Few school districts rebound from pandemic learning loss across St. Louis region

At Maplewood Richmond Heights Elementary School, students demonstrate what they’ve learned by creating and hosting exhibits open to the public. On Thursday, the fifth graders debuted their Oregon Trail exhibit for the museum’s opening night.

“We love contributing. We love how we get to work together, and everyone’s been working so hard,” said Grace Yarbrough, 10.

The “school-as-museum” metaphor has helped Maplewood Richmond Heights rebound from pandemic learning loss better than any other district in the region. Students raised their proficiency rate in English from 53% to 64% and in math from 48% to 54% in the last year, according to 2024 standardized test scores released by the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education.

Staff members including teachers, interventionists and counselors meet several times weekly to pore over data and personalize the support for every student, according to Berzon.

“There’s nothing more rewarding than when it pays off score-wise, but most of all in my students’ lives. It’s every teacher’s dream,” she said.

Along with Maplewood Richmond Heights, Valley Park and Webster Groves are the only other local districts that scored higher in English and math this year compared with 2019, before the pandemic moved schools online and caused record-high absenteeism that set students back worldwide.

The local decline in test scores post-pandemic has been worse in English, with an average loss of nearly 5 percentage points among districts in St. Louis, St. Louis County and St. Charles County. The average loss in math scores was close to 2 percentage points.

Students in Webster Groves raised the math proficiency rate in the last five years from just under 60% to almost 68%.

Over the past couple years, Webster Groves started some school days 90 minutes later than usual for teachers to meet in “collaborative learning teams” and assess students’ mastery of concepts. From there, teachers tailored instructional plans for student groups based on their needs.

“I really believe that providing teachers that time and opportunity to come together is paying off,” said Jason Adams, assistant superintendent for learning.

Math classes have also shifted away from traditional lectures toward student-led learning, Adams said. The approach, called “thinking classrooms,” was coined by mathematics education professor Peter Liljedahl in Canada and centers around students being active participants in lessons, rather than passively listening from behind a desk.

“What you might see in the classroom is the teacher giving some direct instruction, but then the students are actively involved in working with their peers and teacher in solving problems and taking the lead in what their learning looks like,” Adams said.

Adams said a couple Webster Groves teachers also participated in a grant program through the state education department to earn elementary math specialist certificates.

Valley Park’s size proved to be one of its greatest strengths in boosting post-pandemic scores, said Assistant Superintendent Megan Brown.

The region’s smallest district with fewer than 700 students boasts a class size ratio of 12 students per teacher, compared to the state average of 16. Valley Park educators are able to give close attention to individual students and do “learning walks” where teachers and administrators sit in classrooms to analyze engagement and academic rigor, Brown said.

“That sends a message to students that this is serious,” Brown said. “We’re here to learn and we’re here to check in on your learning.”

Like Maplewood Richmond Heights and Webster Groves, Valley Park also implemented a deep focus on data analysis and more frequent assessments throughout the year.

“We say (the state tests) are kind of like autopsy data,” Brown said. “It’s after-the-fact and gives us only a bird’s-eye view. We really want to drill down and individualize students’ needs.”

Charter schools struggle to improve test scores

With few exceptions, St. Louis charter schools have fallen farther behind compared to districts after the pandemic, with an average loss of 7 percentage points in English and 5 in math since 2019. The declines as low as 30 points are partly attributable to charters’ relatively small size. But as a whole, most charters are not fulfilling the goal of outperforming their home district.

Half of the charter school systems in the city scored higher in both subjects than St. Louis Public Schools, where 21% of students tested proficient in English and 17% in math.

In Kansas City, charter schools fared even worse. Eight out of 20 charters outscored Kansas City Public Schools in English and seven in math.

Two St. Louis charter schools, City Garden Montessori and North Side Community, are designated as “high quality” by the state but no longer meet the requirement of scoring 85% on their annual performance reports.

Ten years ago, North Side students routinely doubled and tripled the scores of their counterparts in other high-poverty schools. The state awarded the charter a perfect score on its 2014 performance report.

But in the last five years, North Side fell from 46% to 23% proficiency in English and 44% to 14% in math, the steepest drop in the region.

North Side is “deeply committed to accelerating learning recovery and improving academic outcomes for all students,” said Doug Thaman, North Side’s executive director.

The declining scores are partly attributed to staff turnover and adopting new curriculum in 2022, Thaman said.

The school’s plan to bolster student performance includes targeted interventions and more coaching for teachers. Staff specialists have been added at each grade level to work with small groups. Social-emotional learning is emphasized to improve student behavior.

Fewer students scored in the lowest category this year, “a promising indication of movement forward,” Thaman said.

Ten years ago, City Garden Montessori scored 72% proficiency in English, on par with Maplewood Richmond Heights and Parkway in west St. Louis County.

City Garden received a 10-year approval from the state in 2017 because of the high-quality designation. Most charter schools, which are publicly funded but independently operated, are on a five-year renewal track.

The school’s popularity contributed to an influx of more affluent white families to the Botanical Heights neighborhood. A change to state law allowed the school to save a percentage of spots for students from low-income families, who now make up about half of the school’s enrollment.

Last spring, 43% of students tested proficient in English, down 19 percentage points from 2019. Math scores dropped from 48% to 35% in that period. City Garden has one of the biggest performance gaps between the 81% of white students who scored proficient in English compared to 14% of Black students.

“We all know that focusing on raw test scores and raw rates of proficiency is biased against children in St. Louis,” said Christie Huck, CEO and executive director of City Garden.

The school’s students improved more on the standardized tests than the state predicts based on a growth model, Huck said.

“Realized year over year, these are strong and meaningful academic gains,” she said. “We are proud of the work and progress of our school community, and we will continue to work to increase growth scores, proficiency rates, and outcomes for our community.”

One St. Louis charter stands out for its performance above the state and regional averages for all school districts.

At 68% proficiency in English and 62% in math, Lafayette Prep Academy is the top-scoring and most improved charter school in Missouri. The charter also outperforms most school districts in St. Louis County, although Lafayette Prep’s enrollment rate of low-income students at 25% ranks between Maplewood Richmond Heights and Mehlville. Most public schools in the city have a majority of low-income students.

Lafayette Prep’s high scores are driven by the school’s staff retention rate of 90%, family atmosphere and focus on improvement, said Sarah Ranney, executive director.

“The success is due to the school’s mindset about doing our best for kids and never settling for just being good enough,” Ranney said. “We invest in our people — our students, our staff and our families and we keep trying to make our school a better place.”