Scott City schools striving to improve MAP scores

Scott City's Missouri Achievement Program scores have bright spots such as the high school's English, math and science and the middle school's math scores.

But its lowest scores are found at the elementary level.

"It works backward," curriculum director Dr. Keisha Panagos said. "We've been really focusing this year on third- and fourth-grade, making sure standards are aligned."

Students in grades three through eight take the MAP assessments, but those in grades nine through 12 take end-of-course exams tied to grades. The aim is to have all students score in the proficient and advanced range.

Math scores at the elementary school have risen the past few years, but communication arts are hovering in the 35 percent to 37 percent range.

State testing

MAP tests are part of what the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education uses to determine a district's score on its annual performance report, said Sarah Potter, communications coordinator for the department.

Students can score at below basic, basic, proficient and advanced levels on the exams. But the state looks at the sum of the proficient and advanced percentages. Overall, Scott City students scored 49.5 percent in English language arts in 2013, 49.1 percent in math, 54 percent in science and 36.1 percent in social studies.

State average scores in English language arts for 2013 were 55.7 percent; 53.8 percent in math; 59.1 percent in science; and 50.6 percent in social studies.

Growth not seen

"We're not seeing the growth we're really wanting," Panagos said. "As a result, we just met with all the communication arts teachers in the first quarter, and we'll finish this quarter [by] realigning curriculum to Common Core standards. They have a higher level of rigor. The students are going to have to show mastery at multiple levels. We're trying to increase the rigor in the classroom. Hopefully, by doing that and realigning curriculum, we'll see an increase in our elementary scores."

The Common Core state standards are meant to provide a "consistent, clear understanding of what students are expected to learn, so teachers and parents know what they need to do to help them. The standards are designed to be robust and relevant to the real world, reflecting the knowledge and skills that our young people need for success in college and careers," according to the Common Core Standards Initiative website.

The goal is to have all the math and communication arts curriculum from kindergarten through 12th grade aligned to Common Core by March.

"We're right on target with that goal," Panagos said. " ... We started last year with the transition and aligning our curriculum. We're now at the very end. It's just a time-consuming process to have to pull teachers out of the classroom two or three days per subject area. ... It's going to be a big sense of relief to everyone involved when March rolls around and we have it all done."

The last four years, Panagos said, the district has looked at strategies to increase scores. Ultimately, the district hopes to reach accredited with distinction. DESE's accreditation levels include accredited with distinction, which means the district scored 90 percent or more; accredited, 70 percent or more; provisionally accredited, 50 percent or more; and 49.9 percent or less, unaccredited.

Strategies

The district adopted research-based instructional strategies and is focusing on those that should yield the highest levels of student achievement.

Examples are setting objectives and providing feedback; identifying similarities and differences; reinforcing effort and providing recognition.

"That's the type of instructional strategy the teachers are using in the classroom. Those types of strategies help the students master the content," Panagos said.

Regarding feedback, Panagos said "we've really been working hard on trying to get teachers to understand the value of effective feedback, not just the smiling face, or the good job, but real feedback students can take to increase their understanding, allowing them [students] an opportunity to do something with it."

Giving students multiple chances to show mastery, Panagos said, is where learning takes place.

Data teams

Another districtwide initiative adopted in the past couple of years are data teams of teachers.

"In our data teams, we're able to talk about instructional strategies. We're able to see what's being effective and what's not. We do data teams K-12. Actual teams are grade-level teams. We have professional development days built into the school calendar where teachers can do vertical teaming," where teachers from different grade levels collaborate across subject areas.

"With the dedication of our teachers, we've had it as a goal to get accreditation with distinction," Panagos said.

"Our teachers are working really hard to make sure they [students] are mastering those objectives in the classroom, making sure students don't fall through the cracks," she said.

If students are allowed the time to master the content, "that should be reflected in our state scores," Panagos said.

Amy Pobst, who teaches algebra I and geometry at Scott City High School, said the curriculum has been rewritten to ensure instruction hits all the testing points, as well as being aligned to "what we feel it will be important for them [students] to learn."

"We try to hit all the important things" from this year and last year, showing students different routes to come to an answer, Pobst said.

A lot of practice testing is conducted through a computer program called Study Island, and students do their homework on computers, which reduces test anxiety because the MAP is administered via computer, Pobst said.

Reviews of what students learn in class also can be found online through the TenMarks.com program the district is using. Pobst said TenMarks is supposed to be "aligned really well" to Common Core.

"I've just used it a few times. I've been using Study Island for a few years," Pobst said. According to its website, Study Island "helps students in kindergarten through 12th grade master state-specific, grade-level academic standards."

Traditional pencil-and-paper work sheets have been replaced with a program called ixl.com, which offers practice tests in a variety of subjects. She said even the language teachers use in class is geared to what students will see on the exams.

Comparison

High school principal Mike Johnson said he personally compares his school with others in Jefferson, St. Francois and Ste. Genevieve counties. "We usually fare right in the middle of the pack. I also pick some other schools similar socioeconomic [status] and size," Johnson said.

"I'm a little bit competitive, so I want to make sure we're at least doing as well," he said. "Like I said, typically we are. There are some times we have that class of students that don't fare as well as we'd like them to."

The high school's English II end-of-course exam scores were 81.4 percent -- almost 12 percent higher than the state scores, Johnson said. "That was the highest of any of the schools I had compared to here. That was a really good group of kids, those kids who took the English II test."

But some years, he said, classes aren't as high-achieving. "Us being such a small sample size, it's going to fluctuate from year to year," Johnson said.

Math and English are the areas the school has focused on, along with changing science classes so sophomores will take biology and freshmen will take physical science.

"We're changing that around so sophomores will be taking that test. It's just one of the variables that's at play whenever you ... compare scores from school to school, but we're trying to correct that. That would be one small example of what we're trying to do to improve our scores in the area of biology," Johnson said.

Elementary school

Scott City elementary school principal Courtney Kern has seen low MAP scores, but is using methods to combat it, including renewed focus on teaching strategies and more parental involvement.

English language arts scores for 2013 were 37 percent, down 0.5 percent from 2012. Math scores for 2013 were 42 percent, up 2.7 percent from 2012.

She said in an email to the Southeast Missourian her building is designated as Title I, which means it receives federal funds based on the number of students who qualify for free and reduced lunches.

Unfortunately, she said, the school's numbers have increased 20 percent this past year to 87 percent. "Our building has never been this high, but it seems to be a direct correlation to the poor economy the last few years," she wrote.

"With this being said, we are very proud that even though over poverty rate has increased, we were able to close the achievement gap that had designated our building as a Focus school, according to our MAP score data, by 10.9 percent. The gap closure is due to that partnership between school and families, hardworking teachers and staff, and high expectations," Kern wrote.

Elementary strategies

According to an email from Kern, strategies being used to improve at the elementary school are:

* Focusing on the strategies it uses with students and checking on the level of student understanding more often throughout the lesson.

* After the whole group instruction in math, students have math stations and small-group instruction.

* Allowing more time for uninterrupted math instruction.

* Building-wide, the focus has been narrowed to a few math standards that "our data shows would increase those scores."

* Implementing student-led conferences and data notebooks.

English language arts scores fell 0.5 percent in 2013, but the achievement gap was closed 10.9 percent between 2012 and 2013, Kern said.

Last year, the school was revising its curriculum "quite a bit to reflect training we received from the Missouri Reading Initiative. Research will show that you can expect a slight implementation dip when introducing something new," Kern wrote.

She said teachers are confident in the strategies and are seeing benefits to students in their ability to "think deeper about their reading and writing and apply that knowledge. We fully expect this year's scores to reflect those changes."

Kern's building also is a Focus School. According to the U.S. Department of Education website, a Focus School falls under Missouri's Elementary and Secondary Education Act flexibility request. Schools facing the greatest challenges for groups of students are required to implement school improvement plans from the State System of Support, the site said.

Kern said it also means the elementary school must reduce its achievement gap by 25 percent.

Something Kern said should help is the increased parental support the school has seen.

"Most all of our parents are doing the homework with their kids, reading more at night with them and attending school activities," she said.

rcampbell@semissourian.com

388-3639

Pertinent address:

3000 Main St., Scott City, Mo.