Comment on somebody else discussion board

Somebody else discussion board

According to SLU Prime Center's 2023 Missouri Education Profile it does not appear that Missouri is effectively preparing students for college. MAP scores for ELA are down 2% with only 28% of students proficient and 16% advanced. The Mathe Map score had 22% proficient and only 17% advanced. Missouri NAEP (National Assessment of Educational Progress) scores fell between 5 and 9 points. This is the lowest in decades for 4th and 8th grade reading and math. Missouri had fewer proficient and advanced reading and math scores than the national average and the majority of other states. Missouri has seen a decline in college enrollment and an increase in workforce entry. Of the students who do go to college 1in 4 are not persisting to their second year and nearly 1 in 2 are not completing college. Of those that do go to college a majority are choosing to go out of state.

Many factors can influence these results. Teacher salary and retention being a major factor. Missouri ranks 50 in national average starting teacher pay and 47th in average teacher salary. With border states having a higher starting and average salary teachers may be leaving to go where there is more money. A majority of teachers coming in are first year teachers. We know that there is a roughly 30percentage point gap between white and African American students on state assessments. This may be due to the fact that a majority of Missouri teachers are white, 91%. We know the importance of representation and diversity in education. Missouri lags behind the national average money spent per pupil by $2,092 and is $524 behind the border state average. While some of these declines are probably related to covid and other societal factors, i think the low teacher pay, lack of spending on education and a lack of a diverse teaching force may also have a part in the lower testing scores we are seeing. By improving teacher pay and retaining qualified experienced teachers and increasing the amount we spend on education I think we can improve.