Missouri removes scores from state's 2019 school, district report cards
Claudette Riley
In a rare move, Missouri school officials released the 2019 report cards for schools and districts Thursday without calculating — or making public — the points each earned on key metrics.
The Annual Performance Reports, part of the state accountability system, track districts' progress over time toward hitting state benchmarks in reading, math, attendance, graduation and college and career readiness.
In the past, points assigned in each area resulted in a score, providing a snapshot of overall performance that was widely used to compare or rank schools and districts. A low overall score might indicate a district was in danger of losing full or provisional accreditation.
"We would really like our schools and districts and charter schools to be focused on the data and not just necessarily the points earned," said Margie Vandeven, commissioner of the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, or DESE. "Once they get a score, a lot of times we tend to gloss over the underlying data."
Vandeven said school administrators have long been frustrated with the use of scores to compare and rank districts and said there was a push this year not to publish the APR at all.
"We didn't think that made sense," she said. "We thought the public certainly deserved to see the data. We thought taxpayers deserved to see the data."
This year, in place of scores, the format of the APR was changed to include color-coded graphics showing growth, status and progress measures. The format highlights the state average but makes it hard to compare schools or districts.
"It does make the comparison side of this more challenging," Vandeven said.
Craig Carson, assistant superintendent of learning in Ozark, said the new format works better and shows how the district compares to the state as a whole.
"The way it is laid out now, you have more detail than you ever had — the public does," he said. "It gives us a lot of good context to talk to people about."
Chris Neale, assistant commissioner of DESE, said scores were too often the start and end of the annual conversation about the APR. "This allows us to look specifically at the data and probably draw better conclusions about achievement and improvement."
Neale said the desire to make comparisons is natural but urged districts to "consider what they compare to."
For example, he suggested the 2019 scores for a school or district be compared against performance in prior years or against the state average. He said they can also be used to determine if strategic initiatives or programs are paying off.
"We think that will drive better improvement than just comparing points to one another," he said.
Neale said "local context" is important and urged districts to focus on the benchmarks that resonate with parents, employees and taxpayers.
"Whether you're a high-scoring district or an improving district, there is something to celebrate, probably," he said. "But, if there is not, then just be honest and say 'It's time to roll up our sleeves and focus on particular areas we intend to improve.'"
Bret Range, executive director of student and school services in Springfield, said the change puts the emphasis on growth.
"We appreciate the non-ranking," he said. "We need to talk about comparing ourselves to the state average and the growth within our own students."
Jason "J" Anderson, executive director of elementary learning in Springfield, said there is value in comparing progress over time or comparing to the state average.
"The ranking, what it does, is you're either on the high end or the middle or low, but you are always being compared to another system or another school," he said. "Sometimes that can be demoralizing, sometimes that is a false sense of 'Hey, we're knocking it out of the park' and we lose ... an opportunity to grow."
Stephen Kleinsmith, co-deputy superintendent of learning in Springfield, used to be the Nixa superintendent and argued Springfield ought to be compared to urban districts with similar demographics.
"This comparison that existed for so many years in the past where Springfield would be compared to surrounding communities, in my opinion, was comparing apples to oranges," he said. "That was not a fair comparison."
Kevin Kopp, assistant superintendent in Nixa, said the APR provides a broader lens into a district's overall performance, including attendance and graduation rate, but is not the entire picture.
"We really believe the APR is a snapshot, it is a moment in time to help us hopefully make decisions when it comes to curriculum, assessment and instruction," he said. "But also there are things throughout the year we're doing that we use as well."
After years of upheaval in the state assessment system, including changes to the exams and learning standards, the reading and math exams given in 2018 provided a baseline and the consistency continued in 2019.
"While it is appropriate to compare 2018 and 2019 scores in these two content areas, we do caution that one data point does not make a trend," Vandeven said.
Results for the first year of new science exams will be released next month. Results for social studies exams, in the field testing process, will not be released.
Vandeven said the upheaval spurred changes in how DESE calculated scores and state legislation banned DESE from downgrading a district's overall score, jeopardizing their accreditation status, based on the ever-evolving new tests.
"A lot of people questioned what does that number really mean," she said of the scores. "We were seeing a lot of districts that had the same amount of points earned but the data might look vastly different."
Click the image below to explore the APR data.
The APR is based on the Missouri School Improvement Plan, which was expected to be updated every five years or so. However, that work was interrupted and postponed when former Gov. Eric Greitens made a series of rapid changes to the Missouri school board, leaving it unable to take action for months.
Last year, the state released an APR for districts but not individual schools. This year, an APR was released for both but no scores were included.
More:SPS gains in reading, attendance and graduation rates; math scores remain low
Vandeven said DESE opted to drop the scores during this "transitional time period," but with a new version of MSIP in the works, scores may return in the future.
"Data can be used as a hammer or a flashlight and for this particular cycle, we're really wanting it to be the flashlight of where do you spend most of your improvement efforts and how do we best serve our children in the state of Missouri," she said.
She said DESE will calculate APR scores if requested by a district for the accreditation process or a charter school for the renewal process. But the calculations will not be done until science scores are released in late November.
Vandeven acknowledged the new format may be tricky for the public to comprehend.
"Part of this will be a challenge to communicate to our parents. They would like a very simplified metric of a score," she said. "I think we might get back to that at some point but that score has got to really, really identify what is happening before I am comfortable putting it out there."
Coming soon
The News-Leader is digging deeper into student achievement levels; attendance and graduation rates for Springfield and area districts; and Annual Performance Reports. The coverage will continue this weekend.
To check out results for schools and districts, go to https://dese.mo.gov/ and then go to the Missouri Comprehensive Data System, or MCDS portal.
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