New superintendent hails “success”
By Alvin A. Reid of the American
Test scores are up from last year, but first-day attendance was disappointingly close to the 2004 mark in the St. Louis Public Schools district as the new school year began on Monday.
While official figures had not been compiled as of Wednesday, Superintendent Creg Williams hailed the first day as a success.
“This year’s numbers are very close to last year’s,” he said late Monday afternoon at a press conference.
Last year, just more than 28,800 students attended class on the first day, which are about 75 percent of the district’s students.
“Every year things have been better than the year before,” said board President Darnetta Clinkscale, who is now in her third year of service.
“This year the buildings were cleaner; supplies and books were in each classroom that I visited. Principals and teachers were enthusiastic and the children were their beautiful selves—shining and ready to learn. Last week’s MAP scores taught us that all of our children could learn when things are right in the building. I expect great things this year.”
Williams said, “I am pleased with the day. This year, I wanted the District to focus on five key components for the first day of school: curriculum; building readiness; attendance; transportation; and textbooks.”
He said Monday’s focus was ensuring that the district’s schools were ready to receive the students and begin teaching. He said the district transported 16,000 students with no glitches on its buses today that are now equipped with a GPS tracking system.
Two years ago, chaos would have best described bus transportation of the school year’s first day.
According to the district, schools have 330 new certified teachers: 120 in elementary schools; 87 in middle schools, 109 in high schools, and 14 in special-education.
A gap closed
For the first time in a long time, a class of St. Louis Public Schools students has matched the state’s proficiency level. Take a bow third graders.
In the communication arts category of the annual MAP tests, 35.2 percent of third grade students in St. Louis scored proficient or advanced compared to 35.1 percent for the state of Missouri’s average.
Clinkscale cheered that “the achievement gap has been closed. This is great news and I’m really proud of everyone who made this happen.”
Communication arts include reading and writing. In reading 75.3 percent of SLPS third graders were satisfactory or better, with the state average being 77.1 percent. This is a healthy 5.8 percent increase.
Also encouraging is the fact that in overall scores, the level of proficiency or above for white students is 36 percent and 35 percent for black students, both above the state’s Annual Yearly Progress goal of 27 percent.
In fact, most elementary schools showed small or moderate improvement on test scores that include communication arts, math and science.
However, students in middle and high school continue to lag far behind state averages. The district used the word “stagnant” to describe testing results.
A mere 11 percent of seventh graders rated proficient or advanced in communication arts scores, while the state average is 32.5 percent. This is the lowest in five years and the third straight year for a drop in scores.
“We are letting these students down,” a tempered Clinkscale said during a press conference last Friday at Patrick Henry School.
“We obviously have a great deal of work to do to ensure that all of our students are performing at advanced and proficient levels,” Williams said.
“As these results show, elementary schools have made meaningful gains over the past year, while middle schools and high schools have not.
Clinskscale says continued efforts to improve test scores at all levels will begin in the superintendent’s office and spread throughout the district.
“We must continue our investment in curriculum and professional development for all grades. We must give the superintendent flexibility and support to drive teaching and learning in middle and secondary schools if we are to see greater improvement,” she said.
