The top line is that test scores are down pretty much across the board. The end-of-course (EOC) assessments in English 1 and Physical Sciences are the only two exceptions. DESE has made it very clear that last year’s scores can’t be compared to any earlier years. We can wait to do that in a couple of years. But there’s plenty of information in just this year’s scores.

Here are my takeaways (bear in mind that about 50,000 students who should have taken the tests did not. We don’t have any information on the type of students who were missing, but one can guess that most high-achieving students showed up):

• Virtual learning was a failure. Eight in ten virtual or distance learning students scored either below Basic or at Basic in math. Those students have either a minimal or a partial understanding of the material. English/Language Arts wasn’t much better. Two thirds of those students scored below grade level.
• We have a math problem. Nearly one third of students tested in math—including students who learned in person and virtually—scored below Basic. That equates to almost 150,000 Missouri students with a minimal understanding of their grade level’s math.
• We have a reading problem on the horizon. One group that I have been very concerned about during the pandemic is early readers. English/Language Arts scores dropped in all the early grades. But what’s really troubling is that out of 60,000 third graders tested, 3 in 10 scored below Basic and another 3 in 10 scored at the Basic level. That’s over 35,000 third graders that will not be able to read a math book or a science book unless we take immediate action.
• Our most disadvantaged students—Black and Hispanic students, students with disabilities, low-income students, and students learning English as a second language—were the hardest hit by the pandemic. Although the scores released by DESE for these groups bundled all three subjects together, the percentages of students who scored at the Basic level or below were dismal. Eighty-five percent of Black students, 87 percent of students with disabilities, and 74 percent of low-income students demonstrated only a minimal or partial understanding of the material.

So now what? The good news is that we have money and lots of it. DESE has received nearly three billion dollars from the federal government in stimulus spending. Although most of the money is directly distributed to districts, several hundred million will be spent at the state level. Parents are worried about their children being behind and they want services now. Students and families should be consulted about their needs and money should be made directly available.

Hopefully, more detailed data will be released soon. We need to understand this as the crisis that it might be.

The post Troubling Test Results for Missouri Students appeared first on Show-Me Institute.

For Missouri families that might be considering homeschooling, I’d like to share a couple of potentially useful resources.

First, and perhaps most important, is the Homeschool Legal Defense Association (HSLDA). HSLDA offers lots of resources on its website, including a state-by-state guide of laws and regulations related to homeschooling. For families worried about running afoul of the law, they can join HSLDA for $130 a year and get access to legal advice and protection as well as a host of other homeschooling resources.

Second, there is Khan Academy. Started as a series of YouTube videos Sal Khan created to tutor his nieces and nephews, Khan Academy has grown into a huge free online repository of lessons and projects for students. It has really stepped up during the coronavirus, creating a fully articulated school schedule for students with all the lessons and supplemental videos and articles necessary to complete it. Again, this is all available for free.

Third, Study Island by Edmentum offers a full self-paced online curriculum for students aligned to state standards. For those families thinking that homeschooling will be temporary and that their children will return to their traditional public school next year, keeping up with state requirements is important. Study Island provides its service for around $180 per student per year (though they do offer a free trial for folks looking to check it out). It is not free like Khan Academy, but is plug-and-play and standards-aligned, two key features that parents under pressure might think are worth the cost.

The fourth resource is Carol Topp, the Homeschool CPA. “Pandemic pods” are cropping up as a popular option for families to link together and share resources as they homeschool for the upcoming year. How can families set one up and potentially hire a teacher or set of tutors without running afoul of non-profit or employment law? This is where a knowledgeable CPA can help. Even for those who are homeschooling independently, tax questions can frequently arise. Her website has lots of free content, and she also offers one-on-one consulting services to help families navigate the homeschool landscape.

If you’re thinking seriously about homeschooling in Missouri this year, you are not alone. There are lots of families in the same boat, and lots of resources out there to help.

If you know of any other resources, particularly Missouri-based ones, please feel free to share them in the comments below.

The post Thinking About Homeschooling in Missouri this Year? appeared first on Show-Me Institute.

For quality distance instruction, you need a few basic items—students with high-speed internet connections, proper learning devices (laptops), content from the instructor, and synchronous feedback on student work.

How did Missouri respond overall? After reviewing distance-learning plans from the more than 500 school districts throughout our state, it can be said we barely managed.

The main obstacle for many schools to implementing quality distance learning was access to high-speed internet. For students without high-speed internet, education was delivered through printed learning packets.

And many Missouri students did rely on printed learning packets because nearly 1 in 4 students in our state does not have access to high-speed internet. Just as shocking: 1 in 10 teachers don’t have access either. Without a reliable internet connection, students couldn’t use online resources and their teachers couldn’t provide proper feedback. Thus, districts were left with providing homework packets that were for “enrichment” purposes only. From our research of distance learning plans, most packets found on district websites did not cover fourth quarter state standards that students were expected to learn. To put it simply, learning did not happen for many students.

Some schools deserve credit for responding creatively to the unexpected challenges. Some creative solutions included providing Wi-Fi in school parking lots, having teachers post read-a-longs on school Facebook pages, and partnerships with internet companies that provided two months of free service to households. However, these temporary band-aids are not long-term answers for Missouri student learning.

The few school districts that were able to continue with effective distance instruction made sure that every student had a device and access to high-speed internet before resuming instruction. Those districts were by and large suburban and already had the infrastructure in place. Most rural and urban areas in the state don’t have such infrastructure.

A majority of districts have sizable student populations without high-speed internet or without devices. In those communities, school leaders decided to not leave these students behind, meaning instruction goes at the speed of those receiving paper packets in the mail. This means instruction is slowed down to the lowest-common denominator, and other kids with online resources are being held back. And there’s no quick solution. Despite numerous grants, expanding high-speed internet across Missouri it is not cheap and is not a problem that falls on the school districts.

We all hope that schools can reopen and that students can go back to in-person learning. However, if schools must temporarily shut down due to an outbreak, students deserve more than what was offered last spring. If we don’t start getting ready for the next crisis now, the prospect of quality distance learning is unlikely for Missouri.

The post Missouri Barely Managed Distance Learning. Here’s Why appeared first on Show-Me Institute.

 With every public school in the state shut down and every student expected to learn virtually (if at all), we need to make immediate changes.

 Click on the link below to learn more about MOCAP.

The post Attention Parents appeared first on Show-Me Institute.

There will be others, however. And they will need more time before they are willing to put their child back on the school bus or in a school building. Some families have medically fragile members at home that make it too risky. Some district plans may not be all that reassuring. Many parents will just be afraid to risk their child’s health if a second wave of the pandemic hits. And the more cautious parents are likely to fall across all levels of the socioeconomic continuum.

More than ever before, flexibility in the education of our children must be the order of the day. Districts and schools will need flexibility over schedules and curriculum. And all parents will need viable options to continue their child’s education at home if they choose to.

The Missouri Legislature could provide students who wish to stay virtual for at least some portion of next year Education Safety Scholarships. These scholarships would put a portion of a student’s state education dollars directly into the hands of their parents. Parents could use these funds to pay tuition to virtual learning programs, purchase technology or curriculum, or pay for online tutoring.

Districts currently attempting to switch from all in-person education to all virtual may be anxious to switch back to what they know. That’s why it’s important that we respect the concerns and the timelines of all parents and give broad access to flexible public education options.

The post Back to School appeared first on Show-Me Institute.

As of now, it is up to individual districts in Missouri to establish their own guidelines for distance-learning plans. Districts can decide how much classwork students need to complete and if teachers or the district create assignments. For districts that didn’t have any online learning components before COVID-19, switching completely online has presented challenges.

Missouri schools aren’t the only ones figuring out distance learning right now. The Center for Reinventing Public Education (CRPE) has created a database for the largest public school districts in the nation and compiled what each has done in response to the coronavirus. CRPE then added 18 national charter school networks, and found that many charter networks are leading examples in how schools can continue to deliver quality instruction remotely to students.

Of the 18 charter networks CRPE examined, many were able to quickly adapt to entirely remote learning despite using different approaches. CRPE found that “half had created comprehensive learning plans with formal curriculum, instruction and progress monitoring.” Some of the charter networks, like Success Academy Charter Schools or Uncommon Schools, are even incorporating synchronous teaching. This is when all students in a class are logged online at the same time and learning from their teacher. In comparison, some Missouri school districts are not grading assignments, perhaps because they are still developing remote learning practices.

Missouri school districts don’t have to reinvent online learning. But they should be learning from other schools that have implemented remote learning successfully, like some of the leading national charter school networks that are leading the way on remote learning.

The post National Charter Networks Are Leading Distance Learning Strategies appeared first on Show-Me Institute.

The best way to address this concern would be via an emergency tax-credit scholarship program. This tax-credit scholarship program could function much like a regular tax-credit scholarship program. Individuals and businesses donate to a scholarship-granting organization (SGO), and the SGO distributes the money to students who qualify based on the program requirements (the attached infographic has more detail on how the funding works). An emergency tax-credit scholarship could be awarded in cases such as the current pandemic, or in other cases such as natural disasters or even when individual families go through crisis.

Unfortunately, it seems very unlikely this type of program will pass this year. This is an important lesson about being proactive. If Missouri already had a tax-credit scholarship program, it would have been much easier to get kids the help they needed in a crisis. Instead, schools and districts are left scrambling to try and make something work without the resources required.

Tax-credit scholarships would help give families the ability to purchase the materials students need to keep learning even if it’s not in a traditional brick and mortar school. Lack of access to the internet or a computer are real barriers to learning for many students, but tax-credit scholarships could help fill that gap. Missouri can better prepare for unforeseen circumstances if only we would get a little creative.

The post How Can We Make Sure Missouri Students Can Still Learn? appeared first on Show-Me Institute.

At the state level, eight governors have issued executive orders, proclamations or initiated coronavirus task forces. At least seven state education departments have offered statewide guidance, with California’s being an excellent example. Missouri’s Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) has a webpage with information related to COVID-19. DESE has also issued administrative guidance to all superintendents regarding school funding, attendance waivers, and the cancelation of Missouri Assessment Program (MAP) testing. Links to information on virtual instruction are provided, but it is left up to districts and schools to determine whether they will use them. Two of the statewide virtual learning programs, Launch and the Missouri Virtual Academy, currently only say that short term-enrollment is “possibly available.”

The Center on Reinventing Public Education (CRPE) at the University of Washington has been painstakingly building a database of district COVID-19 responses. The plans range from detailed and specific like Miami’s “comprehensive district learning plan that includes online learning curricula and teacher support, technology device and WiFi access provision, and supplemental resources for special populations” to simple and broad, like districts in Pennsylvania that have essentially cancelled school for the rest of the school year. St. Louis Public Schools doesn’t appear to have much of a plan right now. It is “considering” sending homework assignments to students through the mail, the approach that Kansas City Public Schools is also adopting.

So, what does all of this mean? We’re in uncharted territory and everyone is creating their own map. Districts and states that were prepared will have a much easier time providing their students an actual education. Florida, for example, already requires every high school student to take at least one of their courses online and is currently providing $200 stipends to the first 10,000 teachers who pass their virtual education training program. Those that have not embraced virtual education, like Missouri, are either going to have to figure it out very quickly or punt until the end of the school year.

The Show-Me Institute will be monitoring it all very closely and looking for best practices and lessons learned for when we eventually emerge from this crisis.

The post What the Heck Is Happening Out There? appeared first on Show-Me Institute.

According to the law that was passed by the state legislature and signed by the governor in 2018, every school district is required to inform families about their right to participate in MOCAP. It should be made clear in the “parent handbook, registration documents, and featured on the home page” of the district website. However, a majority of the districts are not complying with the law.

Only 57 out of the 556 school districts and charter schools in Missouri provided information about MOCAP on their websites. Of the 57 districts that do have this information posted online, only a handful made it easily accessible. Dallas County R-I is one of these outliers; it announced the program on the front page and link to a particularly informative explanation. But most websites bury the information. For example, Plato R-V only has a one-sentence message at the very bottom of the page in a hard-to-read gray font and provides no link to further information.

Ninety percent of Missouri districts are not complying with the requirement at all. MOCAP passed into law 18 months ago, and that should have been plenty of time to update websites and inform parents. Show-Me Institute analysts have written about instances of districts attempting to block students from using MOCAP, and the problem persists.

Online options can be a haven for students who face complicated medical situations, bullying, or have specific academic needs. MOCAP can also provide the opportunity for students to take classes that their local district doesn’t offer.

However, families can only reap the benefits of educational opportunities if they are aware of their options. MOCAP should be celebrated, but implementation is key. Every district should have this information on its homepage so that families who can benefit from course access are aware of the opportunity.

The post Should Ten Percent Be a Passing Grade? appeared first on Show-Me Institute.

The combined course list shows courses available on a wide range of topics including foreign language, different types of science and even audio and visual production classes. Some of the classes are even available at the AP (Advanced Placement) level. The education providers include Mizzou, K-12, Edison Learning, and others.

Show-Me Institute analysts have written extensively about the need for course access in Missouri, and seeing it signed into law was exciting. Although DESE did not produce the list of approved providers and courses as promised at the end of 2018, we’re glad to see that it is finally available on the Missouri Course Access and Virtual School Program (MOCAP) website.  

The law also requires districts to inform parents and students about MOCAP, but not all districts are compliant yet. For example, the North Kansas City School District has a MOCAP page on its website, but the Adair County R-I School District does not. As DESE is implementing course access, districts should be informing their students about the opportunity.

Not every student has access to opportunities like AP or foreign language classes in their home district. Now, students should be able to take the classes they need to build their future without being constrained by the offerings of their local school district. As the 2019-2020 school year approaches, we look forward to seeing students enroll in MOCAP classes as they customize their education and prepare for the future.

The post Course Access is Finally Available appeared first on Show-Me Institute.

THE SOLUTION: Course access.

Course access programs allow students to direct a portion of their annual per-pupil funds to take—and receive college credit for—courses outside of their traditional public school course offerings.

WHO ELSE DOES IT? Eleven states across the country have some form of course access program.

THE OPPORTUNITY: Missouri has much of the infrastructure needed to create a course access program through an underused program known as the Missouri Virtual Instruction Program (MoVIP), which was signed into law in 2006. In addition, the Grandview R-II and Springfield school districts have created their own online programs, but these courses are not available to all students in the state. In all three cases, the course offerings are vetted by the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) and can be credited toward graduation.

KEY POINTS

• During the 2015–2016 school year, of the 448 school districts that offer high school in the state, 9% had no students enrolled in chemistry, 42% had none enrolled in advanced physics, 40% had none enrolled in calculus, and 63% had none enrolled in AP courses.
• Course access allows students a cost-effective way to take courses not otherwise available in their district.
• Course access increases parent/individual control over education spending.
• Missouri already has the infrastructure needed to create a course access program.

SHOW-ME INSTITUTE RESOURCES

Essay: Course Access in Missouri: Diversity, Personalization, and Opportunity

Blog Post: Missouri Students Need Access to Advanced Coursework

Video: Course Access: Opening Opportunities across Missouri

Video: Course Access Brings the Classroom to the Student

For a printable version of this article, click on the link below. You can also view the entire 2018 Missouri Blueprint online.

The post 2018 Blueprint: Course Access appeared first on Show-Me Institute.

In Missouri, 88 percent of school districts are classified as rural, and in 2014 almost 15 percent of Missouri school districts enrolled a student population of 150 or less. A course access program has the potential to provide diverse curriculum options for students in these districts, as well as an opportunity for local school districts to earn revenue through student enrollment outside district boundaries.

Guthrie Common School District in Texas provides an example of the possibilities offered by course access programs. In 2013, the district enrolled 91 students. Like many small, rural school districts, Guthrie faced staffing challenges. According to a recent report, the district could not afford to hire a foreign language instructor, posing a problem for students wanting to attend the University of Texas, which has a foreign language admission requirement.

To solve this program, Guthrie leveraged the state’s course access program and partnered with Rosetta Stone to create state curriculum–aligned Spanish courses. Now, students from Guthrie who want to get into the University of Texas have a chance. 

But that’s not the end of the story. Because of the flexibility built into the program, Guthrie was allowed to enroll students from other districts. Guthrie Virtual School now enrolls 850 students, and offers programs in multiple subject areas. Students from around the state can access these courses from their own brick-and-mortar schools.

A small, rural school district in Missouri in Guthrie’s situation would have few choices: either merge with another district, or continue to beat the drum for more education spending.

Guthrie did neither.

Districts like Guthrie show that with a little creativity, students in rural and remote school districts can have access to the course opportunities their urban and suburban counterparts already enjoy, but policy must set the stage for innovation to take place.

The post Course Access in Rural Texas appeared first on Show-Me Institute.

This may be because virtual charter schools are not yet allowed to operate in the Show-Me State. Legislation has been introduced this session that attempts to expand virtual charter education opportunities. Online charters already exist in more than 30 states.

Virtual charter schools could provide an alternative for public school students and homeschool families outside of Saint Louis and Kansas City. The creation of a virtual school network also could create new employment opportunities for educators.

Traditional brick and mortar education may work for most students, but for children who require an alternate learning environment, 21st-century charter schools may be the answer.

The post Are Virtual Charter Schools Right for Missouri? appeared first on Show-Me Institute.

One such program is the University of Missouri-Columbia’s (Mizzou) K-12 online learning program. Yesterday, the Columbia Daily Tribune reported that the program is adding additional courses for the 2012-13 school year. The university now offers 11 online courses for Missouri high school students at a cost of $350 each. This program will certainly be beneficial to many students throughout the state, but it is just one way to use technology to improve options for students.

For more information on digital learning in Missouri and how technology can help transform education, check out former Show-Me Institute Policy Analyst Audrey Spalding’s case study.

The post Online Learning: When More Is More appeared first on Show-Me Institute.

Enrollment in the SLPS Virtual School is constrained by the district’s rule that online students spend one or more days a week in a classroom, working with Virtual School teachers in person. This policy is unusual for an online school; most such schools allow children to talk to teachers through video conferencing or by telephone, and require less frequent meetings. If SLPS made weekly in-person meetings optional, it could open enrollment to students who live far from St. Louis.

Another factor that has limited the Virtual School’s growth is its policy that elementary students must be enrolled full-time. Permitting young students to enroll in individual classes would give more children the ability to participate.

The post An Opportunity for SLPS appeared first on Show-Me Institute.

“The district makes money whether we enroll one student or 160,” Prescott said. “K12, Inc. charges a fee for each course. It might be $400 a semester. For a student who takes six classes for both semesters, that’s $4,800 a year. We count that student as full time and we get $7,000 from the state, which nets the district about $2,000 per student.”

I wonder whether the St. Louis Public Schools’ Virtual School, which also contracts with K12, is equally lucrative. I would guess not, because SLPS requires students to meet with a district teacher in person at regular intervals. Those meetings could bring up staff costs.

Given that districts can earn a profit from teaching students online, why don’t more of them form virtual schools? I can suggest a couple of explanations. Most districts probably don’t know much about online courses or what they could gain by enrolling students in them. Until recently, distance learning was the domain of old-fashioned correspondence schools, online charter schools, and state-level virtual schools. Traditional districts weren’t involved. Districts are used to a system in which they get revenue based on how many students are sitting in classrooms. The concept of earning more by sending students to a different environment goes against their experience.

It could also be that some districts view virtual schools as an admission of failure. If students choose virtual instruction over in-class learning, maybe that means that the brick-and-mortar component of the district wasn’t so great all along. I don’t think that’s an accurate analysis, because no single educational method is right for everyone. But I can see how districts might reach that conclusion in a school system of few choices.

The post Online Education Can Be a Boon for Districts appeared first on Show-Me Institute.