NEW BLOOMFIELD, Mo. - Missouri's Department of Elementary and Secondary Education is seeking public input on revamping school report cards.
On Thursday, New Bloomfield R-3 administrators will host a discussion for parents and family members of students, beginning at 6 p.m. at the high school cafeteria (307 Redwood Drive, New Bloomfield).
"I guess anyone outside (the district) could come as well, but it's (mostly) for the community, parents and teachers," Superintendent Sarah Wisdom said. "Every school had the opportunity to do this; it's on a volunteer basis."
DESE's school report cards offer a number of statistics that measure school performance, like graduation rates, career placement, Missouri Assessment Program results and about a dozen others. They're hosted in DESE's guided inquiry system, which, according to a DESE release, people find difficult to navigate.
The Every Student Succeeds Act, signed into law in 2015, requires states to update and standardize their report cards. DESE policymakers want parent and community input about what factors are important to include on a school report card.
"This is a way for the community to say, 'here's what we feel is important when looking for a quality school,'" Wisdom said. "Charter schools don't take standardized testing the way we do. It's a way to level the playing field."
The end goal for DESE is to create a new school report card containing the same types of information for every school, including charter schools.
"Then they'll have one area online where you can go and look at all schools in a comparative matter," Wisdom said.
Over the course of the meeting, which Wisdom said would last about an hour, facilitators will ask participants to define certain terms used in the report card system and rank and discuss the information they feel is important to include in report cards.
Facilitators will collect the feedback and email it to DESE.
Wisdom said she hoped the report cards would ultimately include the measures in which her district excels.
"We want to have good conversations about what makes the school district look successful," she said.