Troubled St. Louis County district closer to shedding unaccredited label

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- A St. Louis County school district has shown enough improvement, it might be on a path to winning reaccreditation.

School performance reports set for release today by the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education show Riverview Gardens earning 74.6 percent of the points possible.

The state's only other unaccredited district, Normandy, scored 54.6 percent on the report, which measures districts on data such as test scores and graduation and attendance rates.

Under the state's accreditation system, districts must earn at least 70 percent of overall points to be considered for full accreditation and 50 for provisional accreditation.

Of the two unaccredited districts, only Riverview Gardens, which earned a score of 79.3 percent last year, has surpassed the accreditation threshold for more than one year. The state typically considers multiple years of data before making an accreditation change.

The news is important for Riverview Gardens, because districts that are considered failing, or unaccredited, can face a state takeover and must pay if parents want to move their children to accredited school systems.

Last school year, about 1,000 students transferred out of the two districts, costing a total of $10.5 million.

Provisionally accredited districts are subject to extra monitoring.

Riverview Gardens first sought to shed the unaccredited label after faring well last year, but the state's Board of Education delayed action until more data was available. Riverview Gardens' score in 2014 was 45.4 percent.

This year marked the first time Normandy reached the provisionally accredited range after scoring 30.4 percent in 2015 and 7.1 percent in 2014.

Education Commissioner Margie Vandeven said in a teleconference that she was "very pleased with the improvements" in the two districts. Although she declined to discuss individual districts' accreditation prospects, an assistant commissioner said over the summer that Riverview Gardens was close to receiving accreditation. The state Board of Education is expected to discuss accreditation in December.

Elsewhere, the Kansas City School District, which regained provisional accreditation in 2014, saw its score increase to 70 percent from 63.9 percent last year.

Only six districts fell below the 70-percent mark: Senath-Hornersville C-8, 69.6 percent; Calhoun R-VIII, 66.7 percent; Hickman Mills C-1, 67.9 percent, Hayti R-II, 65 percent; Pemiscot Co. R-III, 59.4 percent; Ripley Co. R-IV, 63.8 percent.