Missouri Gov. Mike Kehoe’s to grade public schools on an “A” through “F” scale is pushing House lawmakers to approve legislation some think isn’t quite ready.

With approval and dissent on both sides of the aisle, the House voted a to create a new school accountability system through to the Senate 96-53 Thursday despite concerns the letter grades could be a “scarlet letter” for underperforming schools.

“Will this labeling system actually improve schools or will it mostly brand communities, destabilize staffing and incentivize gaming rather than learning?” asked state Rep. Kem Smith, a Democrat from Florissant, during House debate Tuesday morning.

She said the key metrics that determine the grade, performance and growth, are volatile.

“The label itself can become a self-fulfilling prophecy,” she said. “The bill doubles down on high stakes metrics that are known to be unstable.”

The bill’s sponsor, state Rep. Dane Diehl, a Republican from Butler, told lawmakers that a performance-based school report card with “A” through “F” grades is inevitable. The details, though, are negotiable.

“The governor’s executive order, it is going to happen either way,” he said. “I think we tried to make that process a little better for school districts.”

Kehoe’s order directs the state’s education department to draw up a plan for the report cards and present it to the State Board of Education. The board could reject the idea, but with a board with primarily new members appointed by Kehoe, lawmakers have accepted the system as fate.

State Rep. Ed Lewis, a Republican from Moberly and chair of the House’s education committee, that he prioritized the bill as a way to give lawmakers influence over the final outcome. He is happy with the , which gives the education department more leeway to determine grade thresholds and removes a provision that would raise expectations once 65% of schools achieve “A” or “B” grades.

The House also approved an amendment Tuesday that would grade schools’ environment. This would be based on the rates of student suspension, seclusion and restraint incident rates and satisfaction surveys given to students, parents and teachers.

The Senate’s version, which passed out of its education committee last week, does not include those changes.

“I think (the House bill) is the best product we have in the Capitol right now,” Lewis said. “I am not saying it’s complete, but it is the best we have right now.”

The changes have softened some skeptics of the legislation, like state Rep. Brad Pollitt.

Pollitt, a Sedalia Republican, said he didn’t support the legislation “for a number of years.” But with the edits, he sees potential for the legislation to usher in changes to the way the state accredits public schools.

The current process, he said, “nobody seems to like,” pointing to widespread concerns with the state’s standardized test.

Some of these changes are already happening quietly. The Department of Elementary and Secondary Education received a grant from the federal government to develop a state assessment based on through-year testing, which would measure student growth throughout the school year, instead of a single summative assessment.

The department is poised to pilot the new test in 14 classrooms this spring, hoping to eventually offer it statewide within a few years. But the estimated startup cost of $2 million is one of many department requests cut from the governor’s proposed budget as the .

Creating the “A” through “F” report cards is estimated to cost a similar amount, if not more, according to the state’s . The expense is largely frontloaded, going to the programming and technology support required to create the grade cards’ interface.

When The Independent asked Kehoe’s office about the fiscal note, the governor’s communications director Gabby Picard said he would work with “associated agencies” to determine appropriate funding “while remaining mindful of the current budget constraints and maintaining fiscal responsibility.”

The House’s version of the legislation includes an incentive program for high-performing schools, giving bonuses to go toward teacher recruitment and retention, if the legislature appropriates funding for the program.

The bill originally proposed incentives of $50-100 per student to subsidize teacher pay. This had large fiscal implications, and Lewis surmised that it would violate a section of the State Constitution prohibiting bonuses for public employees.

Making the funding optional and directing it to the school’s teacher recruitment and retention fund remedied those concerns. The Senate Education Committee removed the incentive program in its version of the legislation.

The House’s approval Thursday does not stop discussion and possible amendments. Next, the bill will go to the Senate for consideration, and if any changes are made, it will return to the House for more discussion.

is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Missouri Independent maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Jason Hancock for questions: info@missouriindependent.com.

Missouri public schools showed continued improvement in annual performance reports released by the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education Thursday, with 56% of districts and charter schools raising their scores.

The state is in its fourth year of the Missouri School Improvement Program 6, which education officials deem “more rigorous” than the previous iteration of the program. In 2022, the system’s pilot year, 112 school districts and charters scored lower than 70% — the score required to be fully accredited by the education department.

Accreditation decisions based on the MSIP6 scores are a year away, but the number of districts at risk for a lower classification has decreased dramatically in four years.

Based on districts’ three-year composite scores, which the department will use to determine accreditation, 29 school districts are in range to be provisionally accredited. None scored below 50%, which would put them at risk for being unaccredited.

Three charter schools scored below 50% and 29 scored below 70%, but these scores will not be part of next year’s classification decisions. Despite MSIP6 being used to score charters, they have separate methods of accreditation.

“I am so proud of our educators and students,” Commissioner of Education Karla Eslinger said in a press conference Thursday afternoon. “You must take some time to celebrate the good, but we also know there is room for improvement.”

The scores include a variety of factors, like standardized test scores, student growth and career readiness. Student performance comprises 70% of the score. The other 30% is based on continuous improvement measures.

Of the 553 districts and charter schools in the state, 152 raised their score by at least 5% this year. Some showed dramatic improvement.

Neosho School District boosted its score from 61.5% in 2024 to 85.5% this year. Superintendent Jim Davis, who took the role in August 2024, told The Independent that the improvement is largely because of a district-wide focus on proficiency and literacy.

“There was a lot of work that was put into it to get us to take that jump,” he said, “but we’re proud of that, and we’re expecting to continue moving up with the systems that we built here.”

Classroom instruction in Neosho is expected to meet grade-level standards, he said, which pushes struggling students to catch up.

“Students expedite their academic growth when they are given grade-level content,” Davis said. “So the more time that we spend in grade-level content, the faster they’re going to move.”

The district is one of 32 districts and charter schools in , a grant program which provides literacy resources and professional development among other assets.

The district received top scores for student growth in reading, math and science and received 50% of the points possible for social studies growth among the full student population. It got a quarter of the points possible for social studies growth in student groups , such as low-income students and English-language learners.

“We want to create success,” Davis said. “But also we have got to continue developing our team so that, moving forward, all students can be successful.”

The Southern Boone School District in Ashland also showed dramatic improvement, going from 78.9% in 2024 to 95.9% this year. It is one of 22 school districts with a score of at least 90%.

“You can contribute our growth to continued work with our teams of teachers and administrators on our curriculum development and making sure that we’ve got the right resources for kids and teachers to use, along with making sure that our teachers are well-prepared,” Superintendent Tim Roth told The Independent.

The district has invested in new textbooks and software to bolster curriculum. At the middle school level, the district has instituted an assessment system that gives continuous checks on student achievement. Teachers review the results regularly and brainstorm ways to improve in small-group settings, Roth said.

The district received 100% for student growth on standardized tests across subject areas. It also earned top scores in attendance.

“Something that stands out for us is just the value that our parents and community put on education,” Roth said. “With our students being here on a regular basis, we’re very happy that we have that support and that learning is a priority.”

Eslinger told reporters that attendance and literacy are a focus for the department.

“We are on the right track,” she said. “Our data points are showing improvement, but we still have work to do.”

is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Missouri Independent maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Jason Hancock for questions: info@missouriindependent.com.

The Iowa Department of Education has identified 377 schools that are in need of targeted support and improvement because of performance and achievement gaps among some student groups.

The schools were identified as part of the  for the 2023-2024 school year posted Tuesday. The profile system, first set up in 2018, is the state system for reviewing schools’ performance and federal designations.

According to the department, the system was revamped to include a “streamlined set of core indicators” for assessing schools performance and identifying areas where assistance and improvement is needed — metrics measured by the profiles include proficiency results for English language arts, mathematics and science, as well as issues like chronic absenteeism, graduation rates and student academic growth.

“The updates to the approved accountability system provide consistently rigorous, reliable and fair school ratings that are easily understood by families, educators, communities and taxpayers,” a department news release stated. “The school performance ratings also inform the department’s investment of over 6,000 hours of school improvement assistance each year to schools in need of comprehensive support and improvement.”

Of the 377 schools identified as needing assistance, 93%, or 351 schools, were put in the category because students with disabilities at the school performed in the lowest 5% of all schools, according to the release. Within that group, 110 schools were also identified as needing assistance to make up for performance gaps with other specified student groups, the largest subset being 78 schools that saw achievement gaps between English language learners and the larger student population.

The department also found that fewer achievement gaps were found in Iowa schools for students from low-income backgrounds, as well as Black, Hispanic and multiracial students.

From the 377 total schools listed as in need of targeted or comprehensive support, a majority — 271 — were schools that also were identified as needing assistance last year. There are 106 schools that were newly identified this year, according to the department.

In addition to the state’s assessment on achievement gaps for specific groups of students, the profiles also show that 35 schools are “in need of comprehensive support and improvement” to meet federal Every Student Succeeds Act requirements. The 35 schools in this category represent the lowest performing 5% of Title 1 public schools, and schools with graduation rates lower than 66%, according to the department.

While 20 schools were added to this category this year, the state education department also noted that 16 schools graduated from that designation.

Iowa Department of Education Director McKenzie Snow said in a Tuesday statement that the performance profiles will help inform the department, educators and communities on areas that need improvement and how to best designate resources.

“Built with the feedback of thousands of Iowans, our new, world-class accountability system celebrates school success and supports continuous improvement, focusing resources on the classroom and what has the greatest impact on student achievement and growth,” Snow said. “The department will continue to partner with schools in need of support to accelerate student learning through high-quality instructional materials and practices, evidence- based professional learning, leadership coaching, and learner engagement.”

is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Iowa Capital Dispatch maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Kathie Obradovich for questions: info@iowacapitaldispatch.com. Follow Iowa Capital Dispatch on and .

put forth a list of close to 500 strained schools as a “wake up call” for districts to plan interventions such as family engagement, high dosage tutoring and address specific community concerns before they “find themselves pushed against a wall” and forced to close schools, said author Sofoklis Goulas, a fellow with the Brookings Institution who built on his prior enrollment research in this latest study with Fordham. 

The study cautioned districts against using the list as a strict guide or framing it as a “bad schools list,” rather, as a starting point for interventions and discussions.

School closures are often and can lead to distrust in the system, particularly when plans target campuses, most often elementary schools, with predominantly Black and brown children.

The study is the first to correlate school performance with enrollment declines, revealing the drops are far from random: Among schools identified as chronically underperforming by their states, those in high-poverty, urban areas, and charter schools lost the highest proportions of students, those “grappling with systemic challenges and resource constraints,” the report stated. 

Goulas’s latest findings suggest family dissatisfaction with schools is outpacing other known drivers such as . 

“Families are essentially rejecting schools that are not serving them well,” Goulas told ĂŰĚŇÓ°ĘÓ, adding solutions won’t look the same across all districts – some will be forced to close schools while others may not. He urged leaders to address, “the core problem, which is the disengagement, the sentiment of dissatisfaction from traditional public schools.”

California and New York, hosting the nation’s largest school systems by population, both have about 40 schools on the list of 500. Overall, roughly 5,100 of the nation’s 98,000 schools, or one in 12, lost substantial numbers of students. 

Five are underperforming Los Angeles Unified schools which have lost between 22 and 55% of their enrollment as of 2022-23. Pio Pico Middle School, for instance, lost 261 students since 2019, more than the 212 who remain enrolled. 

Alongside Illinois and New York, California experienced one of the largest heading into 2023. Los Angeles Unified, the second largest district in the country, has established a new office to better support schools’ recruitment and retention. 

But, as spokesperson for LAUSD told ĂŰĚŇÓ°ĘÓ by email, “there are stark realities confronting Los Angeles Unified that transcend what a school system can address such as cost of living, job prospects and statewide economic challenges that are forcing families to leave the city and state.” 

“Our students represent some of the most fragile in the city and are particularly impacted by financial pressures… School closures or consolidations are a measure of last resort which have little to do with finances and more with the type of offerings schools are able to provide.”

In Washington, a multimillion dollar has been credited with bringing back 2,000 kids. Given the financial strain the declines are already placing on districts across the country, some like and have already announced or enacted closure plans. 

Researchers relied on a federal guideline to determine which schools are low performing, using states’ required Comprehensive Support and Improvement schools lists, those with the lowest performance and graduation rates. They caution this metric is not completely reliable, given the variation from state to state, with some updating every year while others only every three years. The CSI lists don’t often account for year-to-year academic growth either, which may be strong and indicate a thriving school community. 

Researchers also did not determine whether students attending these schools have nearby high-quality alternatives in the event their schools close. 

“This is an exposition of the situation… There’s no horizontal solution across the board that we need,” said Goulas. “District superintendents need to find the solution that meets the needs of their community,” he said, adding student demographics, year-to-year growth, transportation and strength of alternatives are some measures that cannot get lost in closure conversations. 

, children whose schools close .  At the same time, when students are moved into larger schools, it means more financial resources, and with them, more extracurriculars or specialty course offerings. 

The best of the worst case scenario is to be honest with families about consolidations or closures and provide 5- and 10-year plans, former Chicago schools chief told ĂŰĚŇÓ°ĘÓ earlier this year.

“I hope that the research that people like me provide can help the districts plan ahead,” Goulas said, “because the less runway you have to make a plan and be prepared, the harsher the decisions you end up making.”