St Joseph School District officials are crowing about their latest assessments by the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education. The Annual Performance Report was released to the public Wednesday.
Superintendent Dr. Melody Smith told reporters the Annual Performance Review (APR) is the tool that says what the district is doing toward continuous improvement.
Smith says their their focus has been and remains on continuous school improvement.
“Continuous school improvement is a journey,” Smith said. “It’s laborious, it’s challenging, it’s fulfilling.”
The district was rated in six student-achievement categories, as well as attendance, graduation rate, ACT scores, participation and placement in career and advanced courses, as well as career and college placement.
In areas of academic achievement, the district failed in two areas to meet the standard of students reaching “advanced” or “proficient” status. Those areas are 3rd through 5th grade Communication Arts and the status and progress of students in so-called “sub-groups,” which include minorities and students in poverty. But the state gave extra points for showing progress in closing the achievement gap in the sub-groups, and for showing improvement in five of the six academic areas.
Thus, we achieved a perfect score of 14 out of 14 evaluation standards.
“I am pleased with the district’s report card, ” said Smith. “The hard work of our staff, our professional development and the leadership of our building principals is showing results.”
According to sumaries and analyses released by the district, students in St Joseph met the standards in the non-academic areas as well:
*31% of students here scored higher than the national average on the ACT test.
*40.6% of SJSD students earned credits in advanced courses, the highest number since 2008.
*27.5% of credits earned by 11th and 12th graders came from careet education courses, an increase of 2.3% from last year.
*The number of students in the district entering college dropped 5.4%, but the district still met the state’s standards. School district officials blame the drop on the economy. Despite that, about 60% of students here entered college.
*Despite a 10.3% drop in the number of students who completed a career education program and were then placed in that field, the district met state standards. 79% of SJSD students made the grade in this area, despite competing for those jobs with other displaced workers in a down economy.
*The attendance rate for SJSD students in grades K-12 was 93.5%. District officials say that number is up about .3%.
*Attendance rates in St Joseph have been fairly steady over the last five years.
*The district’s graduation rate has also been steady. Last year the graduation rate was 88.3%. The graduation rate here has fluctuated between 87% and 89% for the last five years.
Because the federal government gave the State of Missouri a waiver under the No Child Left Behind law, federal funding for the state and the district were not at risk this year.