JUST 24% OF ROCKWOOD'S BLACK STUDENTS SCORED PROFICIENT OR ADVANCED IN READING IN 2023. YEARS AGO, IT WAS 44%. WHAT THE OTHER DATA SHOWS...

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Around the country, people are beginning to discuss whether so-called DEI programs or socially inclusive teaching methods are helping academics.

MO state data appears to show that Black students have not been helped by them.
In Rockwood, this is the percentage of the district's Black students that scored "proficient" or "advanced" on the state's standardized tests in 2023:

24.2% on reading/ELA
16.7% on math
17.4% on science
Source: MAP (Mo Assessment Program)

In 2016, 44.8 percent scored proficient or advanced in reading. So, between 2016 and 2023, there was a 20.6 point drop. The effects of virtual learning during Covid and changes to the state's tests are generally used as reasons for the changes in scoring.

The above chart is from the St. Louis County Family Association, which got ten years worth of MAP score data from Missouri's Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE), and loaded it into the Analytics tool to visually show the data in line graph form. To check the data for yourself, or in another district, click this link and scroll down to the chart tool.

There, you'll see that 33.5% of Rockwood's Black students scored proficient or above in Math during the 2014 MAP test, a 16.8 point difference compared to 2023. And, that 36.3% scored that way on the 2015 Science test, an 18.9 point difference compared to 2023.

FEDERAL COMPLAINT
The NAACP filed a federal civil rights complaint over this very issue in August, citing standardized test scores of Black students that were starkly lower than the state as a whole.

One example given in this news article is that in 2023, just 21% of all of Missouri's Black third graders scored proficient in reading, compared to 42% for all the state's 3rd graders.

We are still waiting for Missouri's 2024 full MAP score data.

PRELIMINARY 2024 DATA
DESE's preliminary report for 2024's test data shows this for all of Missouri:

ENGLISH LANGUAGE ARTS

Among the state's 6th and 7th graders, just 38% and 39% scored proficient or advanced on the English Language Arts test. Other grades had percentages in the 40s.The highest was English I in high school, at 61% scoring proficient or advanced. Again, this is for the whole state.

Source: MO Dept of Elementary and Secondary Education

To get the percentages noted above, add the top two numbers in each column.

MATH

The percentage of proficient or advanced scores is down in the 40s until high school Geometry, when it goes up to 53%. 

Among Missouri students, 58% scored proficient or advanced in Algebra II.

Source: MO Dept of Elementary and Secondary Education

SCIENCE

In Science, just 42% of Missouri's 5th graders scored proficient or advanced.

37% scored that way on the 8th grade test.
39% scored that way in high school biology.
41% scored that way in high school's physical science test.

Source: MO Dept of Elementary and Secondary Education