MAP test scores a mixed bag for Cape schools

While Cape Girardeau students have made gains in their Missouri Assessment Program testing, figures released by the state Thursday show the district is still catching up in certain areas.

Christa Turner, director of academic services for the district, said local teachers and administrators continue using the MAP data to help measure progress and adjust the curriculum accordingly, but it's only one snapshot of how students are performing.

"The goal is to continue student achievement as much as possible," Turner said.

The most recent scores, taken from testing last spring, measure content knowledge in mathematics, science, English and social studies.

Students can score below basic, basic, proficient or advanced.

In math, the district's average is 42.8 percent, which includes the combined percentages of students who scored proficient and advanced during testing.

The average encompasses grades three through eight and high-school students in Algebra I and II.

In science, the district-wide average came in at 43.2 percent, which takes in grades five through eight and high-school biology.

English language arts' percentage is much higher, with an overall average of 59.4 percent in grades three through eight and high-school English II.

In social studies, the average combination of proficient and advanced scores was 60 percent -- only a few points away from the state average of 63 percent, Turner said.

Some more specific highlights of the new data include English competency in third and fourth grades district-wide, with the former at 66.2 percent and the latter at 66.8 percent. Both exceed the state average, Turner said.

In junior-high science, the district just saw a slight gain, bumping from 33 to 36 percent from 2015 to 2016, while the state average dropped from 49 to 48 percent.

Another gain in the district is in fifth-grade English.

There, the local percentage has risen from 50 to 58 percent, compared to the latest statewide average of 62 percent.

In high-school Algebra I, students have some work to do before they can catch up to the state average of 62 percent, although they did see a good bump, with an average of 50 percent in 2016 compared to 44 percent the previous year.

At the junior high, however, math gains continue to be an issue, particularly in eighth grade.

During the 2014-15 school year, the state MAP average was 28 percent, and Cape Girardeau's was 17.

While the state average remained the same in 2016, the local percentage dropped to 14.

The possible reason?

"I really don't know," Turner said.

Last year, the state Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, which oversees MAP testing, did not release the content-item analysis it usually does for school districts, she said, which left Cape Girardeau with broad generalities instead of more nuanced information.

The analysis should be available to the district this time around, even though the English and math parts of the MAP tests were new last year.

"I don't know exactly what (the information is) going to look like this year," she said.

When it arrives, it will reflect student strengths and weaknesses more clearly regardless of changes in testing, Turner said, which will allow educators to break down challenges by school building and adjust to help students improve.

"We have a lot of areas where we are seeing success, and there are others that we need to work on," Turner said.

ljones@semissourian.com

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