PERRY SCHOOLS STRIVE FOR BETTER REPORTS (MAKING THE GRADE: PART FOUR)

Perry County public school officials said they were happy but not content with their performance on district report cards last year.

Superintendents Richard Hoffman of Altenburg public schools and Dr. Rex Miller of the Perryville school district said their students met or exceeded state median mastery scores on the Missouri Mastery Achievement Test (MMAT) last year. But just meeting the state average isn't good enough anymore, they said.

The Department of Elementary and Secondary Education is setting higher academic and performance expectations for students in the future, they said. Districts will have to adjust their curriculum and teaching strategies to meet those levels.

"I know that on our test scores as a rule we've scored above the state average; but the state has raised the bar, and if we want our students to do well we'll have to make some changes," said Miller. "Just meeting the average isn't going to be good enough anymore."

"I think for us maybe I was a little disappointed in some aspects of it," said Hoffman. "We've had exceptional scores in past years but we've noticed a slight decline recently."

Miller said his district will need to put more focus on "teaching to the test," which means using teaching strategies in daily classes that familiarize students with a testing style. Teachers will need to use similar testing processes and curriculum so that students aren't confused by different types of questions or phrasing when they take state assessments, he said..

The challenge, said Miller, will be altering teaching strategies while continuing to provide a rich curriculum that offers variety.

"We want our kids to understand how to take the test, but we don't want to eliminate the rich curriculum with variety that we are currently providing," he said.

Hoffman said teachers in his district are trying to find enough hours in the school day to meet all of the state mandates.

Physical education, art, computer science and music are all required courses, he said, and students are also receiving social development instruction in the form of DARE and similar programs.

All of those classes are good for the students, he said, but they take away from class time that could be dedicated to preparing students for state assessments.

"As we're upgrading to meet more and more of the requirements of Senate Bill 380 we're finding we're spending more and more time in the classroom on subjects that are not covered in the MMAT," he said. "Every time you take that minute, those 10 minutes, that hour away from classroom instruction, you have to realize that you'll either have to do a better job within a lesser timeframe or understand it's going to affect that end result."

The Perryville school district provides the high school education for students attending Altenburg, a kindergarten-through-eighth-grade district, and other K-8 parochial and private schools in the county. Both administrators agreed that while students are adequately prepared at present, cooperation will have to increase between those districts to prepare students for the new performance-based assessments being introduced by the state in coming years.

"There is contact, but we could do a better job," said Miller. "Historically the kids from these parochial schools and Altenburg have been good kids and students, but we will have to increase that contact."

Miller said his district has performed well in the past with very limited resources. The district has one of the lowest operational tax levies in the state, but that will need to change in the future as the community changes, he said.

More industry and population changes will require the district to adjust to maintain its past quality, he said. Also, a new state-funding formula will be levy-driven, which means districts who don't have higher levies will lose state aid, he said.

"Unfortunately, in order to ensure that past quality somewhere along the line, we'll have to generate some more funds," said Miller. "It's very difficult to have some of the best schools in the state with one of the lowest levies."

Hoffman said changes to the foundation funding formula have benefited his district as have a slowly growing enrollment and increased industry.

In all, both administrators said their report cards indicated a positive performance by their districts last year. There were definitely areas that needed improvement, they said, but the report card was required so that districts can learn from past performances.

"We may not have done as good a job as we would have liked, but we're going to keep trying," said Miller.

All Missouri public school districts were required by law to produce detailed annual reports that profile the districts' achievements and failures during the previous school year by Dec. 1. The mandatory report cards include statistical information about finances, staff, salaries, class sizes and dropout rates. Also included is achievement information regarding state and national assessments.