JACKSON SCHOOLS TEST WELL; MSIP GIVES SCHJOOL DISTRICT, CITY EXEMPLARY MARKS FOR TEAMWORK

JACKSON -- Evaluators tentatively gave Jackson School District a passing grade -- pending their final report -- but gave the district and community as a team exemplary marks for community support and communication.

The evaluation was part of a comprehensive review required by Missouri law to monitor a school district's progress in a number of areas dealing with the educational system.

"One area they commended us on was in the area of community support and community giving," said Dr. Howard Jones, Jackson School District superintendent. "Everywhere they went they were bombarded with evidence of school pride from the community. We also had tremendous response by parents to the surveys they sent out."

The review, called MSIP (Missouri School Improvement Program), has a list of state and federal standards and assessments that must be met by each district in order for them to keep local control of the schools.

Investigators visit each school on five-year rotations and conduct surveys and interviews with faculty, staff, board members and administrators to determine areas of concern. They also review surveys completed by parents in the district.

The reviewers spend about a week collecting all of their information, then they prepare a preliminary report that they share with the district in an exit interview. That report is given to state officials, who analyze the data using more detailed statistics about the district. A final report is then released listing areas the district needs to improve within the next year. The entire process takes eight to 10 weeks.

"They told us that just meeting the standards is very good," said Jones. "We're on such a bell curve mentally that if we don't get a commendation we're worried. However, their frame of mind is that if you meet the standards you're doing good work, and you have a very strong district."

Jones said some minor concerns were pointed out by reviewers, and the district was already aware of most of them. Some of the concerns administrators foresaw, he said, involved accessibility factors in some buildings, improving development of the guidance and counseling program, and improving library facilities in outlying schools.

"They don't care what you have on the drawing board or under construction," said Jones, referring to several current and planned construction projects that address these issues. "They want to know what you have today."

Another area of concern involved the staff's desire for more technology with appropriate training to support instructional technology. Jones said this was indeed cause for concern, but he emphasized that every school district in the state probably will have that concern on their list.

Jones said the interview was positive overall, and he said the fact that reviewers left ahead of schedule indicated there were not any major areas of concern. He said now administrators need to start preparing for the next MSIP review scheduled for 2002.

"There's such a relief at finishing that review that sometimes we forget we need to start the very next day preparing for the next review," said Jones. "Standards are constantly changing, and we have to keep working to meet those new guidelines."