Margie Vandeven

Margie Vandeven, who leaves the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education at the end of the month, discusses enduring problems and bright futures within Missouri’s K-12 education system.

Missouri's education department has released new performance data finding chronic absenteeism remains a problem for many school districts. Among them are St. Louis Public Schools with 51% of students chronically absent, Normandy Schools Collaborative with 52%, Ferguson-Florissant with 43%, Hazelwood with 42% and Riverview Gardens among the worst in the state with a 61% of students chronically absent.

The state board of education tapped the state senator to take over after Margie Vandeven's retirement.

Missouri’s state board of education decided to provide schools with optional guidelines on social-emotional learning to help them cope with worsening student behavior. Commissioners are concerned about potential political pushback to the learning standards, which have been criticized by conservatives.

Margie Vandeven became the Missouri Commissioner of Education in January 2015, but was briefly ousted by Gov. Eric Greitens before being reinstated. Vandeven led the education department through the coronavirus pandemic and oversaw a transition to a new standardized testing regime.

English teacher Christina Andrade Melly is the second state teacher of the year from the Ritenour School District in the past few years.

At forums in Riverview Gardens and Normandy, community members came together to discuss attendance, teacher turnover and the state’s role in the school districts.

Missouri has laid out multiple options for keeping kids safe while still letting them learn in person.

After a reporter identified a security flaw that exposed teachers’ social security numbers, Missouri said it would offer credit monitoring.

Missouri was awarded nearly $185 million in federal funds to support the program’s implementation.