Ste. Genevieve County R-II School District is joining leading school districts from across the state of Missouri to design a better way for each student to engage in meaningful learning, demonstrate individual growth, and prepare for future success. The Missouri Success-Ready Students Network is leading a statewide effort to support a long-term transition to competency-based learning in public schools, including the design and implementation of new state assessment and accreditation systems. 

AUGUST 2023 — The Missouri State Board of Education has approved a three-year innovation waiver for 20 public school districts that will support the creation of a more meaningful way to measure student learning, demonstrate individual student growth and influence future success for all Missouri students.

SG R-II is proud to join this network of 20 “System Design Zone” public school districts from across the state that requested to pilot an alternative, growth-based student assessment to replace the MAP test, and ultimately implement a better accountability system as well. 

These districts will use growth-based assessments to replace MAP as the sole state measure of academic achievement. The districts will use information from growth-based assessments to design an accountability system that supports students in being high school, college, career and workplace ready. These districts will continue to administer the MAP test unless and until a federal waiver request is approved by the United States Department of Education in the future. DESE and the SRSN will now work together to propose this federal waiver

JUNE 2023 — School district leaders in the Success-Ready Students Network made a presentation to the Missouri State Board of Education on June 6, requesting board approval for a three-year waiver that will support the creation of a more meaningful way to measure learning, demonstrate individual student growth and influence future success for Missouri students.

The Missouri State Board of Education is scheduled to vote on the Demonstration Project with Waiver Request in August. If approved, the work of the System Design Zone districts in the Success-Ready Students Network would begin this fall and continue through the 2025-26 school year.

APRIL 2023 — During the Ste. Genevieve County R-II Board of Education meeting on April 18, 2023, the Board approved a resolution for the District's continued full participation in the Success-Ready Students Network: System Design Zone work and partnership with DESE in seeking a federal wavier request to replace the Missouri Assessment Program (MAP) with through-year assessments.

Assistant Superintendent Dr. Lance McClard provided an update on the continued work of the Success-Ready Students Network. We know that Missouri MAP test data does not provide an accurate, transparent reflection of student learning that students, parents and teachers can understand. It does not provide teachers with what they need to effectively inform instruction, and it limits instruction by focusing on compliance, not learning.

Our district has already begun using NWEA growth-based, through-year assessments, in addition to giving the Missouri MAP test each year. The NWEA data has provided our educators, students and families with an opportunity to experience how this type of assessment supports student learning, effective teaching, and collaboration for student success.

OCTOBER 2023 —During the Ste. Genevieve County R-II Board of Education meeting on Oct. 18, 2022, the Board approved a resolution for the district's membership in the Success-Ready Students Network (SRSN): System Design Zone. This is a collaborative initiative where a group of schools are working together to personalize learning to ensure every student has the knowledge, skills and dispositions they need to be high school, college, career and workplace ready.

This work includes a focus on competency-based learning, as well as designing and implementing a new through-year, adaptive state assessment and accreditation system, which would ultimately replace the MAP test. 

We are designing a better way forward— a new system that is: personalized for each student; meaningful for students and families; and actionable for teachers. Our priorities are aligned with Governor Mike Parson’s, the Missouri State Board of Education, bipartisan legislative support, and DESE. There are also many states nationwide already doing this work.