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NewsJanuary 14, 2003

A staffing shortage and low teacher pay were among issues local school administrators said concerned them after reviewing data compiled in their annual report cards. The report cards, recently released by school districts throughout Missouri, allow school officials and community members to size up annual progress in areas such as enrollment, attendance, test scores, teacher quality and finance...

A staffing shortage and low teacher pay were among issues local school administrators said concerned them after reviewing data compiled in their annual report cards.

The report cards, recently released by school districts throughout Missouri, allow school officials and community members to size up annual progress in areas such as enrollment, attendance, test scores, teacher quality and finance.

"It's a good tool to see where you're at and how you compare from year to year," said Dr. Rita Fisher, assistant superintendent with Jackson School District.

Jackson, Cape Girardeau and Scott City school districts all kept pace with state averages in almost every area of the 2002 report cards, but local administrators say there were a few areas that may be problematic.

For Jackson schools, the data contained in this year's report reconfirmed a problem the district has been struggling with for years: staffing ratios.

These ratios, which indicate the number of students per teacher and administrator, are a special concern in Jackson schools, where there are 20 students to every teacher and 259 students to every administrator.

According to the annual report, Jackson's ratio is higher than those in both Cape Girardeau and Scott City schools and exceeds the state average of 18 students per teacher and 209 students per administrator.

Jackson superintendent Dr. Ron Anderson said the staff shortage is at its worst in the upper elementary and high school grade levels, where some teachers have close to 30 students in their class.

"Parents are concerned, and I think our teachers concur with that. We have some teachers who are really being spread thin," Anderson said. "We would prefer to hire a few more teachers, but it all comes down to dollars and cents."

Anderson said having a high student-teacher ratio can limit a teacher's focus on individual students and the amount of work that can be fairly graded.

"We're pretty crowded, and as a parent, I want my kids receiving all the individual instruction they can get," said Jeanna Nance, who has children in first and second grade at South Elementary and teaches second grade at Orchard Elementary in Jackson. "I know my children have excellent teachers, but I think those teachers' workload is heavy."

According to Anderson, there's only one solution to the staffing problem: More money, either through a local tax increase or a jump in state funding.

"We operate on a very lean basis, but we try not to impair or shortchange our students," Anderson said. "We have limited resources, but if you look at our student performance, I think we stretch our dollar well."

While quantity of teachers may be an issue in Jackson schools, the district has the highest starting salary for teachers in Southeast Missouri. Anderson said the pay scale, combined with the school's reputation, has attracted well-qualified teachers over the years.

Scale can indicate quality

Average salaries for teachers and administrators in each district are included in the annual reports. Jim Morris, director of public information with the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, said parents should take note of a district's pay scale because it can be an indicator of the quality of teachers employed there.

Teacher pay is a constant issue in local schools, and the biggest part of area districts' annual budgets -- around 75 percent -- goes toward salary.

According to the 2002 reports, the Jackson School District pays its teachers an average annual salary of $35,107 -- $2,838 more than the Cape Girardeau School District average and $1,928 more than the Scott City School District average.

School officials say it's important to keep in mind that those average salary figures are influenced by the experience teachers have. Based on each district's salary schedule, the more years of experience a teacher has, the more a teacher gets paid.

Just because a district's average salary is higher doesn't mean the salary schedule pays more. It may simply mean teachers there have more years of experience.

Cape's school struggles

For several years, Cape Girardeau schools have struggled with low salaries, which administrators say has forced some teachers to seek employment in better-paying districts.

As part of a tax increase in 2000, the district arranged to add $1,000 to teachers' starting salaries each year for three years. This is the second year for the pay raise, and with the final $1,000 salary addition next year, the district still won't be as competitive with other area schools as it had planned, said Mark Bowles, superintendent of Cape Girardeau schools.

"Other districts have been able to raise their salaries more than we'd anticipated, so we still won't be as close to the average as we thought we'd be," Bowles said. "We're not getting enough applications from the cream of the crop in Cape, and that's just not right. We do have the best and brightest teachers here, but it's getting increasingly harder to attract them."

Bowles said he is making teacher pay one of his highest priorities and hopes the state will increase the district's funding so that salaries could be raised.

Failing that, Bowles said the district may consider absorbing some teacher and administrator positions as they are vacated.

Cutting back on staff would leave more money for salary increases, but teachers might have to deal with larger classes that in the long run could affect student performance, Bowles said.

Employing less-qualified teachers also affects student performance, so it's important for Cape Girardeau to be competitive in its teacher-salary offerings, Bowles said.

National salary problems

Attracting well-qualified teachers has become a nationwide problem as schools across the country face teacher shortages. Missouri also faces a similar dilemma.

Morris said DESE considers factors such as experience, certification and advanced degrees as important measures of teacher quality.

According to the 2002 reports, Jackson teachers have an average of 15.6 years of experience; Cape Girardeau teachers have 14.9 years; and Scott City teachers have 16.4 years -- all surpassing the state average of 14 years experience.

"Our average years of experience has a lot to do with our ability to retain good teachers," said Diann Bradshaw, superintendent of the Scott City School District. "We have a good starting salary, which attracts better-qualified teachers. And we have a great school, which makes teachers want to stay."

The teacher shortage has forced some school districts to employ teachers who aren't fully certified to teach in their subject area. New federal legislation requires that all teachers obtain full certification in their subject area, and local districts are working to meet that requirement.

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In Jackson, 99.31 percent of teachers are fully certified and 54.98 have advanced degrees; in Scott City, 98.63 percent of teachers are fully certified and 41.95 have advanced degrees; and in Cape Girardeau, 97.5 percent of teachers are fully certified and 46.08 have advanced degrees.

Educators say all of those teacher-quality factors can carry over to student performance on tests like the Missouri Assessment Program and the ACT, which are both included in the annual reports.

Most Missouri districts release the current year's MAP results for individual students early in the school year, but the annual reports are the first opportunity for parents and others to view districtwide scores and see how their child's school compares with others in the area.

MAP, which is administered in schools throughout the state every spring, is a series of tests in math, communication arts, science and social studies given to students at various grade levels.

"As a parent, I pay attention to these scores because they reflect how much the district is paying attention to current research and teaching methods," said Nance, the Orchard Elementary teacher.

The 2002 annual reports reveal a steady increase in the number of elementary students scoring in the highest two MAP scoring categories -- proficient and advanced -- among Jackson, Cape Girardeau and Scott City schools since 1998, when the state first began administering the tests.

At the high school level, all three school districts have seen declines in students scoring at the proficient and advanced levels in nearly every test subject over the past four years.

But, as Cape Girardeau assistant superintendent Cathy Evans pointed out, the decline in high school scores is a statewide trend that almost all educators are looking to solve.

"The annual reports really open up conversation between the community and the school district about issues such as MAP," Evans said. "It can be an opportunity for us to educate the public on some factors influencing student performance that they may not be aware of."

This year's comparison of local, state and national ACT score averages revealed that Jackson and Cape Girardeau students scored well above the state average of 36.6 percent -- an amount that represents the number of students in the state who scored above the national average on the ACT. The national average score for the ACT in 2002 was 20.8.

"The ACT is an indicator of the potential for youngsters to be successful, and historically, our students have always performed well on that test," Anderson said.

Much of the data contained in the annual reports, including MAP and ACT scores, factor into Missouri School Improvement Program accreditation, which DESE requires all districts to have.

Accountability movement

DESE first asked Missouri districts to compile annual reports in 1996 as part of a nationwide push to hold schools accountable for student success.

In 2001, Gov. Bob Holden signed into law a new measure expanding information included in the reports and requiring districts to break down data by individual schools.

Morris, the DESE public information director, said the new law attempts not only to increase the reports' usability as a measuring tool for progress, but also to heighten public awareness about local school districts.

It isn't an easy task -- the reports are brimming with complicated data that can intimidate even the most involved parent.

Local educators admit that only a small percentage of parents take interest in the annual reports, but say it is important for the public to understand how the information contained in the reports affects their school district.

Most districts do not actively distribute the reports to parents, instead making them available at individual schools and at the board of education office.

"Do parents understand all of this information? No," Morris said. "The mechanics of testing and the details of curriculum are things most parents probably have no interest in."

Morris said the state is currently grappling with ways of presenting the data in a format that makes sense to noneducators.

Several local districts have created a more user-friendly report format, with graphics and pictures to offset the many percentages and ratios.

"I believe these reports are often very confusing for parents," said Lisa Goodwin, whose daughter is a freshman at R.O Hawkins Junior High School in Jackson. "It's a lot of information to digest, and it's easier when the school provides visual aids like they did this year."

Student discipline

This year, for the first time, districts were required to include student discipline incidents in their annual reports.

DESE defines "incidents" as those cases resulting in suspension or expulsion, and the reports break the information down by type of offense -- alcohol, drugs, tobacco, violence and weapons.

In 2002, Cape Girardeau had 65 incidents; Jackson had six; and Scott City had three. The disparity between the number of incidents in Cape Girardeau and those in Jackson and Scott City may seem alarming, but state officials are quick to point out the data may not be completely accurate since this is the first year for reporting that information.

"It appears to me that some districts simply aren't reporting," Morris said. "We're not putting a great deal of weight on those reports this year because districts are adjusting."

Bowles said it's also possible that Cape Girardeau schools have a more stringent discipline code than other districts in the area, and the high number of incidents indicates that code is being enforced.

"We're not suspension happy here," Bowles said. "But we do have an extremely low tolerance for those things that are most dangerous and destructive, and I would think parents would be relieved to know discipline is being enforced."

Bowles added that Cape Girardeau schools have very different demographics than other area districts, with a higher number of students from low-income families and a higher mobility rate, both factors that could influence discipline.

cclark@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 128

To get a school's report

School districts are required to make annual report cards available to the public. If you want to access your school's 2002 report, contact your local district or visit www.dese.state.mo.us and click on the annual school accountability reports link.

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