Cape Girardeau Public Schools district expands comprehension assessment program

Cape Girardeau Public Schools will expand its comprehension testing system to include grades nine through 12 for the upcoming 2023-24 school year.

Each year, the state requires all K-12 students to take standardized tests in order to assess their progress toward Missouri Learning Standards. However, the results of these tests are historically not available until late in the first semester of the school year. This does not allow school districts time to make any necessary adjustments in the curriculum until the school year is well underway.

In order to have a more timely assessment of their student's comprehension levels in math and English, many school districts, including Cape Girardeau, use third-party assessment systems.

James Russell, the district's assistant superintendent of Academic Services, said Cape Girardeau Public Schools began using the Galileo Comprehensive Assessment System in the 2019-20 school year for kindergarten through fourth grade, and added fifth through eighth grade for the 2022-23 school year.

Russell said the results of testing with the Galileo system fell within 3% of the results of the Missouri Assessment Program (MAP), the state's standardized test system. He said assessment systems the district used prior to Galileo "didn't line up" with the results received from the state's MAP tests.

For this reason, Russell said the district decided to switch to Galileo, which will cost the district $95,000, split out over three years, for all grade levels, K-12.

Russell said students take online assessment tests through Galileo at the beginning, middle and end of each school year.

He said teachers can look at the results of each test to learn how close a student's comprehension is to what is expected by the state's standards. With that information, Russell said teachers can customize each student's assignments to focus on areas where they fall below standards.

"It's been super accurate for us to be able to see where students are at before MAP scores come back," Russell said.

Laura Jahn, fourth grade teacher at Blanchard Elementary School, said she also has found the Galileo system accurate and "very rigorous".

"As a teacher, I have a sense of how my students are doing and Galileo helps validate me, tells me I know what I'm talking about," Jahn said.

Russell said even when the district does receive the state's MAP scores, it only gives them an overall view of how a student performed on the test. He said if a student is missing a specific skill in math or English, that data isn't supplied by the state. Galileo provides more data points, Russell said, and teachers can see where an individual student needs extra help.

"I can assign individual lessons that are just for them," Jahn said. "It creates their own path, so it will start them where they need to be and build them up."

Jahn said the lessons Galileo provides for each student help her whole class continue to move forward, even though some students may be at a different level than others. She said Galileo provides charts that show her each student's level in a number of skills.

"I can see which of my kids are doing great at one skill and which I need to provide some intervention," Jahn said. "I can pinpoint two or three students who need extra attention on a certain skill and Galileo generates lessons and quizzes to focus and build that foundation to get them up on grade level."