ST. LOUIS, MO — On Thursday, November 6, the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) publicly released the Annual Performance Report (APR) for school districts across the state. Lift For Life Academy received a score of 67.2 percent for 2025, which fell slightly short of the state’s minimum accreditation target of 70 percent. However, the state calculated the Academy’s three-year APR composite score at 70.4 percent, meeting the accreditation standard.
While stakeholders often look to the APR to assess a school’s performance, further analysis of LFLA’s results showed measurable growth and improvement in student achievement. Unfortunately, a coding error involving five high school students negatively affected the overall 2025 results.
When incorrect data was mistakenly uploaded to the state, it caused the Academy’s district-wide assessment participation rate for Science and Social Studies to fall below the required 95 percent threshold. As a result, DESE did not include Science and Social Studies test scores in this year’s APR. This shortfall, which is now under appeal, meant the Academy received no points in either subject area.
If the students in question had been correctly classified, LFLA would have earned points in both subjects and achieved a higher APR score. For example, in Biology, 25 percent of students who took the exam in 2025 scored proficient or advanced compared to 18.4 percent in 2024. In Social Studies, 35 percent of students scored proficient or advanced in 2025, a seven-point increase from 2024. The inclusion of these results, along with year-over-year growth metrics at the elementary and middle school levels, would have resulted in the Academy meeting or exceeding last year’s performance.
After receiving the embargoed release of APR data, LFLA administrators quickly identified the coding error and, at the direction of DESE staff, resubmitted corrected data. Letters of appeal were submitted to DESE describing how the error occurred and requesting that the department recalculate the Academy’s score. While initial conversations suggested the state was unlikely to recalculate the data and generate a new score report, LFLA has continued to advocate for a recalculation and updated APR. In comparing the APR scores released last week to those shared later by the state, it appeared that a handful of districts, including three in St. Charles County and one in Cole County, received revised, higher scores following state review.
Although the public release of scores generated discussion, LFLA emphasized that the data does not fully capture the Academy’s achievements. Students demonstrated statistically significant growth across all grade levels during the 2024–25 school year, with notable increases in achievement as well. The Academy earned the state’s highest growth level rating in Math and the second-highest in Communication Arts, clear indicators that effective teaching and successful learning are taking place.
Lift For Life Academy remains committed to building on this progress and continuing its focus on academic excellence and continuous improvement in all areas.