Blanchard, Jefferson pass MAP test

Gathered around a conference room computer Monday morning, Cape Girardeau School District administrators hesitated to double click the Web site link revealing how their schools fared on last year's state assessments.

There was a lot riding on that double click: the possibility of school choice among lower performing elementary schools, countless hours of professional development, money.

One by one, superintendent Mark Bowles scrolled down the elementary schools' Missouri Assessment Program scores released by the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education to school districts on Monday. And one by one, Bowles read: Adequate Yearly Progress -- Met.

Conference calls went out to each elementary principal, with Bowles and the other board office administrators chanting "1-2-3, you made it!"

Central high school and junior high school did not make adequate yearly progress, but because those schools do not receive federal Title I dollars, there is no penalty for not meeting the annual proficiency goals.

At Jackson, all the schools met adequate yearly progress except the high school, said assistant superintendent Dr. Rita Fisher. Jackson High School is not a Title I school and faces no penalties.

DESE will officially release the scores to the public later this week, and other local districts said they were not yet prepared to discuss how they performed on the 2004 tests, which were administered statewide last spring.

But there was no holding back the celebrating at Cape Girardeau's Blanchard and Jefferson elementary schools, the two local buildings with the most at stake over this year's math and communication arts scores.

Because both schools did not make adequate yearly progress on the 2003 assessments as required under the federal No Child Left Behind Act, Blanchard and Jefferson would have been forced to pay for students to transfer to a better-performing school in the district had they failed again this year.

"I felt confident that we'd make progress, but you never know how well the kids will do," said Mark Cook, principal at Jefferson. "We're very excited. We laid the groundwork, and we're making a difference. It's really gratifying to see that pay off."

Looking for a trend

All of the district's Title I schools, those that face penalties for not making adequate yearly progress under No Child Left Behind, achieved the necessary 20.4 percent of students proficient in communication arts and 10.3 percent proficient in math required this year.

"What we look for is a trend. Seeing the gains this year is wonderful and needs to be celebrated, but we have to keep doing what we're doing to keep that trend going positively," Bowles said.

Cape Girardeau officials cited a variety of factors that may have contributed to the improvement in scores, including professional development and collaboration among teachers, new test-taking strategies, parental involvement and changes to curriculum.

"The mindset of our teachers had been we're going to do whatever it takes to get student achievement up," said Dr. Betty Chong, assistant superintendent of elementary education.

cclark@semissourian.com

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