TRENDS SOUGHT FROM SCHOOL REPORT CARDS

Unlike student report cards issued by teachers, the annual school report cards don't grade performance, but rather mark progress.

Missouri schools issued their reports Dec. 1 as required by the Outstanding Schools Act.

The reports include information about college testing scores, achievement test results, staff salaries, student-to-teacher ratios, per-pupil expenditures and tax rates. Local figures are compared to state averages.

This is the third year the report cards have been prepared. In the past, the media, legislators and the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education have been primary recipients of the report cards. However, this year many schools didn't send their report cards to the media but posted them on the Internet.

The Southeast Missourian received complete published reports from Jackson, Oak Ridge, Nell Holcomb, Scott City and Chaffee prior to Dec. 1, while the Cape Girardeau School District's report was obtained online by that date. The district later supplied a copy of the report to the newspaper.

Orlo Shroyer, assistant commissioner for instruction at the DESE, said the reports aren't really report cards because they don't try to compare districts. What they do is allow the state to compare Missouri data with national statistics, he said. The state primarily compares Missouri's high school dropout rates, standardized test scores and per-pupil expenditures.

"It's even difficult with the dropout rate because different states calculate it in different ways," he said. "You have to compare apples to apples."

Scott City Superintendent Roger Tatum said the reports shouldn't be a means of comparison but a means of tracking trends and progress within a district. "The state says it's not a comparison, but the tendency is to compare scores," he said.

With a change from the Missouri Mastery and Achievement Test (MMAT) to the Missouri Assessment Program (MAP), test-score comparisons are difficult. The state only has had two years of MAP testing in math and one in science and communication arts.

Despite the period of transition, Shroyer said there are some noticeable trends. Districts that implemented A+ programs and the Show Me Standards are showing better test scores, but it is still too early to make many comparisons, he said.

Tatum said that over time the reports will let districts track changes and trends within the schools.

"We're making some progress; not a great deal of change, but over a time span you will notice," said Tatum.

Gov. Mel Carnahan said one of the main goals of the report cards is to make schools more accountable.

"One of the keys to accountability is accurate and up-to-date information," he said. "With the new electronic report card, we have tried to make current statistics about local schools available in a consistent, easy-to-use and easy-to-understand format."

The Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education said school districts may release the reports from their own Web sites, but summaries posted on the governor's site is only a summary, not the complete document.

The online reports were compiled by the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education from information the districts regularly report to the state.

Some district reports are more complex than others, with color graphics and bound pages, but they all summarize the same type of information. Online, the reports are summarized to show a sampling of information.

The report cards for all 524 Missouri school districts are available on the Internet at www.gov.state.mo.us/