Annual Performance Review of University City Schools

The Missouri Department of Education has released preliminary data that deals with school accreditation from the state.

The University City School District met 7 of 14 standards on which the state evaluates school districts, based on preliminary annual performance report data released Friday.

To be fully accredited, a district must have met 9-14 of the standards, to receive provisional accreditation, the district must meet 6-9 standards. Districts who meet 0-5 standards can receive a recommendation to the State Board of Education to be classified as unaccredited.

"Right now the preliminary data does show that we (University City) have 7 points on APR (Annual Performance Report) but we are reviewing one of the areas and will be filing an appeal with the state in the hopes of getting that eighth point," said District Communications Director Linda Russell Wesley. She added that despite a 7, U City schools remain fully accredited.

"Those numbers only affect accreditation when you are subject to a state review...so, until we're reviewed again we absolutely remain fully accredited."

"We certainly hope that at the time of our next review we will have the points in place," she added.

Russell said the district has made a lot of aggressive academic reforms in the past couple of years which may not be reflected in the APR, because it is based on five years of data.

"In the past two years we've made gains in every area of the APR," Russell Wesley said. "But because of that five year window of data, our current, recent improvements aren't really having a full impact yet." She said that as that old data falls off the district expects to see its points go higher and higher.

Of the 447 K-12 districts in the state, 256 met all 14 standards while 64 met 13 standards. The vast majority of schools in the state-510 of 520-are expected to receive full accreditation after the final APR results are released in September.

The scores this year are relatively consistent with last year's results as each standard is compared, said Margie Vandeven, assistant commissioner in the office of quality schools at the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education.

Vandeven said that while she is pleased with the progress the state has made, she knows districts can do better.

2011 Preliminary Annual Performance Review

For more information on each school district's score, please visit The Missouri Comprehensive Data System and click on Accountability Reports.