Cape Girardeau school board discusses curriculum audit

The Cape Girardeau Public School District is failing segments of students and must be more aggressive in finding ways to keep them engaged, school board members said in an unusually frank discussion Monday.

The energetic conversation began when member Charles Bertrand called for a curriculum audit toward the end of the meeting. He said the district's graduation rate is a "telltale sign" of problems. This May, 64.3 percent of black students graduated. The district's overall graduation rate was 72 percent, down from 86.6 percent in 2004.

"We're at a critical time in Cape Girardeau Public Schools," he said. Hiring an outside auditor to review curriculum would help the district determine whether its curriculum aligns state standards and whether the curriculum is being implemented in the classroom correctly, he said.

District personnel maintained the curriculum is already aligned and that they are monitoring "at-risk" students.

But some members called for more accountability, saying that they also want more routine and detailed updates of students' progress on benchmark tests. They pointed to gaps in achievement, saying populations of students are getting lost in the system.

"We have National Merit Semifinalists and students that make 36s on the ACT. But there is a percentage also that is not. We need to find out why they are not getting it," Kyle McDonald said.

State test data show significant gaps as well. At the high school, for example, 49 percent of students scored proficient or advanced on the Missouri Assessment Program math test, but only 18 percent of black students did. Central Middle School and Jefferson Elementary received federal sanctions this year because subgroups of students did not meet targets.

"I've been on the board five years, and I keep hearing 'change takes time, change takes time.' Even though I don't want to spend $30,000 on an audit I think it could be money well spent," Laura Sparkman said. She said the district "has to address" its graduation rate.

All the board members expressed support in further exploring hiring a curriculum auditor. Superintendent Dr. Jim Welker suggested looking into hiring the Show-Me Curriculum Administrators Association and said he would arrange presentations from potential auditors.

But board members split over the idea of examining student achievement data more routinely or more in-depth than on a schoolwide basis. Stacy Kinder said it was "vaguely creepy" and asked what the board members would do with the information.

Paul Nenninger said that with schools making little process the board could turn to the superintendent to "ask what could be done."

"We're not trying to fire a teacher or anything like that," Bertrand said.

Sparkman said she was "well aware of micromanaging" but asked Kinder to think of the children and parents of children who don't graduate. "We're making a statement we're holding people accountable," she said.

The discussion about achievement and a curriculum audit was sparked by a presentation about a facilities audit. Earlier in the night, the board heard from Carolyn Staskiewicz of DeJONG, an education consulting firm. The company would charge about $50,000 to evaluate the district's buildings, study demographics, gather community input and make recommendations about district needs. DeJONG is one of several companies the board is considering hiring.

But board members said that before they could move forward with a facilities plan, they need to know programming and curriculum needs.

"If we continue to fall in the hole maybe we won't need a facilities plan because students will be going somewhere else," Nenninger said.

lbavolek@semissourian.com

388-3627