MAP scores

Missouri schools still have some major gaps to overcome in academic achievement, according to the latest student scores on the Missouri Assessment Program tests.

The Department of Elementary and Secondary Education released basic MAP test data last week that showed a five-year trend of little improvement statewide.

Local districts showed the greatest discrepancies in scores among minority, low-income and male-female student groups.

More than half of Missouri's public schools failed to score high enough on the last year's MAP tests to make adequate yearly progress, a requirement under the federal No Child Left Behind Act.

And 43 percent of the state's schools didn't meet those standards based on this year's test results.

The state lowered its standards this year to help failing schools that scored poorly in math or communication arts.

Cape Girardeau educators were a bit tense before the release of the latest MAP test scores, because Blanchard and Jefferson elementary schools didn't make adequate yearly progress in 2003. But both schools met the federal standards this time around.

The federal NCLB standards expect 100 percent proficiency -- every student meeting standards -- in math and communication arts by 2014. That goal is unattainable, many area and state educators say.

Standardized tests like MAP don't tell parents how well their child is doing in school, nor do the tests help make sure that students leave high school with the education necessary to be productive citizens.

But it is because too many of America's students have been shortchanged by public schools that the federal goals were put in place. Students deserve the very best efforts to make sure their school days result in skills and knowledge that will, at a minimum, get them through the demands of adulthood and employment.

Some states are setting low performance standards in order meet the federal standards. But will students in those states truly be getting the best possible education?