Columbia Board of Education reviews annual performance report, addresses plans for improvement next year

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

The Columbia Board of Education reviewed its annual performance report, during its meeting Thursday night.

The session was rescheduled from its original time on Friday due to inclement weather forecast. Columbia Public Schools canceled classes for Friday.  

The presentation shown during the meeting indicates that CPS showed improvement within the last year but according to district administrators, not at a fast enough rate.

This is just the second year that the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education has used its current scoring system which separates points between district performance and improvement, for its annual report, which was released in December. The report shows that the Columbia Public Schools increased slightly in the 2023-23 school year. 

​​CPS received more than 92% of possible improvement points and fewer than 62% of possible point performance. In its performance numbers, CPS was designated as “approaching” for language, arts, and math and “on track” for social studies and science. However, CPS was considered “below average” in academic achievement growth for language arts as well as its “student group” in mathematics. Student Group is five specialty categories which include students with special needs and black and Hispanic students) 

One contributing factor to low-performance scores is attendance. The presentation showed that students whose attendance surpassed 90% scored significantly higher in proficiency rates in MAP testing scores than students whose attendance dipped below 90 percent. 

CPS did not receive any attendance points in the annual report. Superintendent Dr. Brian Yearwood told ABC 17 News in December that CPS has implemented attendance incentives for students and that warnings are sent to parents after a student accumulates five days of absence. 

Board member John Lynman also pointed out during the meeting that getting students to take MAP testing seriously is important, because oftentimes students will not take the test seriously because it is not part of their grade.

He also said that because of COVID-19, students are more likely to skip school over minor symptoms which he believes is contributing to some of the attendance struggles.

The presentation also showed that the district plans to address the APR data by working to improve:

• Professional Development
• KickUps/NEE/teacher growth meetings 
• Behavior support and discipline
• Attendance 
• Response to Intervention (RTI)
• APR/MAP/EOC 
• iReady Diagnostic 
• High Growth Teachers 
• Scholar Support