Scores in Cape schools improve, but most lag below state average

One elementary school showed dramatic increases. The high school recorded impressive improvement in biology.

Most of Cape Girardeau's public schools are showing a line that points in a positive direction, but there's still a lot of work to be done, Missouri Assessment Program scores show. Cape Girardeau falls below state scores in most cases, according to the data, and five-year trends paint a picture of peaks, valleys and plateaus.

Overall in 2013, 53.8 percent of Cape Girardeau students scored proficient or advanced in English language arts; 50.4 percent in math; 50.9 percent in science; and 38.6 percent in social studies.

Statewide, 55.7 percent of students scored in the proficient or advanced range in English language arts; 53.8 percent in math; 59.1 percent in science; and 50.6 percent in social studies, according to Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education data.

Students in grades three through eight take MAP tests, while high school students take end-of-course exams in specific subjects that are tied to grades.

The assessments are part of what DESE uses to determine a district's score on its annual performance report each year, said Sarah Potter, communications coordinator for the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education. Students can score below basic, basic, proficient and advanced on the exams, but the state looks at the sum of the proficient and advanced percentages.

The aim is to get all students scoring in the proficient and advanced range. Percentages are Missouri School Improvement 5 totals and include students who have been in the district for a full academic year, but 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 APR are how well students do on the ACT, SAT and other standardized tests, graduation rates, college readiness and career readiness.

"MAP accounts for about half the points possible for a kindergarten through 12 district on the APR [Annual Performance Report]," Potter said.

Potter said assessments are standards-based. When students are proficient, they are reaching those standards, she said.

Blanchard Elementary

At Blanchard Elementary, MAP scores have risen dramatically. Principal Barbara Kohlfeld said the atmosphere on her campus is part of the reason why.

"We call ourselves the school with a heart," Kohlfeld said. "We want them [students] to feel safe and valued. We have high expectations both with behavior and academics. Our children are extremely well-behaved; they want to learn and to be successful. We have an amazing staff of very talented people. They're very focused. They're very persistent to task. We use our time extremely well."

For 2013, 78.8 percent of Blanchard students taking the English language arts were scored proficient or advanced, up from 70.6 percent in 2012, according to Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education information.

Blanchard's math scores have risen 26.1 percentage points in the last five years, to 80.8 percent for 2013.

Fourth-grade teacher Gina Herzog said every child is answerable for their work each day. "When they come in the building, they have to be ready to work, and they're accountable to do everything we do all day long," Herzog said.

"Students know they are safe and loved. Our parent communication is good. We communicate to parents weekly, and sometimes daily, about what's going on," Herzog said.

Any behavior problems are addressed by Kohfeld so that teachers are free to teach all day and "make the most of every minute of every day," Herzog said. She said teachers communicate with each other to find new ways to help students.

Franklin Elementary

Franklin Elementary's English language arts scores have been mixed, but its math scores mostly have fallen. Overall, the school has posted some of the lowest numbers in the district. In 2013, Franklin students scored 35.5 percent in English language arts, below the state score of 55.7 percent. The high was in 2011, when 46.1 percent of Franklin students scored in the proficient/advanced range.

In math at Franklin, 2010 was the peak, with 44.1 percent scoring in the proficient/advanced range. For 2013, students scored 38.7 percent.

Franklin principal Rhonda Dunham said a variety of measures have been implemented to improve test scores. The school, like all the district's elementary campuses, also uses the United Way's Read to Succeed program in kindergarten, where volunteers help students with reading one-on-one four days a week, 30 minutes at a time.

Dunham's staff also is undergoing cooperative learning training, which involves helping students become more engaged and take more responsibility for their learning.

An additional reading "interventionist" has been hired, so smaller group instruction is being used to help students learn phonics, cause-and-effect and other topics. "Those groups are fluid, so we are reaching more children more often in smaller groups to get the learning, and we have that divided up by grade so there are six different people teaching reading at one time per grade level," Dunham said.

Franklin also has seen gains from the Positive Behavior Intervention System, in its second year at the school. PBIS also is used at several other schools.

"That in itself is trying to get students to learn the basic rules [of behavior at school] and help them to be able to focus more on what they're learning," Dunham said.

Central High School

Central High School students have seen significant gains in science and English. In 2013 in English, Central High students scored 65.6 percent. The low was 54.3 percent in 2011.

Math scores, including algebra 1 and 2 and geometry at the high school, were 49.5 percent in 2013, with a low of 28.2 percent in 2009 and 2010.

Social studies, which included government studies from 2010 to 2012 with American history added in 2013, stayed in the high 30s to low 40s in percentage. But between 2011 and 2012, scores dropped from 42.9 percent to 22.2 percent, DESE data shows. The school's score for 2013 was 38.6 percent.

The statewide social studies score for 2013 was 50.6 percent -- a total of 34.1 proficient and 16.5 percent advanced.

Biology became a bright spot for Central High. Scores skyrocketed from 2012 to 2013, going from 38.4 percent in 2012 to 72.7 percent in 2013. The statewide score for science was 59.1 percent in 2013.

Principal Mike Cowan credits curriculum and course sequencing changes in the sciences for the improvement. Instead of teaching biology to freshmen, it is taught to juniors. Freshmen are taking conceptual physics, and sophomores take chemistry or earth science.

The National Science Teachers Association advocated "physics first." The school bought into it, and the change was made over a three- to four-year period.

Teachers also collaborated to get ready for end-of-course exams, and biology teachers offered help sessions before and after school that attracted a lot of students.

"We were confident once we made the changes in the curriculum and course sequencing we were going to have marked improvement, and we did," Cowan said.

Also, scores across the board last year were calculated as part of the students' course grade. "I think that made a difference for some of the children," Cowan said. "They ended up seeing the test had a more immediate impact on their academic standing."

If students scored proficient or advanced on the end-of-course exam, they could be excused from their semester exams. "That was an incentive for a lot of our children in order to reduce the number of cumulative exams," Cowan said.

"The challenge would be to see if we can do even better this time around," he added.

rcampbell@semissourian.com

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