Kansas City school district misses Missouri’s full accreditation score again
Kansas City Public Schools fell short of bringing in the score needed to claim full accreditation from Missouri’s education department, officials revealed Tuesday. But Superintendent Mark Bedell said the district still has much to be proud of.
KCPS attained 85 of the 130 possible points on the state’s Annual Performance Report for a score of 65.4%, lower than the necessary 70%. The report measures several areas, including academics, attendance, graduation rates and how well students are prepared for work and college.
KCPS is one of two provisionally accredited districts in Kansas City. The other, Hickman Mills, scored 60.8%.
Last year, KCPS scored 82.9%, putting it on the path toward gaining full accreditation. But that year science scores were not counted because the state was trying out a new test. In addition, KCPS failed to meet the state requirement of having 90% of students in school 90% of the time.
State officials have said that to regain full accreditation, KCPS needed to score well two years in a row.
When he came to the district in 2016, Bedell said it may take four years before KCPS regains full accreditation.
While the state has determined that KCPS will remain provisionally accredited, Bedell said the district still has “much to celebrate. … We are still on track.”
He said the district has shown “impressive growth” over 2018 in English and math, exceeding state expectations. An increase in the district graduation rate, he said, was also a highlight.
“These results demonstrate how the academic structure that we’ve put in place is paying dividends,” Bedell said.
KCPS has struggled for years to regain full accreditation. In 2011 the district became unaccredited after a tumultuous decade that saw half its schools close. Then in 2014 it gained provisional accreditation status.
In a statement, Bedell said that for the district to succeed, it will need help from the community, especially to combat the nagging problem of poor attendance. “One of the most valuable things our community members can do is to help us make sure that every student is at school and in class on time, every day.”
He said the district is at work making changes to get better results. It now offers more college prep classes and has expanded workforce development programs at the high schools. The district is upgrading classroom technology and training teachers to use the tools more effectively.
“We’ve got a lot of hard work to do,” Bedell said.
This story was originally published December 10, 2019 at 5:26 PM.
