Missouri leaders weight in on proposed A-F public school grading system

Missouri leaders weight in on proposed A-F public school grading system

As students return to the classroom this fall, they won't be the only ones receiving a report card.

All public schools, charter schools and school districts will soon be given a yearly letter grade, ranging A through F. The move comes in response to an Executive Order issued by Gov. Mike Kehoe this January.

The order called on the state board of education and the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) to develop a system to evaluate schools, based primarily on academic performance and growth.

Grades are then to be published publicly each fall.

During the latest legislative session, Rep. George Hruza, R-St. Louis, co-sponsored a bill that called for similar measures outlined in the governor's executive order.

While that bill ultimately did not pass, Hruza said he agrees with the ideas behind a grading system.

“This is really transparency and information, which I think is always good,” Hruza said.

Hruza said letter grades are clear and help parents easily understand how schools are performing.

“There's also a second piece to it, which has to do with transparency,” Hruza said. “There's a lot of argument with how much taxes pay and where the money goes. They want to make sure that their money is spent wisely."

Hruza believes the grading system is not meant to be a punishment, but rather serve as a tool to highlight areas of growth and encourage improvement in schools.

“Every school is going to try to get a better grade, so they're going to see, ohhh we didn't do so well, what can we do to improve,” Hruza said. "Hopefully schools can learn from each other."

He added there is room for growth in Missouri’s education system and believes the grading system can help.

“I think Missouri overall is struggling. Based on how much we spend overall, we don't get the outcome that goes with that,” Hruza said.

However, other lawmakers, such as Rep. Kathy Steinhoff, D-Columbia, are not so sure.

"I'm very opposed to the idea of A through F grading,” Steinhoff said.

Steinhoff taught at Columbia Public Schools for 34 years. She argued reducing schools to a simple letter grade isn't a comprehensive assessment.

"Is the school district strong in fine arts, is the school district strong in literacy rates, is the school district strong in the extracurricular activities that are available,” Steinhoff said. “There's a lot more I think parents want to know."

Steinhoff said grades will mostly reflect how students perform on standardized tests.

"This A through F, all it's going to do is base the entire grade on a map test,” Steinhoff said. “We're going to be comparing a grade that students received on a test, whether they're in an affluent community that highly supports their schools through property taxes or an urban district that may have very high poverty rates and very low parental involvement...those two things when they're wildly, vastly different."

Mark Jones with the Missouri National Education Association shared these same worries.

"It's just a fancy way of redoing the standardized test, and having more standardized testing in schools,” Jones said. “What we're going to learn is something we already know...it's basically going to tell us where poverty exists."

A plan drafted by DESE in June estimated it'll cost about $1.2 million to roll out the grading system the first year. It would then cost just over $715,00 to maintain each year after.

The price tag sparked backlash from opponents, who said those funds would be better spent in the classroom, especially amid cuts to education in the state budget.

"What we could really do is fully fund our education formula in the state, make sure those schools are getting the resources they need,” Jones said. "Fundamentally this system degrades schools and doesn't do anything to help students or teachers."

Steinhoff also pointed to the slashes in funding, along with an ongoing teacher shortage across the state.

"When you starve a system and then you want to grade that system on a set of outcomes that you did not give them the resources that they needed to do that, that's not fair,” Steinhoff said.

According to DESE’s website, the Missouri State Board of Education reviewed the proposed grading framework on Aug. 18. If approved, schools will be given a letter grade for the 2025-26 school year this spring.

Every year after grades would then be published annually in September.