Columbia’s mayor is praising the new annual performance report (APR) for Columbia Public Schools (CPS), which jumped from 70.1 percent in 2023 to 86.5 percent this year.
That’s a 16 percent increase, and CPS is the only district of its size to score double digit growth. Mayor Barbara Buffaloe attended this week’s announcement at the Aslin administration building, and tells 939 the Eagle that she’s impressed:
“Because you’ve seen the investment, you’ve seen their implementation of their strategic plan. And they’re working together as a district across all levels. It shows up here,” Mayor Buffaloe says.
APR is the district’s achievement report card from the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE). Columbia Public Schools’ APR scores grew faster than 95 percent of districts in Missouri. CPS had the largest APR growth among its 15 comparison districts, with a 16 percent increase. Mayor Buffaloe tells 939 the Eagle that CPS wants to get that number even higher:
“I think it’s also their focus on continuous improvement, and that’s something that we also want to see at the city (of Columbia). It’s important to have this data to help you show where your baseline is, where you’re going from. But it’s even more important to have the plans for what you need to do to improve,” Buffaloe says.
CPS says its students are on track or have met the target in graduation rate, post-secondary outcomes and the number of students taking college-level or advanced training courses. You can read more about the APR numbers along with this story here.
