In his first look at academic achievement in St Joseph, the school district’s new superintendent said the district is doing a good job of “taking care of kids,” but said there is need for improvement.
According to the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, the district earned 126 out of 140 points, a 90% score, on its Annual Performance Report (APR), the state’s comprehensive assessment of school districts released Friday.
Academic achievement and Subgroup achievement scores were both over 90%. The district earned 36 out of 36 possible points on its graduation rate.
But in the College and Career Ready (CCR) column, the district earned a 75.7% score, and in attendance, just 60%.
District officials are quick to point out that this is not a 60% attendance rate, but rather a 60% score on the APR attendance section. More than 81% of students in St Joe attended classes as required more than 90% of the time. The district would like to see that raised to at least 90% of students.
Put another way, 81.3% of the students in St Joseph had an attendance rate that was better than 90%. District officials and DESE would like to see better than 90% of students over that 90% attendance threshold.
“If you look at the five broad categories on which we are rated, we are positioned well for launching our effort to be a premier school district in the state,” said Dr. Fred Czerwonka, Superintendent of Schools.
“I am pleased with our achievement and subgroup scores, but we really need to focus our efforts on “attendance,” said Dr. Czerwonka. “However, to improve attendance, we need our parents’ help. We can’t get better without their support.”
Dr. Jaime Dial, Director of Secondary Education, praised teachers of Biology and Algebra I for determining what their students needed in terms of teaching, and then delivering.
“Our MAP (Missouri Assessment Program) scores in eighth grade and Biology I posted large gains,” she said. “Biology posted an increase of nearly 20 percent, placing more than 68 percent of our students in the advanced and proficient levels – our highest District average ever.”
Dr. Dial said that Algebra I scores also hit their highest mark with 50.6 percent of students placing in the advanced and proficient categories – also the District’s highest score ever.
In addition to working on better attendance, Dr. Dial said the District needs to continue to work on the implementation of the Common Core Standards in the subject areas of English Language Arts and Mathematics. These standards will be assessed through a new assessment system from the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium, which will come on-line in 2014-15.