A new way to test student performance

We understand the need for standardized testing.

It's necessary as a matter of accountability to be able to somehow measure the successes or failures of any school.

Over the last several weeks, the Southeast Missourian, via reporter Ruth Campbell, has brought you several stories regarding the results of the Missouri Assessment Program, aka MAP.

MAP is a rather complicated system, and it takes a great deal of time even to be able to interpret the results. MAP tests are given once a year, and there is a crescendo of pressure that builds on teachers and students to perform at the end of each school year.

Area schools had mixed results, our reporting showed. Some schools were up, some were down.

It just so happens that about the same time that Campbell was digging into the MAP scores, we had a handful of bright-minded people address the Southeast Missourian's editorial board about an ongoing, grassroots, common-sense approach of tracking the progress of school children.

Among the group was Jefferson Elementary principal Christa Turner, Big Brothers Big Sisters southern region executive director Ashley Beggs and president and CEO of Big Brothers Big Sisters of Eastern Missouri Becky James Hatter.

We've written about the ABC program before; it's a program initiated by Big Brothers Big Sisters. Cape Girardeau is the pilot location for the program.

The acronym ABC stands for Attendance, Behavior and Classroom. Big Brothers Big Sisters worked with the Cape Girardeau School District to start tracking BBBS students several years ago in an attempt to measure the success of their program. The idea was so successful that last year the system was brought to the entire student population of Jefferson Elementary School.

Several brilliant people worked on identifying the factors that went into successful students. And in the end, the answer was as simple as ABC. Showing up. Behaving. And concentration on studies. This is the special sauce for a good start in education.

It's a simple equation that almost always leads to successful outcomes at school and beyond. And now, because of the ABC program, officially called ABC Today, the school has a way to calculate students who are at risk, by identifying them through statistical analysis.

This program is strong in innovation. Unlike the clunky MAP system that tries to define yearlong instruction over just a few days of testing, the ABC system allows schools to have an ongoing view of performance, both macro and micro.

Quarter by quarter, schools can compare percentages of students who are succeeding, students who are at risk and those who are in between. Last year at Jefferson, the numbers showed unexpected improvement quarter by quarter.

The ABC system is powerful because of its simplicity and its ability to measure on an ongoing basis. It's powerful because it is based on larger samples, not on a handful of one-time tests. But the best part? It also includes community support from many businesses and organizations who can help students celebrate their successes and also put community resources specifically to those students who need certain types of help. Data connected to human interaction.

The ABC system may not replace MAP, but it could potentially do more to help student success than anything we've seen in terms of academic tracking.

It will be interesting to see how the numbers trend going forward. It's beyond exciting to see this system at work at Jefferson.

We certainly hope, and optimistically anticipate, that this innovation grows well beyond the classrooms of our city and state.