| State: Missouri | Number of Students: 11,214 |
| School Type: Public School District | Free and Reduced Lunch: 84.7% |
| Grade Level: PK-12 | English Language Learners: 90.0% |
School Context
Accreditation Achieved: The Missouri Department of Elementary & Secondary Education (DESE) released the results ofthe 2015 Missouri Annual Performance Report (APR) for school districts across the state. Ferguson-Florissant received 97.5points out of a possible 140 points on the state’s annual assessment and remains fully accredited. Most notably, the districtsaw a 20% increase in college and career readiness.
Positive Praise: The district has implemented Positive Behavior Intervention Support (PBIS) as their framework forbehavior management. District-wide, teachers and principals are applying these principles to keep kids engaged andmotivated. This is one way the district is trying to decrease behavioral infractions and school suspensions by 5% annually.
Parents: Ferguson-Florissant is soliciting parental help to increase attendance (by 1% each year) and engagement. Adulteducation classes, family nights, and home visits (early childhood) are a few of the ways the district plans to increase familyparticipation by 10%.
Talent: Ferguson-Florissant is focused on recruiting, training and retaining a top-notch staff. Training will be oninstructional best practices and focus on higher order thinking (i.e., depth of knowledge levels). The goals are for all staffmembers to achieve “highly-qualified” status and for student enrollment in advanced courses to increase 10%.
State of Technology
Pathways for Teachers: This career-readiness initiative is a part ofPathways for Prosperity from Education Plus. Community-based businessleaders in the fields of science, engineering, technology and math partnerwith a cohort of teachers. The teachers participate in externships andSTEM trainings in order to learn more about the skills students will needfor future careers in these industries.
Rising STARS: In 2014, Emerson Electric agreed to continue funding theEmerson Success Through Aligning Resources in Science (STARS) program.The program provides intensive, hands-on STEM-related activities to 7thand 8th grade students at Berkeley and Ferguson Middle Schools as well as support for programs like the FIRST Robotics team at McCluer South-Berkeley High School. Over 2,500 students and 16 science teachers in the Ferguson-Florissant School District have participated in the program sinceit began in 2010.
Challenger Learning Center: In partnership with Ferguson-Florissant,this nonprofit offers students (and the community) interactive STEMlessons and simulations about space. It is part of a larger nonprofit,Challenger Center for Space Science Education, founded by the families ofthe Challenger astronauts who passed away in 1986.
Probe Center: The Probe Center partners with Ferguson-Florissant to provideinstruction one full day a week to the gifted and talented students in the district.The Center uses project-based learning and often incorporates elements oftechnology into the instruction.
Ed Tech Teachers: Each school in Ferguson-Florissant has a teacher whoacts as the ed tech representative in their building. They meet with a fulltime instructional technology specialist each month to give feedback on thetechnology needs of the school and to learn about how to support technology with other teachers. The instructional technology specialist then acts as a cross-department liaison who advocates for what teachers need, especially in terms of district-wide curriculum and professional development.
Tech Needs & Requirements
For middle school and elementary school software, it mustoperate on Mac OS X. For high school software, it must operate on Windows 7. Ideally, all software can operate on both platforms andmoving more towards cloud based solutions. The district tends to shy away from iOS tools because thehigh cost and incidence of damage to these devices. The district needs hardware replacements to increase access to mobile devices (Chromebooks are quickly becoming the hardware of choice), expansion for enterprise wireless and assessment software. Always considering any no-cost or low-cost software.
Initiatives
Writing across disciplines.
STEM (science, technology, engineering, math).
Early Childhood Programs.