Grading Missouri schools

Governor Blunt delivered his 2008 State of the State Address on January 15, 2008. In his address, he spoke at length about the importance of education in our state. "Education is the most important investment we can make in our own and in our children's futures. It promotes our freedoms. It promotes our happiness, and, by creating opportunity, nurtures a society of rising prosperity...Education funding is my highest budget priority," Blunt said.

We need strong leadership in our state to improve the quality of our schools. The Governor is right - our kids deserve a world class education. That's why a recent report from the Education Research Center is so revealing. The Education Week's Quality Counts report gives Missouri schools a grade of C-. That just isn't good enough to make Missouri students leaders in our country and in the world. There are some real issues that need to be addressed in our state if Governor Blunt's visions are to become realities.

The Quality Counts report gave Missouri grades in the following six areas:

Chance for success = C+

K-12 achievement = D

Standards, assessments, and accountability = C

Transitions and alignment = D+

The teaching profession = C

School finance = C

The great thing about this report is that it compares Missouri to other states. We can look for best practices to model in other states. Innovation. Creativity. These are all great ways to improve our current education system. Let's take a more in-depth look at Missouri's report card.

K-12 Achievement

Missouri's lowest rankings in this category are for achievement gains in 4th Grade Reading and 8th Grade Reading based on the National Assessment of Educational Progress. We rank 48th and 47th respectively. Literacy is a critical skill and Missouri needs to do more to improve in this area. The Governor mentioned the importance of math and science in his address and spoke about gains in assessments in those subject areas. While there certainly is a movement towards math and technology, we cannot neglect the reading abilities of our kids.

Transitions and Alignment

In Early-Childhood Education, Missouri lacks a formal definition of school-readiness (13 other states do have a formal definition) and Missouri lacks a process for assessing the readiness of entering students (17 other states do have a process).

In Post-Secondary Education, Missouri lacks a formal definition of college readiness, unlike 15 other states, and does not require college preparation to earn a high school diploma, which only 3 other states require. Missouri also does not align high school graduation credits or assessments with post-secondary systems which is done in 6 and 10 other states respectively. Finally, Missouri does not use high school assessments for post-secondary decisions, something that 9 other states are doing.

The Teaching Profession

Requirements for initial licensure: Missouri teachers lag behind 27 other states which require a substantial amount of coursework in the subject area(s) taught by teachers. This means we do not require our teachers to have a strong background in the subject they are teaching in order to receive their initial licensure. Furthermore, while Missouri does require a test of subject-specific knowledge, we do not require a test of subject-specific pedagogy. Missouri also doesn't do a lot to discourage out-of-field teaching either by notifying parents or by banning or capping the number of out-of-field teachers at a school. When it comes to evaluating teacher performance, student achievement rates are not used and the teacher evaluations are not required on an annual basis nor are they done by well-trained evaluators. Finally, Missouri does not use a pay-for-performance program to reward teachers for raising student achievement, something that only 7 other states are doing.

Governor Blunt's plans center around curriculum improvements in math and science, additional Advanced Placement opportunities, techno-savvy classrooms, and after school programs. While these are all worthy causes, I hope that Missouri leaders take a look at some of the deficiencies identified in this report. There is absolutely no reason why Missouri schools can't provide our kids a world class education.