By Derrick ForsytheRecord Staff WriterBoth the Warren County R-III and Wright City R-II school districts are celebrating academic success after the release of the MSIP 5 Annual Performance Report scores revealed positive results for each.The Department of Elementary and Secondary Education released the data Oct. 23, and the numbers showed a significant improvement for R-III, which scored 90.4 percent of the 100 possible points. That was a 9.05 percent increase over the 82.9 percent performance from the previous year and a huge jump from the 76.8 percent the district scored in 2013-14.“The improvements we saw this year are the eighth biggest increase out of the 55 St. Louis area school districts,” said Superintendent Dr. Jim Chandler. “The district gains over the past two years puts us in the top 15 percent in improvement in the state of Missouri.”The R-III district continues to earn fully accredited status and for a second straight year exhibited the biggest APR improvement among schools in Warren, St. Charles and Lincoln counties. The average among those three counties is 93.6 percent.The district had eight tested areas above the state average, which is an all-time high. The district has maintained in advanced and proficient levels near the 50 percent mark in math, English language arts and social studies.“In order for our district score to continue to increase, we must keep seeing growth in these top categories,” said Chandler. “As a district, what we have seen is an overall increase in attendance, graduation rate and achievement, which is very positive.”The R-II district had a different reason to be excited about its scores, which maintained at a very high level of 96.1 percent. That is the exact same figure the tests yielded last year for R-II and a 5-percent increase over the 91.1 percent it scored in 2013-14.“We were above the state average in 16 of 23 of the tests, which is the second highest we’ve ever had, so we’re pretty proud of that,” said Superintendent Dr. David Buck.Wright City is second behind only Francis Howell and Washington among the five districts it borders. R-II stands even more elite within the Eastern Missouri Conference.“Out of the 11 schools in the EMO only two of us, including Silex, have performed above 90 percent two years in a row,” noted Buck.Wright City earned 55 out of the possible 56 points in academic achievement and scored a perfect 14 of 14 on subgroup achievement.“We have to give a lot of credit to our teaching staff and students,” said Buck.R-II also reported 95 percent in both attendance and graduation rate and scored a 91.7 percent in college and career readiness.Buck believes the implementation of PAWS, the school’s comprehensive school improvement plan, five years ago has made a significant difference. The plan focuses on taking data to action, increasing student engagement and increasing rigor in curriculum, instruction and assessment.“We’ve stuck with those as our three rocks for five years,” he said. “Our staff is well-trained in those areas and it’s showing in the results.”R-II & R-III School Districts