Kansas City, Mo., school system leaders are optimistic about the district’s chances of receiving full accreditation after reviewing preliminary high school test results from the spring, the Kansas City Star reports.
The preliminary test results are offering strong signals that the 15,000-student district is likely to move into the fully accredited range when state report cards arrive in August.
Vickie Murillo, the district’s chief academic officer, told the paper that the scores showed enough growth to put the paper at or above its improvement target.
The district is still awaiting test results for its 3rd through 8th grade students.
In its September 2011 decision to strip Kansas City’s accreditation, the Missouri Board of Education cited “continued failure to improve academic performance and the continued instability in district leadership as driving its decision,” the New York Times reported.
The district had two full school years after the decision to show academic progress in order to avoid a state takeover.
If the district is successful, they’ll have to take the final step without outgoing Superintendent R. Stephen Green, who has steered the district from “the brink of state takeover to provisional status and a shot at full accreditation,” the Star reports.
The school board said goodbye to Green this week. He’s leaving to take the superintendent post in the 99,000-student DeKalb County, Ga., school district.