Many factors contribute to Jackson test success

Parents with high expectations, plus "great teachers and administrators," are just some of the reasons Jackson school officials say their students outscored the state on Missouri Assessment Program exams.

The district generally had 7 percent to 9 percent more of its students scoring in the "proficient and advanced" range than the state average in English language arts, math, science and social studies. The highest-performing elementary school in the district in 2013 was Millersville Elementary School, a kindergarten through third-grade campus, with students scoring at a 81.3 percent proficient/advanced rate in English language arts and 75 percent in math.

Students in grades three through eight take MAP tests, while high school students take end-of-course exams in specific subjects tied to grade levels. Associate superintendent Matt Lacy said Millersville has just third-graders taking the test, so it's a relatively small sample size.

Gordonville Elementary School contains kindergarten through second-grade students, so they don't take the MAP.

No Jackson school scored below the state in any category.

Lacy said teachers work cooperatively and meet each week to solve learning issues and to discuss how to best serve students.

"We build in collaboration time for our teachers every week on how to best gear our instruction to children," Lacy said. "Not all children learn the same."

He said typically in an elementary setting, third-grade teachers collaborate each week, or at the high school level, teachers meet by department, all to figure out what teaching works best.

"It's kind of the idea that two heads are better than one," Lacy said. "It helps to bounce ideas off three or four teachers."

The district overall

MAP tests are part of what the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education uses to determine a district's score on its annual performance report, said Sarah Potter, communications coordinator for the department.

Students can score at below basic, basic, proficient and advanced levels on the exams. But the state looks at the sum of the proficient and advanced percentages.

The aim is to have all students scoring in the proficient and advanced range.

Districtwide in 2013, 63.8 percent of Jackson students scored in the proficient/advanced range for English language arts, 66.8 percent in math, 69.2 percent in science and 60.5 percent in social studies.

State scores in English language arts in 2013 were 55.7 percent in the proficient or advanced range, 53.8 percent in math, 59.1 percent in science and 50.6 percent in social studies.

Percentages are Missouri School Improvement 5 totals and include students who have been in the district for a full academic year. It excludes other students, such as English language learners who have not been in the U.S. for a full calendar year, according to DESE.

Other factors that go into the annual performance report are how well students do on the ACT, SAT and other standardized tests, graduation rates, college readiness and career readiness. The percentage of points earned determines a district's accreditation level. Accreditation levels include accredited with distinction, which means the district earned 90 percent or more; accredited, 70 percent or more; provisionally accredited, 50 percent or more; and unaccredited, less than 50 percent.

Jackson was accredited with distinction, earning 92.5 percent.

South Elementary

South Elementary School principal Jessica Maxwell said three things her school and the district do make the biggest difference on student learning.

In 2013, 64.3 percent of South students scored in the proficient/advanced range in English language arts, 69.4 percent in math and 78.9 percent in science. English scores have been mostly in the 60-percent range, with 53.9 percent scored in 2009.

Math scores have been mainly in the 60-percent range, rising to 70.2 percent in 2012. Science scores reached a high of 79.5 percent in 2012 and a low of 54.8 percent in 2009.

Research has shown the more schools can build a safety net and make students feel comfortable, the more they're "willing to follow your lead" and take risks, Maxwell said.

"They're just more motivated," willing to "venture out," learn more and be more engaged, Maxwell said.

"I feel like our teachers do a really good job of making connections with children and making them feel safe, not just physically," but creating an environment where it's OK to guess on a question and be wrong, she said. What matters, Maxwell said, is working hard to reach the right answer.

South Elementary formally became a professional learning community in 2007 and all the teachers collaborate as a team, sharing ideas.

"We monitor that very closely," Maxwell said. "It's tremendous to see just through MAP data how much our scores have increased since we became a PLC. ..."

The district also changed the way it grades students in elementary schools.

"We don't do a letter grade. We do standard based reporting," Maxwell said, where students and parents receive reports on how children are doing on individual standards.

"It's really about giving children more descriptive feedback, giving them ownership on how they learn and the step it takes to get to the next level," Maxwell said.

Standard based reporting was implemented at the elementary level -- kindergarten through third grade -- in 2010, but had been in the works since 2007-2008, Maxwell said.

"We're constantly working to get better and learn more, and our teachers are phenomenal," Maxwell said. "They're really open minded and willing to do what's best for children."

Jackson High School

Jackson High School principal Vince Powell said his school makes sure its curriculum is aligned with state standards, that teachers are instructing to those standards and that support ensures students master the material.

To this end, Powell said teachers meet as a department every Wednesday.

"I think it's really helped our teachers focus on student achievement and student learning," he said.

Some schools offer incentives to students who do well on their end-of-course exams, such as being able to skip final semester exams. But not at Jackson High School.

"We really feel like final exams are something they're going to experience in the next phase of their education, whether it's a tech school or a four-year school. We feel like that's an experience they need to have. They're going to see that in anything they do educationally after high school."

Jackson High School students scored 69 percent in the proficient/advanced range in 2013. The math score was 68.6 percent; science, 78.6 percent; and social studies, 60.5 percent. Math is the only area in which the high school scored erratically, going from 22.1 percent in 2009 to 71.1 percent in 2010, according to DESE data.

Jackson High School teacher Joey O'Neal instructs advanced English language arts for 10th grade students, college writing and advanced college writing. O'Neal has been teaching 13 years, and this is her fifth year in Jackson.

"We have lots of built-in support in our district, aside from teachers being available before school and after school and by email," O'Neal said. A content management system called My Big Campus allows teachers to access material they may need from home.

Students also have a half-hour advisory period built into their schedule. So if they play sports after school or have a job, they can seek help, make up tests or use that time for whatever they need, O'Neal said.

Why some fare better

Diana Rogers-Adkinson, dean and professor at the college of education at Southeast Missouri State University, said poverty is the main factor in predicting how schools will do on standardized tests.

Poor-performing schools in Missouri tend to be found in Kansas City and St. Louis and in the Bootheel, Rogers-Adkinson said, where extreme poverty is found.

"You can kind of watch a line. As income goes up, MAP scores go up," she said.

"If you're poor, it doesn't mean you're not going to do well. Other factors create an environment where it's more difficult to learn," Rogers-Adkinson said. A child could be hungry, homeless, have to work to help support the family or have to baby-sit younger siblings while his or her parents are at work, "so they're not getting their homework done."

"There are so many factors that are unique for each child. You put those together, and it starts to impact the district as a whole," Rogers-Adkinson said.

She said there are high-performing schools in poverty areas and those schools tend to have a "more wraparound approach," where a campus offers job training to students through a local employer to help children get "connected" to basic job skills and training that could allow them to go straight into a vocation.

As a long-term strategy, districts in rural areas, for example, could offer scholarships to students who plan to go into teaching if they return to teach in that community, she said.

"It helps support children who typically would not have left or gone to school," because it was financially out of reach, Rogers-Adkinson said.

rcampbell@semissourian.com

388-3639

Pertinent address:

614 E. Adams St., Jackson, Mo.