Citing improvements in other cities, the St. Louis NAACP chapter will file a complaint with the U.S. Dept of Education Office of Civil Rights (OCR) targeting St. Louis area public schools, including charter schools, regarding the “Systemic Educational Inequities Affecting Black Students.”
According to the NAACP, “Data paints a concerning picture of the educational landscape in St. Louis, particularly in comparison to other urban areas with similar demographics.”
The NAACP concerns stem from:
• The latest data available from a Stanford University 2022 study, shows that St. Louis is over 3 grade levels below the US national average.
• In 2022, similarly situated Black students in Chicago and Newark perform over 1 grade level ahead of St. Louis. Baltimore performs half a grade level ahead.
• Recovery from the pandemic appears to be more robust in these cities as well. St. Louis remains more than half a grade behind where it was in 2019 while Chicago is a fifth of a grade behind where it was.
“We cannot let these kids fail. All districts including charter schools have issues as it relates to reading,” city NAACP President Adolphus Pruitt said last week during a press conference.
“We hope that between the U.S. Department of Education, the NAACP, and those individual school districts can have some serious conversations about them setting some goals.”
Tracey Bloch, Missouri Disability Empowerment Foundation director, told KSDK she is not surprised by the low academic numbers.
“It really validates what we’ve already been dealing with since we work with special education families who are trying to fight for services for their children. It’s really getting more difficult to prove that a learning disability is actually taking place when everyone is universally behind, especially certain subsets of people.”
The NAACP said that solutions for raising academic scores must include increased funding for school districts, innovative teaching methods and more community engagement.
SLPS launched its Literacy for The Lou initiative in early 2024 and its mission to advance reading by working with families and public libraries continues during the 2024-25 school year.
The city NAACP chapter has also undertake a literacy initiative called “Right to Read.”
Its goal is for students to meet or exceed the overall state average by 2030. The campaign is led by Ian Buchanan, the chapter’s new education chair, who calls literacy “the civil rights issue of our era.”
“If Black and brown students continue to underperform in literacy, we severely limit their life options even before they hit adolescence. This is a solvable problem.”
SLPS students have a reading proficiency score of 19% compared to a 45% statewide average, according to the National Center for Education Statistics annual report card.
According to the NCES, only three in 10 Missouri students demonstrate reading proficiency at a fourth-grade level. Only one in 10 African American students reach the reading proficiency level.
The NAACP statement said, “The data underscores the urgent need for targeted interventions in the region’s schools. The districts are facing one of the steepest post-pandemic climbs, with significant learning losses that require immediate and sustained attention.”
“Addressing these challenges will require a comprehensive approach, potentially involving increased funding, innovative teaching strategies, enhanced support services, and community engagement to improve educational outcomes for the region’s students.”
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