The Warren County R-III School District recently learned it’s Accredited With Distinction after being evaluated on a wide range of academic performance marks.

State education officials released preliminary Annual Performance Reports, or APRs, for Missouri public school districts earlier this month. The APR data will be finalized next month.

The R-III district met 13 of 14 APR standards that measure areas such as test scores (ACT, state-required MAP and end-of-course exams), attendance, graduation rates and other academic indicators.

The new reports provide five years of statistics, including data from the past school year.

“This represents very diligent hard work by the administrators, teachers and students,” Superintendent Dr. John Long said. “All of that had to come together to win the award and it did. It shows me the community rises to the occasion.

“In Missouri’s eyes, the district is doing great.”

To qualify for the Accredited With Distinction award, a district must meet 13 of the 14 standards, including all academic standards. The R-III district is one of 92 districts from across the state to meet 13 of the 14 standards, while 218 districts were a perfect 14 for 14.

Last year, R-III met 10 of the standards, Long said.

Two standards it failed to meet in this latest report are for attendance and subgroup achievement, which is tied with the Adequate Yearly Progress standards. The district received a bonus point for overall MAP achievement which gave it the 13 of 14 standards met.

“It was a goal we set two years ago,” Long said. “Now we’re celebrating.”

This is the third time the district has received this honor, according to Long, and the first in his tenure with the district.

R-III was last recognized in the 2004-05 school year, Long’s first year, but he attributed that accomplishment to his predecessor Dr. Jim Cale. The award is based on data from the prior school year.

To be fully accredited, a K-12 school district must meet at least nine of the 14 standards for academic performance and at least six to be provisionally accredited. A district that meets five or fewer standards may be classified as unaccredited by the State Board of Education.

Currently, 511 of Missouri’s 522 school districts are fully accredited. Nine districts are provisionally accredited and two are unaccredited.

The APR is part of the Missouri School Improvement Program, or MSIP, which began 20 years ago and is the foundation of the state’s accreditation process for schools. It provides a tool for school boards, administrators and staff to identify strengths and needs in their districts and to focus on improving instruction.