Missouri's School Accountability System
In this policy brief, we describe Missouri’s current accountability system for traditional public and public charter schools—Missouri School Improvement Plan (MSIP) 6—and how it differs from the prior version known as MSIP 5. We add context by detailing federal school accountability system requirements under the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), which also impacts the work of schools in Missouri. We find:
ESSA largely places the responsibility of designing school accountability systems on individual states, meaning states have significant influence over the standards LEAs and schools are held to and, thereby, the education available to students.
The emphasis on performance components, such as academic achievement status and growth, decreases in MSIP 6 (from 100% to 70%) with the addition of the continuous improvement component (30%).
The continuous improvement component (30%) focuses on inputs like continuous improvement plans, additional student readiness indicators, student attendance, and reflections on progress towards meeting goals, administering and analyzing the results of a culture and climate survey, as well as timely submission of numerous required documents and data points.
In MSIP 6, achievement status and growth are considered independent and equal—each component accounts for 24% of the total score, totaling 48% overall.
Missouri has made strides in revising its school accountability system, particularly by separating and strengthening the importance of academic status and growth. However, these performance outcomes, which demonstrate students’ comprehension and learning of key subject areas, account for less than half (48%) of a school or district’s performance rating.
