Web site helps prepare students for state tests

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Teachers from more than a dozen school districts have formed a Web site to help other teachers prepare their students for high-stakes state tests.

The Web site includes sample tests to measure how students will fare on the Missouri Assessment Program tests. It was designed by Kansas City-area school districts, but any teacher in the state can use it.

The state judges school districts by their MAP test results, so educators are "feeling a healthy pressure," said Kathy Jensen, director of the Kansas City Regional Professional Development Center at the University of Missouri-Kansas City, which developed the Web project.

The evolving MAP testing has confounded administrators, said Pete Muenks, Lee's Summit's director of assessment. Teachers are struggling to align curriculum to the test and to measure how teachers and students are doing -- particularly in grade levels preceding those that take MAP tests.

"There's been a lot of crying on each other's shoulders," Muenks said.

That prompted school officials from several districts to gather at the university to develop their Internet plan, eventually called the Kansas City Area Assessment Project.

"It made a heck of a lot of sense to look at creating questions that model the MAP," Muenks said.

The process also has created a sense of camaraderie between districts that did not necessarily feel they had much in common, Muenks said.

"The collaboration has been wonderful," he said. "It's opened a door between urban and suburban schools."

Pooling resources will strengthen the effort of all districts in preparing students, said Ralph Corse of the Kansas City School District's curriculum department.

"If you don't have assessment attached to your curriculum, you have no idea if your kids are learning at the level you want," he said.

Teachers earn graduate school credit or a $100 stipend for each module they finish. The money comes from a grant from the Kauffman Foundation.