How good or bad are St Louis Public Schools? (St. Louis: credit, home)

[BrendanRabbitt]

St Louis as in the city, not St Louis County

[glamatomic]

St. Louis City Public Schools lost their accreditation quite a few years back. Right now, they're just on a provisional accreditation (as of October 2012) which means they've improved in standard to what they were in 2007... but still may not be entirely back on track yet.

I read that when St. Louis schools lost their accreditation in 2007, less than 20% of students were testing at their grade level. I'm not sure what the current number is.

Unfortunately, overall I'd say that the education quality probably still isn't the greatest. Very sad situation indeed

I'll be interested to see what others have to say who have more knowledge of St. Louis City schools, as what I know is just what I've read in the news over the past number of years, and heard from acquaintances here in STL.

[Amercity]

SLPS has a high school graduation rate of only 55% (wikipedia). There are several magnet schools in SLPS in fact one of them is rated the top schools in the country. However, SLPS are usually VERY bad. Basically you have a bag of maybe 2 good schools that any person could go to and then a bunch of underperforming schools. I would not suggest sending anyone to SLPS unless you are really lucky to get in the magnet schools

[1greatcity]

Many city residents send their kids to private or parochial schools instead of the public schools. Which means that parents are opting to pay tuition over taking advantage of free education.
Some city residents have been known to fraudulently enroll their kids in a county district, using the address of a relative.
This is all clear evidence that the city public schools are sorely lacking. In fact, the city schools have been blamed for the continuing stagnation in the city's population, as families with children have moved to the suburbs, and suburban parents are reluctant to move into the city.

[billiken]

There are a handful of schools that are generally accepted as great--Kennard & Mallinckrodt (somewhat recent conversion into gifted school) for elementary, McKinley for Middle School, Metro for HS. These are all magnet schools, and demand exceeds supply, so there's a lottery for placement at each, in addition to other academic requirements. Outside of these few schools, my understanding is that things are pretty bleak. I used to volunteer at one of the magnet schools not mentioned above, and I was not at all impressed. I only know 1 person w/ kids in SLPS (mostly because I'm mid-20s and don't have a lot of friends with kids 5+), and they attend Mallinckrodt.

[marigolds6]

The number one problem with St Louis Public Schools is attendance. Everything else stems from that.
First Day attendance is less than 80%. Daily attendance is under 65%. Student mobility rate (the percent of students who withdrew or enrolled from a school district during the school year) is 51.4%. The student stability rate (number of students who return to the district from the previous year, not counting graduates and new enrolls) is only 73.5%!

That means one third of kids are not coming to school. Half are changing schools mid-year. And a quarter do not come back the next year after summer.

Or think of it this way. A freshman class enters a SLPS high school. By the end of the year 51.4% did not move during the year. 37.8% return for sophomore year. 19.4% last to the end of sophomore year. 14.3% return for junior year. 7.3% last to the end of junior year. 5.3% return for senior year. 2.7% finish at the same school from start of freshman year to end of senior year.

Compare that to your own high school experience.

[BrendanRabbitt]

Originally Posted by marigolds6

The number one problem with St Louis Public Schools is attendance. Everything else stems from that.
Or think of it this way. A freshman class enters a SLPS high school. By the end of the year 51.4% did not move during the year. 37.8% return for sophomore year. 19.4% last to the end of sophomore year. 14.3% return for junior year. 7.3% last to the end of junior year. 5.3% return for senior year. 2.7% finish at the same school from start of freshman year to end of senior year.

Compare that to your own high school experience.

My school = everyone goes. Graduation rate's apparently 88 percent for it though

[flynavyj]

Originally Posted by marigolds6

Compare that to your own high school experience.

I think we graduated 98%, and 99% of those who graduated went on to college, 80% of those received scholorships. I know we graduated 270 students out of an initial class of 320, but we lost some along the way to public schools...I can think of 2 or 3 who didn't go off to college after graduation...but keep in mind, this was a college preparatory high school.

I have several friends who live in St. Louis City, only one has children. They are enthusiastic about sending their kids to a new magnet school that opened within the last few years very close to them.

I had that attended Metro when I was in high school, and all seemed to love it, and have gone on to do great things, but they were coming from solid families with high educational achievements and expectations. I think the idea of smaller neighborhood schools could help fix the SLPS school problems. We have large areas of gentrification in St. Louis City, if each of these neighborhoods was responsible for their own small schools, and had the participation of good stable families, you might see an improvement, and it would directly effect home prices and desirability of the region.

[jlawrence01]

Originally Posted by billiken

There are a handful of schools that are generally accepted as great--Kennard & Mallinckrodt (somewhat recent conversion into gifted school) for elementary, McKinley for Middle School, Metro for HS. These are all magnet schools, and demand exceeds supply, so there's a lottery for placement at each, in addition to other academic requirements. Outside of these few schools, my understanding is that things are pretty bleak.

Most of my friends would either move to the county when their children reached school age or would sent the children to either Catholic or Lutheran schools.

Back then, there were racial preferences built into the lottery for placement.

[RisingAurvandil]

Horrific, barring perhaps a few magnets. St. Louis is no different than many other large cities in this regard. Private schools are popular with those who can afford it. There are racial undertones to the story, but in the name of PC, are rarely spoken about these days.