚 data won鈥檛 immediately affect how schools are graded.

Based on annual performance report scores released Monday for the sixth iteration of the Missouri School Improvement Program, or MSIP6, there were 343 districts and charters that improved when compared to an average of their scores over the previous two years.

A total of 71 districts and charters scored in the provisionally accredited range, and four charter schools scored below 50%, which is the unaccredited range.

鈥淚t鈥檚 something that we鈥檝e been waiting for. Ever since the pandemic, we have looked at scores (and seen declines),鈥� Commissioner of Education Karla Eslinger told reporters in a press conference. 鈥淔inally鈥� we鈥檙e starting to see the fruits of our labor. We鈥檙e starting to see where we are making progress.鈥�

MSIP6, which launched in 2022, has been lauded as 鈥渕ore rigorous鈥� and descriptive than prior versions of the program. Previously, many districts scored above 90%, whereas now their scores are more evenly distributed along a bell curve.

The score is a snapshot of student performance in end-of-course exams and statewide standardized tests along with an assessment of district continuous improvement plans.

The Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education originally planned to base classification decisions on scores this year but will instead make decisions from three-year composite scores. Districts鈥� accreditation cannot be lowered from MSIP6 scores until 2026.

Based on composite scores for the three years of MSIP6 data, two charter schools are in the unaccredited range. The State Board of Education will determine accreditation status based on other factors, like superintendent qualifications and financial health.

Lisa Sireno, assistant commissioner of the Office of Quality Schools, told reporters the department switched to composite scores for classification this spring.

鈥淭hey鈥檙e more stable measures as they contain more data,鈥� she said. 鈥淭hey are less susceptible to extreme changes from year to year.鈥�

For smaller districts, a composite can protect them from volatility while the individual score gives a look at the last school year鈥檚 work.

Craig Carson, assistant superintendent of learning of the Ozark School District, said it is 鈥渁utopsy data.鈥�

鈥淭his is data that tells you about where you鈥檝e been,鈥� he told The Independent. 鈥淭he data we really use are the day-to-day data inside our classrooms.鈥�

Ozark is part of the Success Ready Students Network, which is a group of school districts compiling alternative methods of accountability. This year, the districts are showing the first draft of their plan, in the form of available on their websites.

鈥淲e are using a descriptive (report) that is found on our website, and it gives so much more information to our public about how our students are doing in the day to day, and it really emphasizes growth,鈥� Carson said.

He believes that the next iteration of the Missouri School Improvement Program will spring from work the Success Ready Students Network is doing.

鈥淲e are now building the momentum we need to really involve real-world learning with competency-based education and make sure that every student leaves being success-ready,鈥� he said. 鈥淭he excitement around that and the synergy of those school districts are creating, that will eventually turn into what MSIP7 will be.鈥�

Similar to Carson, Maplewood Richmond Heights School District Superintendent Bonita Jamison reiterated that the scores are a limited look at a district.

鈥淭hat data only tells one story, and there are stories that are not seen and reflected in those numbers, where the impact on the lives of children and their families are profound,鈥� she said.

Benchmark assessments serve the district better to see needs and fill them quickly, she said.

Maplewood Richmond Heights is one of the top-scoring districts this year, amassing 97% of points possible. Just three others fared better.

She points to 鈥渟hared accountability and ownership鈥� from the entirety of the district鈥檚 staff 鈥� including a custodian who doubles as an attendance monitor to encourage parents to get children to school.

She has theories why other schools didn鈥檛 score as well, mainly a teacher recruitment and retention crisis hitting poorer, urban schools hard.

Eslinger, in last week鈥檚 press conference, told reporters that teacher vacancies 鈥渕ake performance and improvement challenging.鈥�

鈥淲e know that with fewer educators, more and more courses across the state are being taught by student teachers and by folks that are substitutes that maybe have not really been trained on the specific content area,鈥� she said. 鈥淲e鈥檝e got work to do there.鈥�

In 2024, of teaching were inappropriately certified for the course they were teaching and .

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About 600 schools have joined a pilot program to give Indiana’s Learning Evaluation and Assessment Readiness Network (ILEARN) tests in four stages next school year, instead of just end-of-year tests that are used for state report cards. 

In the pilot, the state will give three new 鈥渃heckpoint鈥� math and English tests spread through the school year to third- through eighth-graders that let teachers see right away how well students perform, allowing lessons to be adjusted.

鈥淭he checkpoints will be very intentionally for the school鈥he local teacher鈥o improve the learning in that classroom,鈥� said Indiana state education superintendent Katie Jenner.

The mid-year scores won鈥檛 be reported publicly or count toward school or district report cards, which will remain based on the end of year tests.

鈥淚t’s not punitive,鈥� Jenner told the state school board. 鈥淚t’s in support of student learning, which is why we’re all here.鈥�

The checkpoint tests will fill much of the role of the diagnostic tests districts buy from private providers and regularly use during the year, like NWEA鈥檚 Measures of Academic Promise (MAP) tests and Edmenutum鈥檚 Exact Path tests, state officials said.State Rep. Bob Behning, author of a bill passed this spring giving final authorization of the pilot.

鈥淚 frequently hear education leaders complain about the fact that their kids look like they’re doing great, but when they take ILEARN, they don’t,鈥� said Behning. 鈥淭he reality is this test will be aligned directly to statewide assessments, so there will be that much more correlation and much more predictability.鈥�

If the checkpoint tests go well, he said, the state might stop giving more than $14 million in grants each year to districts to pay for other diagnostic tests, which it has done since 2015. Districts could use just the free ILEARN checkpoints and stop buying other tests.

鈥淲e know already that some of the benchmark providers are not happy with this direction,鈥� Behning said.

Kevin Briody, chief marketing officer for Edmentum, one of a handful of vendors approved for grant money, did not object to the new tests and said his company supports improving tests to help teachers.

NWEA representatives, however, would not answer whether their company is worried about losing business.

Mid-year standardized tests are common nationally and go by several names-鈥� diagnostic, formative or through-year tests. Though districts often pay for such tests on their own, Indiana is one of 13 states either using or exploring a plan to give them, according to a report by Education First, an education advocacy organization.

That report, cited by Indiana Department of Education officials in presentations on the plan, was partly funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Walton Family Foundation and the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative. 

How states use through-year tests varies, though most, like Indiana, use just the final test to rate schools and districts. A few states  鈥� Delaware, Georgia, Louisiana and Montana  鈥� are considering or using results from all tests during the year to set a final student school and district rating, that report found. 

According to the plan outlined to Indiana鈥檚 state school board last year, the 鈥渃heckpoint鈥� tests will be given every nine or 10 weeks during the school year with flexibility for districts to pick testing days. 

Each test will have 25 to 30 questions covering four to seven learning standards in the subject.

At each checkpoint test, students and teachers will see if they are on-track or off-track for passing the final test as well as how they compare to other students in the state.

Students who 鈥渇ail鈥� a checkpoint test can receive help in tested skills and re-take the test later to see if they have learned them.

Giving students a chance to re-learn skills and then be tested on them again is a step toward schools potentially using a 鈥渕astery鈥� or 鈥渃ompetency鈥� learning and grading system, a concept with growing support among some state officials. Such systems have students keep working on skills until they 鈥渕aster鈥� them, rather than having a class move on to other material after a set period of time and just giving low grades to students that lag behind.

鈥淚f a school really wanted to get into a true kind of mastery, competency-based (approach), they could use these assessments to really understand where students are at different points and act accordingly,鈥� said state school board member Scott Bess.

So far, the tests seem to have support statewide. The state鈥檚 plan to make the final, year-end ILEARN test shorter because of the added tests eased concerns about testing taking too much time, said Terry Spradlin, executive director of the Indiana School Boards Association.

鈥淚t makes kind of good sense, so we’ll be supportive of that for sure,鈥� he said.

Disclosure: Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Walton Family Foundation and Chan Zuckerberg Initiative provide financial support to 蜜桃影视.