42 percent of Jefferson City Public Schools provisionally accredited

DESE official: Large school districts often have mixed scores on APR

Nearly half of the school buildings in the Jefferson City Public School District were provisionally accredited in 2015, meaning there are potential problems that may need to be addressed.

The school district was accredited again this year with a 70.7 percent score, but individual buildings had mixed scores on the annual performance report.

The APR scores of the six provisionally-accredited schools ranged from 50 percent to 69 percent of the 140 points possible. In order to be fully-accredited, a school or district would need to score 70 percent or above.

The district schools that were provisional this year are: Belair Elementary, Callaway Hills Elementary, East Elementary, Lewis and Clark Middle School, Thomas Jefferson Middle School and Thorpe Gordon Elementary.

Being provisionally accredited means a district or building could have potential problems. The APR functions as a support and intervention system so the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) can work closer with struggling districts.

Should parents worry about the provisionally-accredited schools or the district as a whole?

Sarah Potter, DESE communications coordinator, said it isn't unusual for large districts like JCPS to have individual buildings that are provisional.

APR scores from district to district and building to building can be misleading on a surface level, Potter said. It might appear as though one school or district is performing at a higher level than another, but it isn't that simple.

Comparing districts' APRs on a surface level is like comparing apples to oranges, she said.

"I do think you need to look at districts that have similar student demographics and are similar sizes," Potter said. "It does look very different when you have one district that has one school versus a district that has 20 schools."

Potter said it's not uncommon for big districts to have mixed scores, and it's important to look closer at the APR data to determine why the school scored provisionally.

For example, a school's academic achievement scores from the previous year can boost or drag down the school's performance in the current year, because the scores are averaged between the two years.

A low score from the year before may have deceptively lowered the achievement score for the current year after the two were averaged, even though the school actually showed improvement, said Tammy Ridgeway, assistant to the superintendent for secondary education at JCPS.

Schools are also given points for showing growth. Growth points are acheived when a district scores better in an area than expected by the state.

Some schools may have earned more points for growth than another, making it look like one school is performing at a higher level, which may not be the case, Ridgeway said.

Kathy Foster, JCPS assistant to the superintendent for elementary education, said the district isn't trying to make excuses, but there are often explanations for why some schools had low performance scores.

For instance, JCPS has a large population of students who fall into the academic achievement subgroup of the APR - more than any of the area districts - which could be one reason for low attendance rates or test scores.

The subgroup includes students with disabilities, those who are on free and reduced-price meals, students who have an ethnic background and English language learners.

Foster said statistics show students who live in poverty often have more learning challenges. Schools with large populations of students on the free and reduced-price meal program also tend to have more students with below-average reading abilities.

JCPS has nearly 9,000 students, and 55.2 percent of the students are on free and reduced-price meals, which is about 4 percent higher than the state average, according to the DESE website.

"It's an issue with large districts," Foster said. "Either way we need to improve, and we started the process last year with things we could improve."

To help address any potential literacy issues, the school is instituting two new reading assessment programs to better identify students who have reading abilities below their grade level, Foster said.

Literacy levels touch more than just English, she said. If a student isn't at the appropriate reading level, it could affect his or her math, science and social studies scores.

The new Missouri Learning Standards demand more critical thinking for math and English, which requires students to articulate and defend their answers with words. If a student has trouble reading, he or she also will have trouble demonstrating critical thinking.

The 2014-15 school year was the first year Missouri participated in the Common Core standardized test, and the state also tightened its Missouri Learning Standards to be more competitive nationally and internationally.

The new test and standards had a heavy emphasis on critical thinking, so students had to rationalize their answers as opposed to simply selecting the correct answer on multiple choice questions.

Students also took the test entirely online, which was a new component for elementary grade students.

"It was really the perfect storm," Foster said. "There was a new test, new technology, new standards. Which (of the three) aspects do we think really affected the scores?"

It's nearly impossible to tell, she said.

Ridgeway said the district is looking at its curriculum to see how teachers can better align daily instruction with the standards.

"You looked at our scores," Ridgeway said. "All the subject areas are challenges. We have to do better. I have to provide resources to teachers so they can be successful."

In secondary education, she said, algebra was one area where scores were particularly weak. The district is looking at ways to improve that subject to make sure the instruction will align with what the test will ask.

The district has 455 courses, said Gretchen Guitard, JCPS assistant to the superintendent for curriculum. While it can't revise every course each year, the district does assess APR and MAP score trends to determine which course revisions should be prioritized so students score higher.

"The APR drives what we do," Guitard said.

She said the district's partnership with the International Center for Leadership in Education should also make a difference.

The district is spending $185,000 on the partnership, which is non-contractual but estimated to go for about three years. Representatives from the center will be evaluating one-third of all classrooms to identify areas where the schools can improve instruction and will work with teachers during professional development days.

None of the schools were unaccredited, Superintendent Larry Linthacum noted. But the bottom line, he said, is the district is trying to roll up its sleeves and improve its APR.

The district has been analyzing the data and implementing steps to acheive higher performance, he said.

"Districtwide, we've got to do better," Linthacum said. "Some of the subgroups and academic achievement were low, and those areas get the majority of the points.

"We don't want to be in the middle of the road," he said. "I've always said we're not in competition with the other schools. We're in competition with ourselves."

Jefferson City Public School District 2013 2014 2015

Belair Elementary 84.3% 78.6% 68.6%

Callaway Hills Elementary 61.4% 57.9% 61.4%

Cedar Hills Elementary 92.9% 90% 91.4%

Clarence Lawson Elementary 91.4% 84.3% 84.3%

Jefferson City High School 79.6% 80.4% 81.1%

Lewis and Clark Middle School 63.6% 60.7% 57.9%

Moreau Heights Elementary 86.4% 66.4% 92.9%

North Elementary 82.9% 77.1% 100%

Pioneer Elementary 92.9% 82.9% 71.4%

South Elementary 94.3% 87.1% 75.7%

Thomas Jefferson Middle School 59.3% 73.6% 57.9%

Thorpe Gordon Elementary 77.9% 62.9% 57.9%

West Elementary 97.1% 94.3% 94.3%