Joplin Schools Superintendent Kerry Sachetta said the district intentionally started the complete report card to show a view of the schools that’s not just academic achievements and test scores.
"I'm proud of the fact that we've made big improvements in what our stakeholders and our teachers and our parents and even our students think of what we're trying to do as a district," he added.
The ‘complete report card’ highlights specific improvements. For example, 93% of students trust that Joplin’s teachers care about their success and 85% of parents report overall satisfaction with the district. It also features testimonials from past and present students.
The report was done by a third-party firm. They surveyed teachers, students and parents to identify the district’s successes.
This is separate from the Missouri School Improvement Plan under the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education. The MSIP, as it’s called is an A-F score based on academic achievements by subject.
Joplin Schools received a B for this past school year with a score of 81% — a nine-point increase from last year. This is the sixth year that the MSIP has graded schools across the state.
Sachetta recognizes that the two report cards could confuse parents, especially since they were released at different times. He has unanswered concerns and questions about another grading scale, which was created under an executive order from Gov. Mike Kehoe in January. It also grades schools on an A-F scale. The State Board of Education recently approved the order.
The executive order states the grading scale would “provide families and communities with a simple, comparable, and rigorous picture of school quality while maintaining alignment with state and federal law.”
Sachetta believes this added grading scale could dishearten parents if their child's school would get a bad grade.
"Are people going to think that if one year the school is given a B, that they are just a just above average school or they're not a really good school?" he said.
This new grading scale is in addition to the MSIP, not a replacement, according to DESE. The ‘grades’ for the state's school districts and charter schools won't be available until November.
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