On the surface, Wendell Phillips Elementary School’s state test performance in English Language Arts is the kind often dispatched to the bin marked for failing schools.

After all, three out of four students scored below proficient in 2019.

But a series of new studies looking beyond that point-in-time data reveals a school that ranks 20th out of Missouri’s 1,026 elementary schools when measuring the gains students have made over three years.

Wendell Phillips was one of several schools in the Kansas City Public Schools and Hickman Mills school districts that stood out statewide for raising the performance of children, many of whom entered public school challenged by the deficits caused by poverty.

The PRiME Center of Saint Louis University released its Student Growth Report that unpacked state test results and analyzed the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education’s “Growth Model” to identify schools that otherwise might not be recognized for performance.

In a more focused report — Beating the Odds — the researchers isolated the 256 elementary schools with the highest percentage of students who qualify for free or reduced-price meals. And in that group, Wendell Phillips ranked 7th in English Language Arts growth.

Other KCPS schools in the Top 30 for growth were Border Star Montessori, Melcher, Faxon, Holliday Montessori, Garfield, Hartman and Pitcher.

Hickman Mills’ Santa Fe Elementary also scored in the Top 30.

In Math performance growth, Top 30 schools from KCPS were Hartman, Whittier, Melcher, Pitcher and James.

Hickman Mills schools in the Top 30 were Santa Fe, Warford and Dobbs.

In a similar review of middle schools, Grandview Middle School rated in the Top 20 among 124 middle schools with the highest percentages of low-income families.

“The importance of examining student growth for a more full picture of school effectiveness is even more apparent when looking at the performance of schools that serve high concentrations of low-income students,” the PRiME researchers wrote.

“Single point-in-time proficiency scores can undersell the performance,” the report said.

Missouri’s Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) created a Missouri Growth Model in 2013 to provide a contextual measure for the annual scores in the Missouri Assessment Program (MAP) tests.

The model uses students’ Math and English Language Arts MAP test performance over a three-year period to predict the expected future score based on the average performance of their peers. DESE could then measure how well schools or school districts overall were raising student achievement above the predicted scores in the growth model.

In its reporting, the PRiME Center took DESE’s scores and converted them into a scale that resembled familiar test performance percentages. Schools that showed marked growth would score into the 90s with a high score of 100. Schools showing less growth scored into the low 70s or below.

In its Beating the Odds report, PRiME Center researchers isolated one-fourth of Missouri’s schools that had the highest percentage of students who qualify for free or reduced-price lunches and charted their performance in the growth model.

“We believe it is especially important to recognize these schools as they face many unique barriers to succeed at moving students forward at incredible rates,” the report said.

Kansas City Public Schools and Hickman Mills are among districts in the state in which all student receive free meals because the most of their schools serve populations where well over 90% qualify for the benefits.

By Joe Robertson/LINC Writer