© 2024 St. Louis Public Radio
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Small changes could have big impact on evaluation, says Normandy

This article first appeared in the St. Louis Beacon, Aug. 29, 2013 - Besides hearing updated figures on Normandy High School's discipline incidents, the district's school board meeting Wednesday night also featured a lengthy presentation of Normandy’s scores in last week’s release of numbers from the first year’s evaluations under the fifth cycle of the Missouri School Improvement Plan, or MSIP5.

In the report, Normandy’s earned just 11.1 percent of the points possible, which would keep it mired deep in the unaccredited category.

McNichols emphasized to the board the importance of certain categories, such as attendance, where close attention has to be paid to every chance to improve -- no matter how small.

He noted that how long students attend class is being measured down to the minute. So, in many cases, for example, older students have to stay home to watch younger sick siblings  because parents cannot take time off from their jobs.

McNichols said his goals for the coming year include achieving a 3 percent improvement in test scores in the academic subjects that are tested – English, math, science and social studies. He said that number may not sound like much, but because of the way that the scores are calculated, such improvement could move Normandy into the category where it earns points rather than a number of zeroes.

He emphasized, as he has at earlier meetings, that zeroes do not mean what they appear to mean, that no one passed the test.

“The average person, when they look at the data and see a zero, they think nothing is going on,” he said. “We have to educate people to see what that zero is. I think we’re off to a great start of understanding where we are."

He also plans to pay more attention to earning points in the graduation rate category and the category of preparing students for college or careers after they leave high school.

If more high school students took tests such as the ACT, McNichols said, they might set their sights higher.

“Juniors taking the ACT may do well enough to realize they could get scholarship money,” McNichols said. “We’ve got to help our families see the ACT as an opportunity get some cash.”

Graduation rates are hurt, he said, by the number of students who flunk algebra and can’t try to pass it again for another year or two. That means they don’t graduate with their class.

He said he wants to raise by 13 percent the rate at which students graduate within five years – a goal that he admitted is a stretch.

“That’s a big jump,” McNichols said.

District officials and board members plan to meet Saturday for a more in-depth look at the MSIP5 numbers.

Dale Singer began his career in professional journalism in 1969 by talking his way into a summer vacation replacement job at the now-defunct United Press International bureau in St. Louis; he later joined UPI full-time in 1972. Eight years later, he moved to the Post-Dispatch, where for the next 28-plus years he was a business reporter and editor, a Metro reporter specializing in education, assistant editor of the Editorial Page for 10 years and finally news editor of the newspaper's website. In September of 2008, he joined the staff of the Beacon, where he reported primarily on education. In addition to practicing journalism, Dale has been an adjunct professor at University College at Washington U. He and his wife live in west St. Louis County with their spoiled Bichon, Teddy. They have two adult daughters, who have followed them into the word business as a communications manager and a website editor, and three grandchildren. Dale reported for St. Louis Public Radio from 2013 to 2016.