Vol. 40, No. 48
December 22, 2006
CONTACT: JIM MORRIS |
DESE Releases 2005-06 “Report Cards”
For the State and Local Public Schools
New This Year: Special Education Profiles
Updated “report cards” about every public school and school district in Missouri are now available on the Internet, state education officials announced today.
A new report with statewide statistics about Missouri’s public school system (pre-kindergarten through grade 12) during the last school year also was released today by the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education.
The statistical profiles about each school district, school building and charter school are prepared annually by DESE as required by state law. The reports provide key statistics and trend data about students, teachers, academic performance, finances and other topics.
This year, for the first time, DESE also has published a detailed “Special Education Profile” about every school district. Required by federal law, the profile provides data about achievement, graduation and other performance indicators for children with disabilities. This report is available online.
The education agency also released an updated profile of the state, called the Missouri Public School Accountability Report. It parallels the local school profiles to a great extent but includes some additional state-level indicators. Highlights of the state-level report include:
- Enrollment in kindergarten through grade 12 increased slightly in 2005-06 (less than one-half of one percent) to 900,021. Including preschool students (pre-kindergarten), total public school enrollment increased to 928,768.
- Preschool enrollment has more than doubled in the past five years, growing to nearly 29,000 last year. Public school districts are not required to offer preschool programs, but a majority of the state’s 524 school districts now provide some type of services for 3- to 5-year-olds.
- Statewide, the dropout rate increased slightly last year, up to 4% from 3.7% the prior year. The dropout rate has inched upward for three years in a row after declining steadily for several years.
- There was no change last year in the percentage of Missouri students eligible for free or reduced-price meals at school (41.8%) or the percentage of students with limited English-speaking ability (2.1%).
- The number of teachers in Missouri public schools increased to 68,557, and the average teacher’s salary increased by about 3.4% to $42,077.