MISSOURI ASSESSMENT PROGRAM: PROGRAM RATES STUDENTS' MATH SKILLS

Local school administrators said they aren't surprised by the low results posted by their students in the first mandatory round of state tests last spring. However, they want to see some improvement by next year.

The Missouri Assessment Program, or MAP, is the state's new performance-based testing system. The program provides a series of word problems in a subject area to challenge students to show their work and explain their reasoning behind a particular answer. An objective section of the test also measures student knowledge through a series of multiple-choice questions.

More than 180,000 Missouri fourth-, eighth-, and 10th-graders were required to take the MAP math exam last spring. Scores from those exams were returned to school districts recently, and students at all three grade levels statewide scored above the national average in objective portions of the test.

Overall, students had more difficultly applying and demonstrating their skills.

But low scores should be expected anytime a new testing method is introduced, local school officials said.

"You have to get used to teaching the performance-type events they're testing," said Roger Tatum, Scott City schools superintendent. "We'll be taking all opportunities to practice these types of tests in our classrooms."

Administrators at Cape Girardeau, Jackson, Nell Holcomb, Oak Ridge, Delta and Scott City schools all said their students showed a low level of achievement in the subjective portions of the exam.

Missouri's Commissioner of Education Robert Bartman said, "These results indicate that Missouri students, by and large, perform fairly well in basic skills and in recall of facts but are far less successful when it comes to applying their skills. Students and teachers are going to have to bear down in order to achieve the standards upon which the MAP exams are based."

Exams measuring student proficiency in science, social studies and communication arts are still in the voluntary stages and will become required assessments within the next three years.

Student performance on the MAP exam is defined by a five-step scale of achievement levels that range from step 1, the lowest graded level, to advanced, the highest graded level. The math exam is the only MAP exam in place.

Fred Jones, Jackson schools assistant superintendent, said officials in his district have concerns about the way the test results are reported. Historically, students in the district perform at or above state averages on standardized tests.

The district's initial MAP test results received two weeks ago showed student performance to be somewhat low, but near or above state averages, said Jones. However, Jackson and Oak Ridge were among some 60 school districts that received a revised set of results last week, and those results showed student performance to be below state averages at every grade level in the school district.

Despite the 60 revised scores, state averages did not change, and that fact concerns Jackson officials.

"Our concern is if the pertinent information was based on state averages, why hasn't the state averages changed?" said Jones. "We're willing to make changes in instruction, but we'd also like to feel comfortable with the way this is compiled and reported, and at this point we don't feel comfortable."

Calls to CTB McGraw-Hill, the company that issued and scored the exams, and the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education were not returned Friday afternoon.

Tom Allen, Delta schools superintendent, said student achievement can be improved on the tests in part by convincing students of the importance of the exam. Students often don't realize their school's performance when judged by the state and the public is largely connected to scores on tests like the MAP exam.

When taking objective tests that focus largely on multiple-choice questions, some students will "fill in the bubbles" without giving any thought to answers and guess correctly a small percentage of the time, said Allen. However, the MAP exam is largely subjective, which means students have to pay more attention to their answers and show their work.

"If we do grade our school by how well we do on those standardized tests, we've got to show good performance on those tests," Allen said. "The older the students are, the less they feel like that does them any good, and their efforts on the test are not their top-notch effort. It's not right for the school and it doesn't do the student any good."