Commissioner's Newsletter
May 22, 2006
Dear School Administrator:
Following are several important items for your information and use.
ADJUSTING ATTENDANCE FOR NON-CERTIFICATED EDUCATORS
State law requires all school district personnel who are responsible for working with students in an instructional or supervisory capacity during the school day to have a valid Missouri teaching certificate. Therefore, attendance hours for students assigned to any educator without a valid certificate will be disallowed for state aid purposes.
A report is available on the DESE Web application system that identifies personnel within a district who do not have valid certificates. To access this report in the data collection system, go to the dropdown menu in the upper-right corner of the screen, select Report Menu, then Special Reports, then Inappropriate Certification. Under the program dropdown menu on the Inappropriate Certification Web page is the new report entitled "No Certification-Teachers." The report can be run for all buildings or individual buildings and can be sorted by last name or school code.
At the end of 2005-06, we will prepare a list of educators who:
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Did not hold a valid Missouri educator certificate at any point between July 1, 2005, and July 1, 2006. (If an individual held a substitute certificate, the certificate must have been valid for the 2005-06 school year.)
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Have a certificate pending but did not initiate the required background check prior to June 30, 2006.
School districts must then exclude the 2005-06 hours of attendance for all students who were under the supervision of school district employees who were not fully certified or did not meet at least one of the above conditions.
RELEASING 2006 "MAP" AND "AYP" RESULTS
As you know, the new "grade-level" MAP exams were introduced this spring, meaning that approximately twice as many students took part in MAP testing this year as in any previous year. We expect, as a result, that we will need a little more time prior to the release of this year’s MAP results and preliminary AYP statistics.
Last year, we released MAP results and preliminary AYP determinations on August 19. We gave all school districts access to their own data a few days in advance of the public release, via DESE’s secure Web site.
We are planning to use a similar procedure and schedule this year, but we do not expect to be ready to release the data until sometime during the week after Labor Day (September 4). We understand that every school district is anxious to get its MAP results back as quickly as possible. However, we want to make sure we have enough time to check and double-check all the data this year before we "go public." I expect this verification process also will postpone the release of preliminary Annual Performance Reports (APRs) by a couple of weeks.
We will provide you with more details soon about our schedule and procedures for publishing and releasing the 2006 MAP results. At this point, though, you should not expect to have your MAP data online or your preliminary AYP statistics until the last week of August.
WELLSTON IS GIVEN "INTERIM" ACCREDITATION
As you probably know, the Wellston School District, in St. Louis County, is the only district in the state that is unaccredited. It became unaccredited in 2003. We took over the district last year (July 1, 2005) after the district failed to make sufficient progress during the two-year period allowed under state law. As a result, the board and superintendent of the Wellston School District were removed, and a three-member administrative panel appointed by the State Board of Education has operated the Wellston schools for the past year. Dr. Charles Brown of our staff is now serving as the chief executive officer of the district. Along with the two citizens serving on the administrative board, Dr. Brown and his staff have worked extremely hard during this past year to restore the academic and fiscal integrity of that school district.
When Wellston became unaccredited, its students became eligible (under state law) to attend other accredited districts. About 100 students have taken advantage of that opportunity, and Wellston has been paying tuition for those students to attend other districts. The total cost of those tuition payments is roughly $1 million per year. In the long run, this district cannot survive if mandatory tuition payments continue at this level.
Therefore, at the April meeting of the State Board of Education, I recommended that the board grant "interim" accreditation to the Wellston district, effective July 1. The district will not be provisionally accredited, but it will no longer be unaccredited. This means that new students will not be eligible to transfer to other districts at Wellston’s expense. Wellston officials also are hopeful that some students who have transferred will return to Wellston when they see that the district is making progress and has a reasonable chance for long-term survival.
In many ways, Wellston is like a new district that began operating this year. If it can control and reduce tuition costs, it has a chance to regain financial stability and work on making the changes it must make in order to achieve accredited status. The "interim" status gives the district a chance to regroup and move forward.
We felt that the unique circumstances in this community warranted the action of creating a "new" (and temporary) accreditation category. This solution might not work in another time and place. Another option would have been for us to allow the Wellston School District to collapse and then assign its remnants to surrounding districts. That would have ended the need for state intervention, but it would have only transferred Wellston’s problems to other school districts.
The Wellston case has produced a year of many "firsts." Legally and administratively, it has been a great challenge. At the same time, I am proud that Dr. Brown and his colleagues have been able to deflect most of the distractions and keep the students, parents and faculty focused on what matters most. In addition, I am grateful to the State Board of Education for its willingness to stay engaged with this difficult case – and its willingness to support unconventional solutions to the new problems created by the first state takeover of a school district.
Although Wellston’s status as an unaccredited district will soon be changing, I anticipate that there will be more unaccredited districts in the state in coming months. Therefore, I think it is important for superintendents all over the state to know what is happening in these cases.
At its April meeting, the State Board of Education approved a proposed revision in our existing regulation concerning the changing of school district names. We needed to update and simplify this rule, which had not been reviewed for a long time. The only purpose of this change is to provide greater flexibility to any school district that may want to change or update its official name. If you have questions about this matter, please contact Tom Quinn, director of school governance.
SELECTING COORDINATORS FOR THE A+ SCHOOLS PROGRAM
This is a reminder to school districts that are in the process of seeking "A+ Schools" designation or that currently have designated A+ high schools. Districts taking part in the A+ program must designate a qualified staff member to serve (at least half-time) as the program coordinator. That .5 FTE should hold a certificate of license to teach at the secondary level or an administrator’s certificate and should not have other duties assigned for that portion of his or her time.
This is a school-improvement program, not just a program to provide postsecondary tuition for eligible graduates. The A+ coordinator works with high school staff on curriculum and at-risk issues, coordinates with postsecondary institutions, coordinates and supervises the tutoring/mentoring component, and acts as a mentor for students participating in the program.
e-LEARNING FOR EDUCATORS; SCHOLARSHIPS NOW AVAILABLE
With funding from the U.S. Department of Education, and with the cooperation of several partners in Missouri, this Department is happy to be supporting an innovative professional development opportunity called "e-Learning for Educators: Missouri." Public television stations and the departments of education in nine states are working together in this effort to deliver Internet-based professional development courses for K-12 educators.
In Missouri, we are working with KETC/Channel 9 (the PBS station in St. Louis), the eMINTS National Center (based at the University of Missouri) and Missouri State University (in Springfield) in what we hope can be a groundbreaking effort to provide quality professional development to Missouri educators.
You have previously received information about this project through the DESE Mail Bag. Courses are available now in the areas of math, communication arts and differentiated instruction. Scholarships also are available now to help teachers cover the cost of $125 per course.
We encourage you and your staff to consider the advantages that the e-Learning for Educators program might have for your teachers or your district.
NEW CURRICULUM SPECIALISTS SELECTED
I am happy to announce that the Division of School Improvement has recently selected two new curriculum specialists who will begin working for us in July and filling positions that have been vacant for several months.
Cindy Bryant will be our new math consultant. Cindy has been a math teacher in Missouri for 25 years. She is a past president of the Missouri Council of Teachers of Mathematics and a former STARR teacher.
Sharon Hoge will be our new consultant for communication arts. Dr. Hoge is currently serving as language arts coordinator and director of K-12 reading for the Columbia Public Schools. She has taught secondary-level literature and composition in both Missouri and Texas and later taught developmental and remedial reading. She also has worked at the collegiate level (assistant professor) in Missouri and Texas.
Last week, we sent you a preliminary program and registration information for this summer’s annual Conference for School Administrators. I hope you will be able to attend, or make sure that your district is represented. The theme of this year’s conference is "Every Challenge Creates an Opportunity – What We Do Matters!"
This is the time of year when educators are reminded most powerfully that "what we do matters." We get to celebrate with and for those young people who have overcome great obstacles to graduate from high school – or simply to complete another year in school. We remember and hurt for those who were less successful, who left school, or who suffered personal loss. We get to watch another group of young people go forward into their community and into new worlds beyond.
I hope that you and your students and faculty have much to celebrate, and little to mourn, as this year draws to a close. My staff and I are proud to be able to help you and your colleagues do what you do every day to serve the children and youth of Missouri. That’s why I tell my staff, "what we do matters," too.
Sincerely,
D. Kent King