Science APR data released

SIKESTON — Several informational items were presented during Tuesday’s Sikeston R-6 Board of Education meeting.

Chuck Mayes, chief academic officer/curriculum and professional development, provided the district’s science Annual Performance Report, or APR, data, which was released Nov. 14.

Biology, fifth grade and eighth grade were the only grades tested in the newly implemented test this year, Mayes noted. Because science was a field test last year, there are no results for 2018, he said.

This year’s test results aren’t comparable to past years; however, for APR purposes, the state Department of Secondary and Elementary Education, or DESE, still uses past scores for an APR average, Mayes said.

“As far as scores, we’re closer to state scores in biology than we are in fifth and eighth grades,” he said.

Sikeston’s academic achievement score was 294.2, which is the average of 2016, 2017 and 2019 years, and that is below the state average, he said.

“That is low, and I’m not happy with that score,” Mayes said.

Sikeston’s subgroup achievement score was 258.7 which was closer to the state average than the district’s overall academic achievement score, he said.

Steps are being taken to address the low scores, Mayes said.

“Wanda Throop (science academic coach) is working with sixth through eighth grade teachers and looking at doing a re-alignment with our science objectives and making sure we’re hitting what’s tested at each level,” Mayes said. “We’ve found, especially with 8th grade, we have good instruction there, but we can do a better job on focusing on the skills that are actually tested and making sure we’re hitting those.

“It’s something we’ll continue to work on, and, hopefully, we’ll see better results as we go forward,” Mayes said.

Other informational items included:

— District enrollment is at 3,496 which is down from 3,450 last month, but Shannon Holifield, assistant superintendent for secondary services, pointed out it’s typical to have a drop like this at this time of year.

— Bond Committee Chairs Cooper McKelvey and Katie Merideth briefed the Board on their recent efforts. The two have met with several groups in Sikeston to discuss the April 7, 2020, bond issue election. They also discussed plans to include a panel discussion during a third town hall meeting tentatively set for Jan. 28, 2020, at Lee Hunter Elementary.

— Annual program reports were given by Chad King, director of the Career and Technology Center; Steve Sparlin, director of technology; Anne Crader and Hailey Sullivan, gifted program teachers; and Scott Ezell, district safety coordinator.