Francis Howell is Accredited with Distinction Under New System

Written by Doug Miner and Kalen Ponche

The Francis Howell School District is accredited with distinction this year under Missouri's new accountability system for school districts, earning 96.4 percent of points available.

In past years, districts were evaluated in 14 areas of academic achievement and had to meet at least 9 standards to be fully accredited.

Many St. Louis districts, which for years have touted a perfect 14 on the old system, are seeing greater distinction among schools’ scores under the new system. 

The new Annual Performance Report (APR) consists of 140 points spread over five main categories: academic achievement (56 points), subgroup achievement (14 points), college and career readiness (30 points), attendance (10 points), and graduation rate (30 points).

A 100 is the perfect score, and only a handful of schools statewide currently achieve it. Locally, only Brentwood School District reached that mark in the results released on Friday.

Other districts that came close: Lindbergh, 99.3; Kirkwood, 98.2; Clayton, 98.9; Parkway 99.6.

Districts must reach 90 percent or above to be accredited with distinction, 70 percent or above to be accredited, 50 to 69.9 percent to receive provisional accreditation and 0-49.9 percent to be unaccredited.

Francis Howell School District received 96.4 percent, earning 135 of 140 points. The district lost points for college and career readiness and for achievement on the MAP tests for various groups of students.

See the complete list of scores for Missouri school districts on the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education website.