State Education officials will hold a pair of public hearings regarding Missouri’s unaccredited school districts from 6:30-8 p.m. today, Feb. 6, in Springfield and Sikeston.

The Springfield hearing will take place at Missouri State University, Plaster Student Union Room 400, 901 South National Ave., Springfield. The Sikeston hearing will be at the City of Sikeston-Clinton Building, 501 Campanella Drive, Sikeston.

State education officials will hold a public hearing regarding unaccredited school districts on Wednesday, Jan. 29 in Kansas City.

The hearing will take place from 6:30-8:00p.m. at the Paseo Academy, 4747 Flora Avenue, Kansas City, MO 64110. It will be an opportunity to gather community feedback on plans submitted for transforming unaccredited school districts in the state. With this feedback, the Department will create a statewide plan for support of and, if necessary, intervention in unaccredited schools.

ACT® also provided for all Missouri 11th grade students

The Department and a coalition of education partners have developed a revised assessment plan for the 2014-15 school year designed to reduce the amount of time spent on state testing and the overall cost.

To foster open communication on the Common Core State Standards, the State Board of Education heard both sides of the debate over the standards at its meeting Tuesday. The presentation focused on Missouri’s transition to revised academic standards and perspectives on what implementation of the standards means for students, teachers and parents.

Teachers seeking certification in Missouri will be meeting new requirements after a State Board of Education vote Tuesday. The proposed rule changes were presented to the Board after a period of public feedback that ended Jan. 1.

Two staff members at the Lakeview Woods State School located in Lee’s Summit were dismissed after a disabled 19-year-old student was left on a school bus Friday.

The bus driver and an aid left a non-verbal student in a wheelchair on the bus during the school day and found the student on the bus at the end of the day. School staff gave the student fluids and checked the student’s vital signs before taking her home.

The Missouri Board of Education received the first draft of a plan for intervening in unaccredited school districts Monday from the Cities for Education Entrepreneurship Trust (CEE-Trust).

The draft plan is intended to ensure the State Board and the Department have a well-researched plan for intervention should the state need to intervene in unaccredited districts. The Board has received other models for intervention, and it will consider each of them with equal weight.

A national report card based on state education policy and performance has given Missouri a grade of D in student achievement, a C- minus in school finance and a C-plus for providing students with a chance for success.

The “Quality Counts 2014” report released Thursday, gave Missouri a score of 66 for student achievement, below the national average of 70.2, based on student scores from the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) exam. Missouri scored 70.5 for school finance based on equity and per-student spending. The average school finance score was 75.5.

Gov. Jay Nixon has appointed Joe Driskill to the State Board of Education.

Driskill, a Jefferson City resident, has a history of public service throughout the state. He served as a member of the Missouri House of Representatives from 1983-1993 and was Missouri’s Director of Economic Development from 1993-2003. He currently serves as the executive director of the Leonard Wood Institute and the Sustainable Ozarks Partnership at Fort Leonard Wood. He has been involved with numerous professional organizations, including as a member of the Missouri Children’s Trust Board.

Gov. Jay Nixon has appointed John Martin, Ph.D, to the Missouri State Board of Education.