St. Louis public schools will find out tomorrow if they’ll regain at least provisional accreditation from the State Board of Education.
St. Louis schools lost their accreditation five years ago and were soon after placed under state control, but they have improved over the past two years. In 2010 they only met 3 out of 14 performance standards, with six being the minimum require for provisional accreditation. Last year they met the minimum six, and this year they’ve met seven performance standards. State Board Member Peter Herschend (R) says, though, there’s no guarantee the vote will go St. Louis’s way.
“We have to be sure that the kids, two years, five years from now, will have an education that will qualify them to be able to compete in life,” Herschend said.
Even if the State Board restores provisional accreditation, St. Louis schools will likely remain under state control for at least another year or longer.
“What matters isn’t the timeline, what matters is how well are the kids doing, and how well will they do going forward," Herschend said. "It is not just a simple black and white decision, is everybody happy?”
The State Board of Education meets tomorrow at 8:30 a.m. at DESE headquarters in Jefferson City.
- Follow @MarshallGReport on Twitter tomorrow for live-tweets from the meeting.
