Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education

Vol. 40, No. 35

State and local education officials have been holding their breath since last spring, waiting to see the results of the annual Missouri Assessment Program (MAP) tests, which were dramatically expanded and revised this year.

More than 950,000 public school students took the retooled MAP tests last spring in communication arts and mathematics – more than double the number of students tested in previous years.

State education officials announced the results today and said they are generally pleased with the overall performance of students this year. They also praised teachers and school officials throughout the state for making the expanded testing program work so smoothly.

"There are significantly more students at the ‘proficient’ and ‘advanced’ levels this year. That is what we expected because of changes in the MAP performance standards that we adopted earlier this year. The new tests performed about the way we had expected, and so did the students in most cases, and we are happy with those results," said Commissioner of Education D. Kent King.

"The overall goal of the MAP program is to move all students toward the ‘proficient’ level. We believe the revised MAP tests will give teachers and school districts more useful information as they work toward that objective," King said.

In most grades, from 25 to 35 percent of the students scored at the proficient level in communication arts and math. In most subjects and grades, from 10 to 15 percent scored at the advanced level. See chart. (.pdf file)

Federal law (No Child Left Behind) required all states to institute annual testing for all students in grades 3-8 in reading and math, plus one additional grade in high school. For Missouri, this meant expanding the MAP program to seven grade levels this year, instead of three grades.

The inclusion of more students in MAP testing also has produced negative consequences for some schools, state education officials say.

Under federal law, every public school is required to meet annual state targets for improving student achievement. Schools are expected to meet these targets, called "Adequate Yearly Progress" for various "subgroups" of students – white, minority, low-income, English language-learners, etc.

This is the most complicated, and most controversial, aspect of the federal law. If any single group does not meet the annual achievement target, the entire school does not meet the AYP goal. As a result, the school may be subject to sanctions.

This year, because of the dramatic increase in the number of students tested, more schools were required to meet the AYP targets with more groups of students.

According to the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education’s preliminary calculations, about 60 percent of all public schools in the state achieved the AYP goal this year, compared to about 65 percent last year.

Schools Achieving Adequate Yearly Progress, 2005
Schools	Number of Schools	Met	% Met	Not Met	% Not Met
All Schools	2,035	1,327	65.2	708	34.8
Title I Schools	1,088	871	80.1	217	19.9
Title I Schools in School Improvement: 119 Title I Schools in Corrective Action:  0 Title I Schools in Restructuring:  7 Title I Schools Receiving Sanctions:  126
Data as of 10/27/2005

 

Schools Achieving Adequate Yearly Progress, 2006(Preliminary)
Schools	Number of Schools	Met	% Met	Not Met	% Not Met
All Schools	2,061	1,291	62.6	770	37.4
Title I Schools	1,000	677	67.7	323	32.3
Title I Schools in School Improvement: 109 Title I Schools in Corrective Action:  23 Title I Schools in Restructuring:  0 Title I Schools Receiving Sanctions:  132
Data as of 08/28/2006

For more information, see "Understanding the New Look of MAP Scores for 2006."