January 7, 2025

At the Lindbergh Schools Board of Education meeting on Dec. 19, Chief Academic Officer Dr. Tara Sparks shared a report on Lindbergh’s 2024 Annual Performance Report (APR) score, which is released by the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education. Lindbergh’s score this year is 91.2%, which is a .9 percentage point increase from 2023, and a 4.5 percentage point increase over 2022.

The APR is a one-number metric that currently is used to define the state’s measure for school effectiveness. However, Lindbergh Schools is one of 20 proactive school districts and charter schools in the Missouri Success-Ready Students Network that is working with the support of DESE to design a better, more comprehensive way to measure student success. As a result, Lindbergh and these other districts no longer use the APR as their official accountability tool.

Instead, SRSN has launched an alternative APR that is approved by the State Board of Education and seeks to align assessment and accountability to promote personalizing learning and real world learning opportunities in ways that support every student in being high school, college, career and workplace ready. Lindbergh’s online Student Success Dashboard goes beyond standardized testing to share important metrics and data that define student academic growth and success.

In DESE’s press release announcing this year’s APR scores, Education Commissioner Karla Eslinger supported the work of SRSN districts, noting that this work is leading the way for the direction of all Missouri schools.

“They are leading the way, exploring competency-based learning models thinking about how best to expand real-world learning experiences for students while clearly demonstrating a student’s readiness for their next step after graduation,” Eslinger said. “We look forward to this ongoing collaboration.”