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KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — One of Missouri's two failing school districts has asked state officials to shed its unaccredited designation, which allows students to transfer to better-performing schools, because newly released state data showed it made substantial academic gains.
School performance reports, which the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education embargoed for release Friday, show that Riverview Gardens earned 79.3 percent of the possible points. Last year, the St. Louis County district earned a score of 45.4 percent on the reports, which incorporate data such as test scores and graduation and attendance rates.
Under the state's accreditation system, districts must earn at least 70 percent of overall points to be considered for full accreditation. Districts must be at 50 percent for provisional accreditation, which means schools are subject to extra monitoring. Schools that are considered failing, or unaccredited, can face a state takeover and must pay for their students to transfer to accredited school systems.
"I couldn't be a more proud superintendent than I am today," said Scott D. Spurgeon, who began in July 2013 leading the district, where part of the focus has been on attendance and curriculum improvements. "I can't tell you what happens from here, other than that we had a very, very, very, very good year, and we believe we have a really solid system in place to provide a high academic program for our scholars."
The state's other unaccredited district — Normandy, which also is in St. Louis County — saw its score increase to 30.4 percent, up from 7.1 percent last year. Although the test scores in both Normandy and Riverview Gardens fell below state averages, both districts showed gains in part because the system provides credit for improvements.
Hundreds of students have transferred out of Normandy and Riverview Gardens, which together paid out $11 million in tuition payments to other schools last year. Legislation that sought to help was vetoed this year by Gov. Jay Nixon, who argued that it wouldn't do enough for the struggling schools. The districts are now relying on other area schools that have promised to provide resources and take other steps meant to help Normandy and Riverview regain accreditation.
St. Louis Public Schools, which is provisionally accredited and not subject to the transfer law, also is planning to seek its accreditation upgraded after its score increased to 76.1 percent from 43.2 percent in 2014. District spokesman Trey Prothro said Friday that Superintendent Kelvin Adams submitted documents Thursday to the state seeking a review. Adams said Friday in a written statement that the district still had a "long way to go" but stressed that it was "important to celebrate and recognize the significant progress this district has made."
Nixon said in a news release Friday that he was "especially encouraged" by the progress made by the Riverview Gardens and St. Louis districts, saying they were "moving in the right direction."
The Missouri State Board of Education will consider districts' accreditation during a December meeting, according to Missouri Education Commissioner Margie Vandeven. She declined to offer specifics about what recommendations would be made.
But she noted that the St. Louis district had fared better than expected on some tests and saw graduation rate improvements.
"We are really very cautiously optimistic about what we are seeing," Vandeven said. "Those are great things to see."
The Kansas City School District, which regained provisional accreditation just last year, saw its score drop to 63.9 percent from 66.1 percent.
Other districts scoring below the 70-percent mark were: Avilla R-XIII, with a score of 66.3 percent; Ferguson-Florissant R-II, 69.6 percent; Gorin R-III, 57.2 percent; Hayti R-II, 63.9 percent; Hickman Mills C-1, 59.3 percent and Stoutland R-II, 66.8 percent.
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