Six area schools in top 10 for MAP

Six area public schools rank among the state's highest performers on statewide standardized tests.

The Leopold School District ranked in the top 10 in Missouri Assessment Program scores from 2006 in seven of 14 grade and subject categories for small schools, according to the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education.

The Bell City, Kelly, Altenburg, Kelso and Oran school districts also ranked in the top 10 in one or more categories, state education officials said.

The rankings are based on MAP tests that students in Missouri public schools took last year in third through eighth grades for math and communication arts, in 10th grade for math, and in 11th grade for communication arts.

DESE annually lists the top 10 performing schools in three groups: schools with less than 250 students, schools with 250 to 500 students, and schools with more than 500 students. Five of the six area school districts with high-performance scores were in the first group. The Kelly School District was the only area top 10 school district with enrollments of 250 to 500 students.

Leopold School District superintendent Derek Urhahn credits strong parental support for helping foster a good learning environment. He said the scores also reflect the efforts made by teachers and students. "Our students work very hard in the classroom," he said.

Leopold Elementary School third-graders in 2006 ranked 10th in communication arts with 72.7 percent reported as advanced or proficient. Leopold seventh-graders tied for eighth with two other schools in communication arts, with 66.7 percent reported as advanced or proficient. They tied for second in math with 88.9 percent advanced or proficient. Leopold eighth-graders ranked third in communication arts at 82.6 percent advanced or proficient and third in math at 78.3 percent advanced or proficient.

Tenth-graders at Leopold ranked eighth in math with 72.2 percent advanced or proficient. Eleventh-graders at the high school ranked ninth in communication arts.

In the Bell City Elementary School, 100 percent of third-graders in 2006 scored at the advanced or proficient level in both communication arts and math. That ranked them first in the state in the small-school category. Bell City eighth-graders tied for seventh in math, with 71.4 percent advanced or proficient.

Bell City superintendent Rhonda Niemczyk said the low student-teacher ratio gives students more individual instruction and helps lead to higher test scores.

"I think it is the personal touch that they get here and the fact that the teachers know the students very well," she said.

Bell City students also are motivated to do well on the MAP tests, she said. "The faculty really try to spend some time impressing on students how important it is to do well," Niemczyk said.

Kelly Elementary School ranked tenth in the state in third-grade communication arts and fifth in eleventh-grade communication arts. Altenburg ranked third in sixth-grade communication arts and first in seventh-grade math.

Oran 10th-graders scored 10th in math. Kelso C-7 seventh-graders scored the highest among small schools in communication arts with 93.3 percent testing as advanced or proficient.

mbliss@semissourian.com

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