Third-grade student tests show gains

More third-graders, especially girls, in Cape Girar-deau Public Schools are reading at their grade level than have in the past several years.

Reading scores on the 2001 Missouri Assessment Program test showed 77.2 percent of third-graders across the district received a score of satisfactory or above, which placed them nearly 7 percent higher than in 2000 and more than 8 percent higher than in 1999.

"We've had great improvement in our reading instruction over the past few years," said Cathryn Evans, assistant superintendent of Cape Girardeau Public Schools, "and we've had increases in satisfactory and above scores every year at the third-grade level. We are definitely on the right track."

Also significant at the third-grade level, Evans said, is the shrinking in gender and racial gaps among students scoring at or above proficient.

"We're still not as close as we want to be," Evans said, "but we are closing the gaps."

In 2000, 18 percent of third-grade girls scored at or above proficient in science; whereas, the third-grade boys had 60 percent score at that level.

In 2001, half of the third-grade girls scored at that level and 52 percent of boys, narrowing the gap from 42 percentage points to two.

The same decreasing trend was found to be true of white students compared to minority students. In the science portion of the test, a 42 percentage point difference was found between white students and minorities in 2000, which was reduced to 38 percentage points in 2001.

hkronmueller@semissourian.com

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