The HBCU failed to report information as required by DESE, may lose accreditation
By Clarion News staff
ST. LOUIS – According to media reports from KMOV-TV and the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, St.Louis-based Harris-Stowe State University may lose its accreditation for teacher-training programs due to noncompliance with the state.
The Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education recently notified the historically black college and university (HBCU) that the school failed to report required information concerning the number of education majors and graduates. A letter dated Nov. 6, 2023 was sent from the state to Harris-Stowe, notifying the school of the deficiency.
Harris-Stowe’s education program was designed to help fill vacancies across the St. Louis metro region. However, reports indicate that the university awarded only 24 education degrees in 2022 – far fewer than needed.
The school, which dates back to the 1850s, has suffered several setbacks over the years, including issues with financial auditing/payroll, lack of strategies to improve graduation/retention, and problems with compliance with Missouri’s Sunshine Law.
The Missouri State Board of Education will revisit the accreditation issue at a meeting in February of 2024.
About Harris-Stowe State University (from hssu.edu)
“Harris-Stowe State University traces its origin back to 1857 when it was founded by the St. Louis Public Schools as a normal school and thus became the first public teacher education institution west of the Mississippi River and the 12th such institution in the United States. The earliest predecessor of Harris-Stowe State University was a normal school established for white students only by the Public School System of the city of St. Louis. This school was later named Harris Teachers College in honor of William Torrey Harris who had been a Superintendent of Instruction in the St. Louis Public Schools and also a United States Commissioner of Education.
The College began offering in-service education for St. Louis white teachers as early as 1906. In 1920, Harris Teachers College became a four-year undergraduate institution authorized to grant a Bachelor of Arts in Education Degree.
A second predecessor institution was Stowe Teachers College, which began in 1890 as a normal school for future black teachers of elementary schools in the city of St. Louis. This normal school was also founded by the St. Louis Public School System and was an extension of Sumner High School. In 1924, the Sumner Normal School became a four-year institution with authority to grant the baccalaureate degree. In 1929, its name was changed to Stowe Teachers College, in honor of the abolitionist and novelist Harriet Beecher Stowe. These two teacher education institutions were merged by the Board of Education of the St. Louis Public Schools in 1954 as the first of several steps to integrate the public schools of St. Louis. The merged institution retained the name Harris Teachers College.
Later, in response to the many requests from alumni of Stowe Teachers College and members of the greater St. Louis community, the Board of Education agreed to restore to the College’s name the word “Stowe” and to drop the word “Teachers.” In 1979, the General Assembly of the State of Missouri enacted Senate Bill 703 under which Harris-Stowe College became the newest member of the State system of public higher education. The institution’s name was again changed by the addition of the word “State” and became officially known as Harris-Stowe State College. In addition to the name change, the College’s baccalaureate degree was changed to Bachelor of Science in Education. In compliance with the new state standards and teacher certification requirements, the College’s Teacher Education curriculum was modified and three separate Teacher Education majors were approved: Early Childhood Education, Elementary School Education and Middle School/High School Education.
In 1981, the College received state approval for a new degree program — the Bachelor of Science in Urban Education. This program is the only one of its kind at the undergraduate level in the United States and is designed to prepare non-teaching urban education specialists who will be effective in solving the many urban-related problems facing today’s urban schools. In 1993, the State Governor signed into law Senate Bill 153, which authorized the College to expand its mission in order to address unmet needs of metropolitan St. Louis in various applied professional disciplines. In response to that authority, Harris-Stowe developed two new baccalaureate degree programs:
Business Administration, with professional options in Accounting, Management Information Systems, General Business and Marketing;
Secondary Teacher Education, with subject-matter options in Biology, English, Mathematics and Social Studies.
Finally, on August 25, 2005, by mandate of the State of Missouri, Harris-Stowe State College obtained university status. Today the University hosts collaborative graduate degree programs with Maryville University, the University of Missouri-St. Louis and Webster University. The University continues to expand, adding new campuses and buildings as part of its 21st-century initiative to offer opportunities for both undergraduate and graduate students seeking a variety of degrees.
Thus, from its beginnings as two normal schools in the mid and late 19th century to its present status as a state institution of public higher education, Harris-Stowe State University and its predecessor institutions have always been in the forefront of teacher education. Now, with its mission expanded to include other professional disciplines, the University will provide greatly needed additional opportunities to metropolitan St. Louisians in other important fields of endeavor. The University will continue its quest for excellence in all of its offerings and strive even more to meet the complex and demanding challenge of preparing students for effective roles in this region’s various professions.”
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