Pettis schools meet state performance standards

School districts in Pettis County are performing well according to state measures, despite failing to meet federal benchmarks.
Smithton, Green Ridge, La Monte, Northwest and Dresden schools met expectations for the state’s Annual Performance Report, known as the APR.

Many superintendents said the APR, which evaluates both how well the district is doing and how much it has improved, is a better measure of a district’s quality than the federal Adequate Yearly Progress, or AYP, benchmarks.

Andy Henley, Smithton superintendent, said “There’s no question. The APR gives you a better idea of where you’re at.”
The federal Adequate Yearly Progress is based on students’ scores on the Missouri Assessment Program test, graduation rate and attendance rate. The AYP, part of the No Child Left Behind program, is an all-or-nothing report. If a single grade at a single school within a district fails to meet the federally mandated percentage of proficient students, the district does not meet AYP.

“The AYP is all or nothing, and it doesn’t give you any slack for making progress, where the APR does give you some slack there. Also, the AYP is something that’s a moving target every year. You have to do much better,” Henley said.

Each year, the percentage of students expected to be proficient, as measured by their performances on the state exams, increases. Schools are expected to have 100 percent of their students score as proficient by 2014.

Schools are also judged on the scores of students in various subgroups, such as special education, limited English proficient, white, free and reduced price lunch, Hispanic and black. The school fails if any subgroup — defined as at least 50 students — fails.

Smithton schools failed to meet the federal standards this year, but met 13 of the 14 state standards on the APR. The lone standard they failed to meet is the percentage of students in career education courses.

“We have made improvements and some of the changes we’ve made in offerings at the school” have helped, Henley said. The school replaced industrial arts with a full vocational agriculture program.
“We should do better on that part next year, and hopefully we’ll get all 14 next year,” he said.

Green Ridge Superintendent Tim Lenz said he was “very pleased with our results on the APR.”
The district met 13 of 14 of the state criteria, but did not meet federal benchmarks.

The district was hampered by its small size. Two students out of a class of 26 were unable to take the Missouri Assessment Program, or MAP tests. At least 95 percent of students must take the exams for the district to pass.
Lenz said scores in the district, especially on the math portion of the exam, went up.

Northwest schools met 14 of 14 standards on the state report, but also did not meet federal benchmarks.

“I agree with a number of other superintendents that the APR is a much better measure of a school district’s success than in AYP. It’s a lot more realistic,” said Superintendent Charlie Price, who disagreed with the federal all-or-nothing approach.

“AYP sets some goals that are, I think, beyond the pale. It’s true that we want every student to learn, but we don’t want to use one snapshot throughout the year where a few students might not meet the benchmark” and as a result, the whole district labeled as failing, he said.

Joan Twidwell, La Monte superintendent, said she expected the district’s scores to drop. This year, La Monte met nine of 14 standards, as opposed to 11 of 14 the past two years.

“In our case, we know what we’re dealing with; we’ve got a significant subgroup population, and they struggle. We just continue to focus on fine-tuning our curriculum,” she said.

The district is trying to take steps to raise its scores. Twidwell said the district already has the new Reading First program, implemented two years ago, and overhauled its Comprehensive School Improvement Plan last year to address its scores.
“The demographics of our community aren’t going to change. It’s a challenge, but it’s one we’re plugging away at,” she said.

Dresden, which serves students in kindergarten through eighth grades, met six of seven of the state standards. It did not meet grade point average requirements on its APR.

Dresden failed to meet the federal standards as well.

State accreditation is also based on a district’s performance on the APR. Districts that meet six of the 14 criteria are provisionally accredited, and those that meet nine out of 14 are fully accredited.
All districts in Pettis County were fully accredited.