Missouri Accreditation: New Scoring Guide Will Hold Districts to Higher Standards

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This just in from the Missouri State Department of Education:

Missouri State Board of Education Supports MSIP 5 Scoring Guide

New guide supports higher standards to increase academic achievement

The State Board of Education unanimously approved a resolution Tuesday stating its support for the new Missouri School Improvement Program (MSIP) 5 Scoring Guide.

After more than two years of working with parents, educators, associations, education experts and school district leaders, the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education presented its new scoring guide, which outlines its methods of creating each school district’s Annual Performance Report (APR) — the tool used by the state to determine a school district’s accreditation. State Board members discussed the impact of the new scoring guide and the advantages of the new system.

“Missouri is better off today because we required higher standards 20 years ago when MSIP started,” said Board President Peter F. Herschend. “This is the next generation of those higher standards. We’re moving in the right direction.”

MSIP 5, the fifth version of the standards, aims to raise academic achievement for all students in Missouri. MSIP 5 is designed to take Missouri to the top 10 states in education by 2020. The Board adopted the more rigorous standards in December 2011, and schools will be held accountable for the higher standards in MSIP 5.

Schools will have multiple ways of achieving the standards including showing student progress and/or evidence of student growth. Because accreditation is based on multiple years of data, MSIP 5 will be used for accreditation purposes beginning in the 2014-2015 school year. School and district APRs generated during the transition from MSIP 4 to MSIP 5 will be used to inform each school and district of its progress toward meeting or exceeding the state targets.

The Department was more transparent than ever before in explaining how it plans to score schools using multiple measures of data. One of the MSIP policy goals includes: “Empowering all stakeholders to act in a manner appropriate to their roles.” The program provides clear and accurate reporting at the state and local levels as a primary tool to assist administrators in focusing on specific areas for improvement.

MSIP 5 Scoring Guide Presentation

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