Columbia Public Schools improves in key areas on state report card

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

Columbia Public Schools made critical gains in key academic measures between 2023 and 2024 in the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education's Annual Performance Report.

CPS received 86.5% of the possible points in this year's report, which combines performance and improvement scores from the 2023-2024 school year. The district received a score of 96.6% for continuous improvement and 82.1% of the points for performance.

"CPS made significant progress on the APR this year, improving in seven out of eight growth categories in academic performance and achieving a near-perfect score in continuous improvement,” said Board President Suzette Waters. "Our score places us in the top 20% of Missouri's 550 school districts." 

This year's APR data also includes a three-year composite score using data since the introduction of the sixth edition of the Missouri School Improvement Program for the 2021-2022 school year. CPS received 76.8% of the possible points in the composite, illustrating the lower scores it had registered in previous years.

Chief Academic Officer Jeff Klein says CPS is the only district amongst the larger districts to have made double-digit growth. He also says CPS also grew faster than 95% of the districts in the state.

Columbia Public Schools is the fourth largest in the state. The district also had the largest APR growth among its 15 comparison districts.

In 2023, CPS barely beat out its 2022 score, earning 70.1% of the overall points for the 2022-2023 school year.

As for this year's performance, the district is "on track" for overall language arts, science and social studies with 75% of points earned, and "approaching" for math with 50% of points earned. In the 2022-2023 report, language arts was in the "approaching" status while math remained consistently in that status this year and last year.

CPS students were designated at "target" for growth in language arts, math and science, earning 100% of points. Meanwhile, the district was designated "on track" for social studies performance, which garnered 75% of the possible earned points.

"In all four content areas, growth has been made over the past three years where we've got a three-year trend of improvement, and it really is not something that happens by accident it's happened because of an intentional focus by our school leadership, our teachers, and all the staff," said Klein. "This is the part that we're going to continue to focus on, and that is making sure that each and every scholar is growing"

John Lyman, Vice President of the Columbia Board of Education says improvement in any category is a good sign, and shows not only students engaging in class, but also parents and teachers engaging with students academic progress help students succeed.

CPS students in this year's report received 50% of the possible points for attendance. This is a big increase from the previous report, where students scored zero points.

"Our score is evidence that when students attend our buildings daily, they grow," said Klein. "It is a testament that what we are doing at CPS, delivering quality public education, works."

Klein said the district has a goal to have a 90% attendance rate and from what the data shows, they are heading in that direction.

CPS again received 100% of available points in advanced credit graduates' performance.

DESE designated CPS at "target" for graduation performance, scoring them with 100% of the available points. More than 94% of graduates statewide are employed or pursuing further education, according to DESE.

While Klein says the district will celebrate this year's accomplishments, they will continue to try to improve future scores.

"This is a stepping stone in continuing to get where we are until we're at that place where we can truly say that each and every scholar is making a year's worth of growth in a year," said Klein.  

Lyman says the district looks across the state to see what other schools are doing that is showing success for students.

"It's making sure that we're being a school system and not a system of schools," said Lyman. "We want to make sure that we're going out and doing the right things across the board, we're having lots of professional development with our teachers, our staff, to make sure that they're putting their best foot out there for our students."

Even with the improvement, this year's scores technically won't count.

This is the third year DESE has scored school districts using the MSIP 6 model based on performance and continuous improvement. This is the first year DESE included a composite APR score under MSIP 6 using at least the past three years of data.

The 2023-2024 APR data will not be used to classify school districts this year because the first year the program was used is considered a pilot year, according to DESE. The State Board of Education will consider district classification at its January 2025 meeting.

APR reports are scored based on two main factors. 70% of the score is based on performance and 30% on continuous improvement.

Statewide, more than 86% of local education agencies are meeting MSIP 6 expectations and more than 60% of local education agencies' APR scores increased from 2023 to 2024.

DESE said during a meeting on Thursday that statewide performance has either reached or surpassed pre-pandemic levels in middle school math. Statewide attendance has also improved.

Check back for updates to this developing story.