ST. LOUIS (KMOX) - When we look at how schools perform, we often look at the school's test scores, it's graduation rate, or how much did the students actually learn this year?
Last week, SLU PRiME, St. Louis University's research arm, released their third annual statewide growth report, which does a top 20 list in the state for student growth by school type (elementary, middle), then by ELA (English, Language, Arts) and math and also by student subgroup within ELA and math.
This year, there are five St. Louis schools among the top-performing schools in the state. On that list are KIPP STL, Lafayette Prep Academy, Premier Charter School, Momentum Academy at Fox Park, and Gateway Science Middle.
Dr. Colin Hitt, executive director of SLU PRiME joined KMOX's Total Information A.M. to discuss the growth report, which Hitt highlighting this report is not the same as a proficiency report.
"Take my kids eighth grade math score from the state standardized test, that score tells us how much that kid knows in math by the end of eighth grade," said Hitt. "But when we are talking about the eighth grade, when we are talking about the school year, what we really want to know is how much did that kid learn this year? Which means, we need to look at their scores from last year and in previous years and compare it to this year."
The goal of the growth report according to Hitt is to see how much a school has done to improve their students' reading and math skills over the course of the year compared to other schools. Hitt says the focus of the study was looking at K-8 schools.
"Growth doesn't look at your raw test score....but what growth does is rather than where you start the year or where you wrapped it up, it looks at how much distance did you cover and how did that distance stack up compared to other school," said Hitt. "That's the beauty of the growth metric in Missouri and that's why we spotlight it because it gives everybody a chance."
Hitt says while many people choose to just focus on raw test scores, SLU PRiME understands that there is skepticism and cons when it comes to that focus of just pure test scores.
"When we pick a test score and say 'that's the score we want everybody to have' or when we define proficiency and we want every single student to be at this level, the challenge is so many students start the year at so many different places," said Hitt. "There are some students who are one foot shy of that finish line, some that have already passed it before the year even begins and some who are far away. Looking at a test score and everybody has to go with that same score really sets a different goal for every kid and every school."