On the heels of improving test scores and other accountability measures that were reported last month, the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education will decide whether to grant St. Louis Public Schools provisional accreditation on Oct. 16.
Even though he is optimistic about the chances that the district will begin to earn back local control as soon as next month, Superintendent Kelvin Adams says that isn’t the only measure of success.
“We want to make sure every student is reading on level, every student has an opportunity to go to college and has a number of choices before them, that there’s high quality instruction in each class,” Adams says. “But this is the system that we’re following right now, based upon the requirements that DESE put in place.”
Adams also says with more than a month of school completed, the district is doing a good job handling all the extra kids from charter schools that closed.
“Obviously we needed more human resources, more teachers, more books and those kinds of things, and we are making sure that that’s in place to accommodate those kids," Adams says. "But, there are no major issues as a result of some 2,900 more kids coming in this school year. We are really pleased with the numbers, but we are pleased also that we’ve been able not to miss as far as providing services for those families."
St. Louis Public Schools have been under state control since losing accreditation five years ago.
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