Cape school board complains of lag in getting test scores

The Cape Girardeau School District is playing a waiting game because the state of Missouri is slow in providing the results of standardized test scores from this past spring, district officials and school board members said Monday night.

No decision can be made on moving any student from Jefferson and Blanchard elementary schools to any of the other three elementary schools in the district until the school district has been provided with the individual student results from the Missouri Assessment Program tests in math and communication arts, school officials said.

Pat Fanger, assistant superintendent in charge of curriculum, said state education officials have said it could be November before individual test score information is available to school districts.

Board members urged state Rep. Nathan Cooper, R-Cape Girardeau, who attended the meeting, to work to get the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education to speed up delivery of test scores to all school districts.

"There is not a whole lot we can do until we get the test scores in our hands," board member Kyle McDonald said.

Board member Charles Bertrand said the district needs to move ahead as soon as possible to help make sure that students do better on the 2007 MAP tests.

"Two campuses being low performing is two too many," he said.

He said building principals and teachers need to track student academic progress much closer throughout the school year so schools can better prepare students to pass the MAP tests next spring.

Otherwise, Bertrand said, the schools could wind up with worse MAP scores next year.

For the second consecutive year, Jefferson and Blanchard schools didn't make adequate yearly progress in state test scores.

As a result, under the federal No Child Left Behind Act, the district must provide an opportunity for parents to move their children to better performing elementary schools in the district.

Limited number

But school officials have said the district can only transfer a maximum of 63 students to Alma Schrader, Clippard and Franklin schools combined. The district has a limited number of openings per grade.

Priority will be given to low-income students who scored the lowest on MAP or other assessment tests this past year. Students in kindergarten, first and second grades don't take MAP tests so other tests are used to judge their academic skills, according to school officials.

The district mailed out a letter last Friday to Jefferson and Blanchard parents from superintendent Dr. David Scala. The letter outlined the procedures the district will follow concerning student transfers.

So far, the district hasn't received a single request to transfer a student, Fanger told the board.

In other business, the board congratulated two Cape Central High School students -- Claire Segar and Carly Trautwein -- who have been recognized as National Merit Semifinalists based on their SAT/National Merit Scholarship test scores.

High school principal Dr. Mike Cowan said the two students are the only two high school students in Cape Girardeau County and among only four in the Southeast Missouri region to qualify as semifinalists.

mbliss@semissourian.com

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