Missouri education department’s A-F school grading plan comes with warnings

By Annelise Hanshaw

 Missouri Independent

The Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education sent its plan Tuesday for grading public schools on an “A” through “F” scale to Gov. Mike Kehoe, fulfilling a directive from his January executive order while warning that the work will come with new costs.

The 24-page proposal estimates it will cost $518,000 to create the grade cards and require $715,100 annually for the staff and software to maintain them. Most of these costs are not reflected in the department’s budget, so the plan anticipates filing a supplemental request to the legislature asking for additional funds.

The implementation plan also warns that cuts to the Office of Administration could create significant problems because the office’s information technology staff maintain the department’s website and data reporting systems.

The department warned that the Office of Administration’s information technology staff are needed to carry out the plan, but “the continued availability” of those employees and contractors “is in question.”

The state has spent most of its budget surplus, and the state auditor’s office is warning against further deficit spending. Feeling the strain, lawmakers passed a budget that did not include raises for state employees and kept education funding flat despite calls for an additional $190 million in state aid to public schools.

Tuesday, Kehoe vetoed or froze nearly $500 million from the budget, saying the state faces a massive budget shortfall in coming years.

Kehoe is demanding public schools publish the new report cards on their websites “no later than Sept. 30 of each year” with scores based largely on standardized test performance. Private schools can opt into the system, but the department current lacks the “infrastructure for capturing data from private schools.”

Meeting the fall deadline, the department wrote, comes with “notable concerns.”

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“Significant changes to data capture, validation and processing are necessary to meet the annual required timeline,” the report says. “These changes may impact the quality of data used in the grade cards, especially in the initial cycle.”

The department would have to move up the deadline for schools to administer standardized tests, like the Missouri Assessment Program and end-of-course examinations by two weeks. Schools who routinely test at the end of the testing window may see scores decrease, since teachers are used to two more weeks of instruction before giving the test, the report says.

The education department’s data review process would also be compressed. Typically, it reviews data submitted by the schools throughout the summer and allows for a lengthy appeals timeline but must shorten the amount of time districts have to submit information and correct inaccuracies.

“While district leaders will have serious concerns related to this abbreviated opportunity for data corrections, it is incumbent upon all parties, including the department, to maintain the schedules so the grade card can be released as required,” the department wrote.

The plan includes Kehoe’s requests for new metrics, such as a score to show whether a student is on track to reach proficiency within three years. It also adopts his suggestion to “increase rigor” in the grading scale by raising the thresholds for “A” through “D” scores when more than 65% of schools obtain an “A” or “B.”

Grades for elementary and middle schools will be scored with 38% based on academic achievement, 33% on student growth using the state’s current model and 29% on growth to proficiency.

High schools will be graded with 28% based on academic achievement, 28% on the state’s current growth model, 22% on four-year graduation rates and 22% will encompass measures that indicate a student is ready for postsecondary education or a career like ACT scores.

The system is not yet in effect. Kehoe could request changes, though he does not have authority to unilaterally decide the new policy, and any plan must be approved by the State Board of Education. Currently, the board is set to review the implementation plan in August.

The department is currently undergoing a change in leadership following the retirement of former Commissioner of Education Karla Eslinger in May. Stacey Preis, an educational consultant with history working in the department, is currently at the helm as interim education commissioner.

One of her main missions as interim commissioner is to oversee the implementation of the “A” through “F” grade cards, the department said in a news release in mid-June.

“The goal for the ‘A’ through ‘F’ school grading framework,” Preis said in a statement Tuesday. “Is to provide families and communities with a simple, comparable and rigorous picture of school performance.”