PUBLIC SCHOOLS TO START MMAT EXAMS MONDAY

Students in Cape Girardeau Public Schools are set to be tested over the skills they've learned this year. The Missouri Mastery and Achievement Test begins Monday.

While test results are sometimes used to measure a school district's performance, Richard Bollwerk, director of elementary education, said the tests are designed to help improve teaching.

Students across the state are required to take this standardized test that covers skills students should know in language arts, math, science and social studies.

The test is administered over four days. Students generally take two portions of the test each day. Each portion takes about 45 minutes to complete.

"We certainly like to see them (students) do well," Bollwerk said. "It verifies the good teaching we have done. If a student does well on the MMAT test, that is one indicator that students have learned the material that we expect them to learn."

The state requires schools to give the MMAT in grades three, six, eight and 10. The test is available for all grades from second through 10.

Bollwerk said, "Many districts, including ours, choose to test in grades two through 10 because it helps the district to improve instruction. That's the underlying purpose of test.

"This is a criterion reference achievement test," he said, "which simply lets schools know how their students perform on the skills the state says are key skills to learn."

When test results are received, Bollwerk said, "We look at the areas where our students have done well and pat ourselves on the back. They we look at the areas where they didn't do so well and go back to see how we can improve instruction in those areas."

Cape Girardeau will receive test reports on a district level, outlining how all students did at grade levels.

Other reports give results at the building level, the classroom level and the individual level.

"For the most part our kids have done very well," he said. "And we've found it useful in revising our curriculum."

The test quizzes students about core competencies and key skills in the various academic areas. Core competencies and key skills are specific items in each subject which students at a particular grade level should know. They were developed in 1985 by a committee of teachers, administrators, university professors and education department personnel.

Bollwerk said the list of core competencies and key skills was revised this year. The test is also being revised to match the new core competencies and key skills.

"Since 1986, the first year of the test," Bollwerk said, "we have provided the state department with feedback about the test. They have now revised the key skills. It's not much different, but they have moved some skills from one grade level to another grade level and have eliminated some skills.

"It's a continuous process of looking at the objectives and skills and bringing curriculum in line with what is being tested. And then revising the test."

The revision process has been ongoing at the school level also, he said. As test results have been received over the past five years, the data has been used to change what is taught at different grade levels. The curriculum has been aligned with the test, Bollwerk said.

"How schools do on the MMAT reflects their curriculum," Bollwerk said. "In the new school improvement plan, which is used now to classify school districts, how your school, in general, is doing on the MMAT is one of the many factors they evaluate. They want you to be able to show you are bringing scores up on MMAT."

In one attempt to raise scores and better test what has been taught, Bollwerk said, "We are testing much later than we ever have."

The state offers a "testing window" for school district to schedule the test. The window this year was April 1 to May 10.

Bollwerk said the district's testing committee recommended administering the test later in the school year.

"In past years, when we have tested in the beginning of the window, there have been a number of things tested on MMAT which we haven't gotten to in class yet. We don't know if our instruction is effective in those areas. We haven't taught them yet."

He said one drawback to the early testing could be that test results may not arrive before the end of the school year.

"We like to send the individual reports home with kids in the report cards," Bollwerk said. "But we don't know this year."