Schools examining MAP results ahead of public release this week

While children and their parents are looking toward the start of a new school year, teachers and administrators are looking back at the last school year as they review the Missouri Assessment Program test scores released recently by the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education.

DESE released the scores for school-only viewing July 25. The scores will be released to the public Thursday using a new data portal on the department's website called the Missouri Comprehensive Data System.

MAP tests are administered in communication arts and math for children in third through eighth grades and in science in fifth through eighth grades in Missouri public schools. The scores figure into determining a school's adequate yearly progress, which is used to show how well schools are meeting standards set by the federal No Child Left Behind Act.

The proficiency levels for each subject required by the federal No Child Left Behind Act are more challenging every year, this year reaching a target level of 72.5 percent of all students in math and 75.5 percent in communication arts. There is a goal of 100 percent proficiency for all schools in 2014. Since No Child Left Behind went into effect in 2001, Missouri has not yet met the standards. Proficiency results were 67.4 percent in communication arts and 63.3 percent in math in 2010. While the number of schools identified as needing improvement rose from 2009, according to DESE, more elementary and middle school students scored better in all subjects.

Thirteen of 18 districts in Bollinger, Cape Girardeau, Perry and Scott counties did not meet the targets last year.

Annual yearly progress results will be released Aug. 17 on the portal.

eragan@semissourian.com

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