Notes from the March 7, 2023 meeting of the Missouri State Board of Education Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education
Agenda, Minutes, and Recordings from March 7, 2023 of the Missouri State Board of Education Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education.
New: Monthly State Board Report now available at MNEA Connects Podcast. LISTEN HERE
MSIP 6 Annual Performance Report (APR) Release
The Missouri School Improvement Program (MSIP) officially entered its 6th iteration on Tuesday, March 7, with the release of the Annual Performance Report (APR) for Missouri Schools. Typically, the APR is what DESE and the State Board use to classify school districts to then determine accreditation status. Because this new phase of MSIP is drastically different from MSIP 5, it is considered a pilot year so the APR released for 21-22 WILL NOT be what determines classification and accreditation. According to statute, Section 161.855,
"...[when DESE] implements a new statewide assessment system, develops new academic performance standards, or makes changes to the [MSIP], the first year of such statewide assessment system and performance indicators shall be utilized as a pilot year for the purposes of calculating a district's annual performance report under the Missouri school improvement program. The results of a statewide pilot shall not be used to lower a public school district's accreditation or for a teacher's evaluation. (4)"
Due to this statute, initial classification under MSIP 6 based on APRs will occur in 2023-2024; classification under MSIP 6 will occur in 2022-2023 but it will not be lowered due to performance scores. The 2021-2022 classifications for school districts will only be based on Superintendent certification, reserve fund balance, local board member orientation and training, and compliance with state and federal law.
MSIP 6 has an entirely new way to score schools to reach the APR, which is why it is not possible to compare the APR results under both MSIP 5 and MSIP 6. An overview of the APR formula can be found here and the full MSIP 6 Comprehensive Guide can be found at the DESE MSIP 6 webpage.
Results for the recently released APR under MSIP 6 are available at the public APR Dashboard. There are two versions of the APR report that were released on Tuesday: a visual report and a detailed Tableau report. While the two scores are not comparable in what they represent, the State Board of Education viewed the differences in the APR distributions from 2018 (the last time APRs were used for classification due to the COVID Pandemic disruptions) and 2022. Under MSIP 5 in 2018, the median score for APR was 96.2% and now, under new MSIP 6 calculations in 2022, the median APR score is 77.1%. The 2022 APR results are NOT being used to determine accreditation but in 2023-2024 the classification and accreditation determinations will begin. When that time does come, districts can be deemed Provisionally Accredited when their percentage result for the APR is below 70% and anything below 50% is deemed Unaccredited. Again, APRs for the next two years are not used to lower classification but if the distribution stands as it is, there are many school districts in Missouri who would be Provisionally Accredited and Unaccredited in 2023-2024. Further, there has been minimal discussion at the State Board, or publicly from the department, surrounding the concrete support that districts who fall into provisionally accredited and unaccredited classifications will receive because of the new MSIP 6 APR.
The Association is concerned about this most recent iteration of MSIP and APR release. The new APR results are calculated in a way that will lead to oversimplification, misinterpretation, and generalizations regarding the quality of public schools in Missouri; it feeds into the overarching, false narrative that public education is failing.
More information on MSIP 6 DESE’s School Improvement webpage.
The Missouri Legislature has almost reached the halfway point and it appears to have been quiet in terms of bills moving in either chamber.
As of Tuesday, March 7, only 2 bills regarding education that had crossed into different chambers; Senate bill SB 4 (Koenig)–Parents Bill of Rights bill–and SB 34 (May)–authorization to allow school districts to offer elective Social Studies courses in Hebrew Scripture and the Bible.
HB 253 (Pollitt) regarding open enrollment was briefly discussed by the Board. The bills surrounding assessment and accreditation were the primary focus for the State Board; these include HB 49 (Brown) and SB 85 (Carter). While the State Board did say that the MAP assessment does need revisiting, they were concerned that these bills would take away accountability in Missouri schools. The Board discussed coming out with a statement opposing these pieces of legislation regarding assessment and accreditation.
Update on National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP)
The State Board requested a deeper dive into the NAEP scores that were presented in December 2022. To build this report, NAEP data was pulled from the top performers of 20 years and 40 data points for each state that was compared to Missouri. This report pulled out data from the top-performing states, most improved states, lowest performing states, and how Missouri compares to all of these groups in various aspects of the national assessment.
The full report is linked above but the main takeaways from the data include:
- Spending on education is greater in top-performing states
- Infrastructure in the top performers differs from Missouri
- Literacy is a focus among top performers and most improved
- Missouri shares characteristics with most improved states
- Data shows that improvement is possible
Additional News:
- Due to time constraints, the report on Mental Health Awareness Training can be found at 9-12 Health and Physical Education (PE) Curriculum. The Association supports efforts that address Mental Health and Social Emotional Learning in all levels of public education and will be watching closely for this topic to return next month since it was skipped in March.
- Blue Ribbon Commission, Phase II–Culture and Climate for Teachers–will begin later this month. Each of these meetings are open to the public for viewing. They are listed on BRC Webpage and below. MNEA will be present at each of these meetings.
Commission Meeting Dates: Post-meeting reports/summaries will be available approximately two weeks after each session. Virtual meetings will be livestreamed at https://dese.mo.gov/BRC-livestream. Doors will remain open at in-person meetings for observers.
- March 27, 2023 – 1:00-3:00 p.m. – Virtual
- April 24, 2023 – 9:00 a.m. – 3:15 p.m. – Governor’s Office Building, Room 450
- May 31, 2023 – 1:00-3:00 p.m. – Virtual
- June 21, 2023 – 9:00 a.m. – 3:15 p.m. – Governor’s Office Building, Room 450
The Commission will then deliver their Phase 2 report to the State Board of Education at their meeting on August 15, 2023. The members of this BRC will include Phase 1 Members.
- Consideration of Charter School Application Renewal for Lafayette Preparatory Academy (LPA) was approved.
- Consideration of Charter School Application Renewal for Lift for Life Academy (LFLA) was approved.
- Consideration of Charter School Application Renewal for Gordon Parks Elementary School (GPES) was approved.
The next meeting of the Missouri State Board of Education will be held April 13-14 in Cassville, Missouri. If you have any questions or suggestions, please contact Samantha Hayes at 800-392-0236 or Samantha.Hayes@mnea.org. Details of state board agenda items can be found here.
Find past reports at www.mnea.org/stateboard.