Every Excelsior Springs school will soon receive its own A-F grade under Missouri’s new accountability system, a change district officials say comes with significant unanswered questions.

Assistant Superintendent of Academic Services Dr. Melissa Miller recently outlined the new system to the Board of Education, explaining it was developed after an executive order from Gov.

Mike Kehoe intended to give parents and communities an easier-to-understand measure of school performance. Unlike the district’s existing Annual Performance Report (APR), the new system will assign letter grades not only to the district but also to each individual school.

The state timeline calls for the Missouri State Board of Education to approve the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education’s (DESE’s) framework Sept. 15, followed by development of the grade-card system in November. Districts are scheduled to receive their letter grades March 31, 2027, before the first public release April 16, 2027, using data …