Schools, and not just students, could soon be graded on an "A" through "F" scale.
The Missouri House approved legislation 96-53 Thursday that would require state education officials to release an annual report card for public and charter schools, in addition to school districts.
Sponsor Rep. Dane Diehl, R-Butler, said his bill is meant to hold schools accountable.
"It allows those school districts to say, 'All right, here's where we're struggling, here's the areas that we need to work on,'" Diehl said.
The A-F grade would be determined based on student achievement, including proficiency in English, math and science determined by the Missouri Assessment Program.
Also factored into the score would be student academic growth relative to grade level and school growth, which would be measured by a number of factors — including graduation rates, dual enrollment and high-scoring Advanced Placement students.
Schools that do not test 95% of students would not be penalized, but their MAP testing participation rate would be listed separately on the report.
If the legislation is passed, Missouri would join states like Louisiana, Mississippi and Tennessee that have similar school accountability systems. The state board of education in Indiana adopted a new version of the system this week.
Diehl said an A-F scale is easier to understand than the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education's existing metric, the Annual Performance Report.
"I think putting that data together with something that most everybody across Missouri and the United States understands — that A-F letter grade — gives parents more of a tool to say, 'Hey, what do I do with this?'" Diehl said, adding that it could encourage parents to become more involved in their children's districts.
The vote over Diehl's legislation was largely split along party lines, with Democrats arguing the system would penalize already struggling schools.
"The real question here on the floor today is whether or not this bill, with the 'A' through 'F' labeling system, will actually improve schools," said Rep. Kem Smith, D-Florissant, during debate earlier this week. "Or will it mostly brand communities, destabilize staffing and incentivize gaming rather than learning?"
Smith said the bill does nothing to improve school outcomes and that the legislature would be better off focusing on teacher shortages and transportation issues.
Some states, including Michigan and Utah, have overturned their A-F accountability systems because they didn't improve student outcomes, Smith added.
Under the legislation, schools with better performances, including those that demonstrate improvement, would be eligible for extra funding to support teacher recruitment and retention. Exactly how much money schools receive would be left up to the state education department.
Rep. Raychel Proudie, D-Ferguson, said the system could deter developers and teachers from the areas that need them most.
"Who would want to go to the 'F' school to teach?" Proudie said. "Why would I, as a qualified teacher with all of these degrees and experience, why would I go to the neediest schools?"
Diehl and other Republicans said the legislation is an improved version of the system Gov. Mike Kehoe called for in an executive order unveiled during his annual State of the State address in January.
"A 'no' vote would simply sustain that current executive order," said House Speaker Pro Tem Chad Perkins, R-Bowling Green. "In all my years, I've never once seen how you can keep things exactly the same and somehow make them better."
The House version of the legislation does not include a moving target Kehoe proposed that would raise the standard for 'A' through 'D' grades each time 65% of schools reach 'A' or 'B' status to "prevent stagnation and ensure continued improvement in student outcomes."
Five Democrats did support Diehl's bill, including Rep. Ian Mackey, D-Richmond Heights, who successfully proposed an amendment that adds school climate ratings to the report.
Factored into the rating would be suspension, seclusion and restraint incidents, as well as student, parent and teacher surveys.
The legislation is HB 2710. A slightly different proposal has passed a Senate committee.
Because Kehoe named the system as a priority, some version of the bill is likely to pass the legislature this session.
School districts react
School districts have long pushed back against associating one number or grade letter to define the work of public schools in Missouri.
Ritenour School District Superintendent Chris Kilbride, in St. Louis County, said he's been monitoring the push to introduce an A-F report card after initial proposals started floating around in the fall.
He argues the metrics being used to define school districts are not as straightforward as lawmakers might suggest.
"The complexity of the work of running a district, in educating children, how can you roll what is a very complex process up into one letter grade? I'm just not sure how that happens," Kilbride said.
He worries that assigning a single letter grade to a school or school system, without making a concerted effort to understand the different measures that define student success, will flatten the conversation.
For example, it's not clear how much average daily student attendance will weigh into this new accountability measure. Attendance continues to be a challenge for Ritenour and many districts in the region.
"When you've got one specific summative measure, such as a letter grade, much of the conversation around those various measures stops and that one measure becomes more important than all of those other metrics," Kilbride said.
Proponents of the A-F grading system for districts and schools also argue that beyond additional transparency, it forces schools to be more competitive against other education options, including charter schools, private schools and homeschooling.
Dennis Carpenter, superintendent of the Hickman Mills School District in south Kansas City, said in a statement that he supports making school performance clearer for parents, but worries it could overlook educational inequities.
Schools in North Carolina and Florida are already graded on an A-F scale, Carpenter noted. He said schools there that serve students of color or those experiencing poverty struggle to get high grades on the A-F scale.
"Schools can receive an 'A' overall while failing Black students, students with disabilities, or English learners — because those subgroups don't count enough toward the final grade," Carpenter said. "That's not transparency. That's a misleading label that masks real problems."
Carpenter said Kehoe's inclusion of a "growth" measure in the scale is a good start, but doesn't go far enough. By relying too heavily on test scores instead, Carpenter said the grades will measure a school's poverty level, not its quality.
Leaders with the Center School District, another south Kansas City school district, also raised concerns about the grading system.
"Any attempt to tie funding to a system that benefits schools that are already high performing is at the detriment of the schools that need it that most," Superintendent Troy Hogg said.
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