Missourians deserve two things when the state assesses the performance of their schools. First is a comprehensible scoring system that avoids educational gobbledygook. And they need policymakers — both at the district and state level — to refrain from making excuses or using the data to secure a political agenda.

Indeed, there may be something unfair in taking the work of hundreds of students, each with unique backgrounds and many with extensive baggage, and saying this is the number for your entire district. But that is what teachers do every day in school. It is what employers will do to these students throughout their working lives. It’s how the world works.

At first blush, the number for the St. Joseph School District wasn’t dynamite. The performance and continuous improvement portion of what’s now known as the MSIP 6 annual report (sorry about the gobbledygook) gives St. Joseph a total of 67.6% of all possible points earned. That would put the SJSD under the threshold for provisional accreditation in the future.

Perhaps some solace can be found in the reality that many districts are in the same boat. Missouri’s 2022 annual performance reports put 112 districts, or 20% of the total statewide, at risk of losing accreditation or falling into provisional status. The current number is six.

What this means as a practical matter remains to be seen, especially since districts have two more years to show improvement before seeing a change in accreditation status. But at the very least, even a whiff of provisional accreditation puts St. Joseph at a disadvantage in attracting families who won’t hesitate to compare the SJSD with counterparts in Liberty and suburban Kansas City.

For the record, Liberty scored 79.9% and Park Hill came in at 90.5%. Independence, said to have similar demographics to St. Joseph, scored a 70.1%. Savannah and Mid-Buchanan are much smaller than St. Joseph but could compete for students if the legislature goes through with open enrollment. Mid-Buch scored an 83.8% and Savannah came in at 78.1%.

St. Joseph is not that far off from the median state score of 77%. The system does give a picture of where St. Joseph is and where it needs improvement in areas like attendance (0 out of 4) and key academic measures like English/language arts, mathematics and science. The SJSD received 53% of the total points possible for current academic achievement, a score that needs to improve.

The results shouldn’t be viewed as a snapshot of where the district is as much as a frame in a longer film that determines whether schools or students are successful. People should be willing to look at these numbers and do what’s necessary to lift rather than punish those schools and get things moving in the right direction.