Excelsior Springs falls just short of state accreditation cutoff; district launches task force and quarterly monitoring
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Summary
Director of academics Doctor Miller reported the district’s 2025 APR at 69.5 (state cutoff for full accreditation is 70), outlined declines in algebra and some elementary grades, and announced a monitoring phase with a new academic task force and quarterly board reports to target interventions.
Doctor Miller reported to the Excelsior Springs School Board that the district’s 2025 MAP/EOC APR score is 69.5, just below the state’s 70% cutoff for full accreditation. "A score of 70% is the state's cutoff for full accreditation; we earned a score of 69.5," Miller said, calling the results "a wake-up call" that will require focused academic work.
Miller walked the board through building- and grade-level trends, noting pockets of success — Elkhorn’s fourth- and fifth-grade gains and consistent 100% points in graduation and postsecondary-readiness metrics — but singled out high-school algebra and some elementary ELA and science measures as areas of concern. She said algebra I performance at the high school declined substantially and that the district will prioritize earlier interventions and a revised curriculum cycle for math next year.
To respond, Miller said the district is entering a monitoring phase that will emphasize data interpretation, targeted plans by grade and subgroup, and an "academic task force" composed of principals and district leaders. "The academic task force is going to meet an additional time and really focus on what this actually means," Miller said; she promised quarterly updates to the board and more classroom-level observation and coaching.
Board members asked about root causes; Miller pointed to teacher turnover, grade-to-grade continuity, assessment alignment and attendance as likely contributors and said she will investigate rather than assert a single cause. She described supports under consideration, including Tiger Walks (peer classroom observations), increased coaching, demonstration classrooms where feasible, and creative scheduling and interventions at the secondary level.
Next steps: Miller said the task force will produce targeted action items and the district will present quarterly progress reports to the board. No formal policy changes or corrective orders were made at the meeting.
