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Public schools score well in annual report card, students lag on English, math

Fewer than half of public school students in Missouri passed new math and English test last spring, yet 97 percent of public schools scored in the fully accredited range, according to newly released data.

On Friday, Department of Elementary and Secondary Education released statewide results for both the Missouri Assessment Program (MAP) and district Annual Performance Reports (APR) for the 2017-18 school year.

The tests administered in the spring of 2018 was the fourth new test in five years for Missouri students and considered to be harder and more rigorous than years earlier.

For the English exam, 49 percent of public school students passed. For the math exam, 42 percent of public school students passed.

And while the pass percentage is lower than in earlier years, the department said that the 2017-18 results are not comparable with results from previous tests in those subjects.

“The new tests in English language arts and math in 2018 set a completely new baseline going forward,” said K-12 Education Commissioner Margie Vandeven.

She noted that now that they have the Missouri standards in place, she is hopeful that there will be a “level of stability.”

While public school children did not have a high rate of passage, the public schools themselves did.

More than 97 percent of Missouri districts and charter schools scored at least 70 percent of the possible points on their APR. For public school districts, this places them in the fully accredited range, while charter schools do not receive an accreditation classification under current guidelines.

The APR is a school report card DESE publishes and is the largest factor in how the state Board of Education determined accreditation for school districts. While Charter schools receive an APR, they are not given an accreditation label by the state school board.

The full reports can be viewed on the departments webpage.