Judge upholds Missouri's school funding method
(08/30/07)
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- A state judge on Wednesday upheld Missouri's school funding method, rejecting claims by schools that it distributes money unfairly and inadequately. Cole County Circuit Judge Richard Callahan ruled that the state constitution provides no guarantee of absolute "equity, equality or adequacy in the dollars spent" or in the facilities available from one school district to another...
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School assessments, MAP testing
Report finds states' standards for reading, math vary dramatically
(06/08/07) WASHINGTON -- A reading score that rates a fourth-grader "proficient" in Mississippi would be a failing score in Massachusetts, according to a report Thursday by the Education Department. The wide variations found in how states assess student progress are certain to fuel debate about whether the federal No Child Left Behind law should be overhauled to make standards more uniform from state to state...
MAP testing options reviewed
(01/29/07) Missouri's State Board of Education may replace the current Missouri Assessment Program tests in high school with at least four end-of-course exams. The state board could approve a plan as early as next month that would require public high school students to take standardized, state exams in algebra, English, biology and government starting in 2009, state education officials said last week. Scores from the new tests could be used in determining students' final grades, officials said...
Cape's grad rate low for blacks
(01/05/07) Cape Girardeau Central High School graduates less than 60 percent of its black students, according to the latest school district report card from the state's education agency. Of the black freshmen who entered the high school four years earlier, 59.3 percent graduated last spring, the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education said. The 2006 state average was 75.9 percent...
State calculations give schools break on AYP
(11/23/06) Jefferson and Blanchard elementary schools in Cape Girardeau benefited from a change in state calculations that allowed the two schools to make sufficient academic progress under the federal No Child Left Behind Act even though most of the students failed to meet the proficiency target...
Schools don't have to transfer students
(11/21/06) The Cape Girardeau School District won't transfer a single student from Blanchard and Jefferson elementary schools to better performing schools next semester because final calculations made by the state on students' standardized test scores. The calculations showed enough academic progress to avoid implementing the "school choice" provision of the federal No Child Left Behind Act, school officials said...
Cape, Jackson students do well on ACT
(09/05/06) Cape Girardeau and Jackson high school graduates from the class of 2006 are better prepared for college classes than their fellow graduates statewide and even nationally, ACT test scores show. Students at Cape Girardeau Central High School had an average composite score of 23.5, the highest it's been in 11 years, said principal Dr. Mike Cowan...
Study says poor and minority students are shortchanged on teacher quality
(06/13/06) Low-income and minority students in the nation's public schools often are shortchanged in teacher quality, the one resource they most need to succeed in the classroom, a nationwide study says. "Research has shown that when it comes to the distribution of the best teachers, poor and minority students do not get their fair share," the Education Trust said in a just-released study of teacher quality in Ohio, Wisconsin and Illinois...
Federal deadline on teacher certification coming next month
(06/12/06) Their students' ACT scores are higher than the statewide average. They have more teaching experience and have fewer students drop out of school than the statewide average. Their students are twice as likely to go on to a four-year college after high school than other students in Missouri...
Education officials: High school test meetings don't draw public response
(05/26/06) JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- An attempt to gather public opinion on whether to make high school students take a college entrance exam like the ACT brought strong reaction by school administrators but little comment by parents or students who actually take the test...
More schools face education law's most serious penalties
(05/10/06) WASHINGTON -- Falling short of requirements under President Bush's education law, about 1,750 U.S. schools have been ordered into radical "restructuring," subject to mass firings, closure, state takeover or other moves aimed at wiping their slates clean...
No Dollar Left Behind: Education law means money for contractors
(04/21/06) Lew and Sharon Goldfarb went looking for a way to make some extra cash and help kids learn, too. They found both in President Bush's No Child Left Behind Act. The suburban Columbus, Ohio couple bought a franchise with a Florida-based company, Club Z! In-Home Tutoring Services, that provides one-on-one academic help. The Goldfarbs now have 100 tutors working for them, and much of their business is due to the 2002 education law...
Federal 'No Child' law raises fears of more school segregation
(04/20/06) HARTFORD, Conn. -- Wedged in a poor, gritty immigrant neighborhood, Henry C. Dwight Elementary School harks back to an earlier era of learning. Its ceilings are high, there is a fireplace in the library and students wear uniforms as they dart between classrooms...
Nearly 400 test scores not counted in subgroups by area schools
(04/18/06) Missouri's Department of Elementary and Secondary Education excluded test scores of 385 students, most of them minorities, in 19 Southeast Missouri school districts in the 2003-2004 academic year in determining whether those schools made adequate yearly progress under the federal No Child Left Behind Act...
School districts nationwide follow letter of the law to eliminate subgroups from federal test results
(04/18/06) States are helping public schools escape potential penalties by skirting the No Child Left Behind law's requirement that students of all races must show annual academic progress. With the federal government's permission, schools aren't counting the test scores of nearly 2 million students when they report progress by racial groups, an Associated Press computer analysis found...
Fifth-, sixth-graders take testing in stride
(04/11/06) Even in pajamas, fifth- and sixth-graders at the Cape Girardeau Middle School appeared relaxed about taking Missouri Assessment Program tests in math and communication arts. "It is just like another test," said 12-year-old Ami Godbey, a sixth grader at the school who participated in pajama day in advance of nearly a week of standardized tests mandated by the state...
A different standard: Task force recommends scrapping Mo. MAP for ACT test
(04/10/06) In his 30-year career, Dr. Mike Cowan has seen the BEST test come and go. He's seen the MMAT tests rise and fall. "And I maintain that, essentially, we're getting ready to fail again," said Cowan, principal at Central High School. Cowan was among 22 members of the Missouri High School Graduation and Assessment Task Force that met over the past seven months to revamp the state's standardized tests for high school students...
Audit: Missouri high school graduation rates inflated
(04/06/06) JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- Missouri's high school graduation rates appear inflated, because officials are not accurately tracking how many students drop out, a state audit asserted Wednesday. The audit said the way schools and the state calculate the graduation rate is flawed, not including data on 19,000 of 75,000 students who entered ninth grade in the 2000-2001 school year...
State recognizes academic success of area school districts
(03/27/06) Superintendent David Newell has reason to celebrate in the tiny Kelso elementary school district. His school has little more than 100 students, kindergarten through eighth grade. But their academic success has earned the school the state's "Distinction In Performance" Award...
Education board discusses changing high school test
(03/17/06) JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- The state Board of Education is considering whether to replace the state standardized exam for high school students with a national college entrance test. The board heard early recommendations Thursday from a committee that has been studying high school assessment but did not vote on the idea...
Putting art to the test
(02/23/06) Missouri's fine arts teachers often feel like the middle child -- they get some attention, but only a fraction of what their siblings in math, science and language receive. While MAP tests have forced legislators and school districts to pour more time and resources into these subjects, the arts seem to be an afterthought...
Missouri approves new lower testing standards
(01/13/06) JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- The state Education Board lowered the grading guidelines for some of Missouri's standardized achievement tests Thursday, meaning some students should be able to achieve better scores on mathematics and communication arts tests given this spring...
State to review test standards; MAP levels called 'unrealistically high'
(12/20/05) From staff and wire reports JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- Proposed changes in the way the state grades standardized tests could result in better scores for Missouri students. The state Board of Education will consider a plan next month to revise the way the state grades Missouri Assessment Program tests. At issue is how well students must do to be considered "proficient" or better in a subject...
MAP test changes to affect those students with disabilites
(12/05/05) Students with disabilities are on their own for the communication arts portion of the Missouri Achievement Program (MAP) test this spring. New guidelines from the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education testing procedure state that teachers are no longer allowed to read the test questions to students with disabilities, unless they are visually impaired and oral reading is their primary means of learning. Doing so will invalidate the test... 
Why is Leopold Southeast Missouri's top public school?
(12/04/05)LEOPOLD, Mo. -- Every parent but one. That's the best statistic Leopold superintendent Derek Urhahn can think of when it comes to describing how close-knit his school district is: Every parent but one showed up for the most recent elementary parent-teacher conferences...
Local parochial schools contribute to state's composite ACT score
(08/20/05) ACT scores are up across the state. Three area parochial high school scores contributed to the state composite score of 21.6 as all secondary school scores make up that number. Of those, Eagle Ridge Christian School's students fared the best with a composite score of 26 out of a possible 36. Notre Dame Regional High School's students had a composite score of 25.4. Saxony Lutheran's students had a score of 20.8. All students who take the ACT contribute to the school's overall composite score...
Low MAP scores shock Cape school officials
(08/19/05) Scott City, Jackson students fare better than their Cape counterparts. Low scores on the state's student achievement tests shocked and dismayed Cape Girardeau school officials who questioned Thursday how the district could fare so poorly in meeting federal education guidelines...
ACT scores rise in state, Jackson
(08/18/05) Marks dipped slightly in Cape Girardeau and Scott City. Missouri ACT scores rose a tenth of a point in 2005, but some local schools dropped off slightly from a year ago. The ACT test is a college preparatory test which is divided into four areas: Mathematics, English, science and reading. The top score is a 36...
National education test shows mixed results
(07/15/05) Secondary students need more attention, tests show. WASHINGTON -- The nation's 9-year-olds last year posted their best scores in the building-block subjects of reading and math in more than three decades. Older students didn't fare as well. At the same time, achievement gaps between racial groups narrowed, according to results of the 2004 National Assessment of Educational Progress announced Thursday...
Disparity in dropout statistics at Central
(06/28/05) Administrators say they're working on new tactics to address the problem. It might be an ethnicity issue. It could be socio-economic. More likely it's a combination. Whatever the reason, only 55 percent of black students graduated from Central High School in 2003-2004, compared to 85 percent of white students -- the largest disparity among districts of its size in Missouri...
Reading test scores show improvement
(05/17/05) Reading scores among Cape Girardeau School District elementary students have improved since the hiring of five literacy coaches at the beginning of the school year. The coaches and district curriculum director Pat Fanger discussed student progress on reading tests at Monday's meeting of the Cape Girardeau School Board...
Scholarship may boost MAP scores
(05/11/05) A new Southeast Missouri State University scholarship could encourage students to score well on Missouri Assessment Program tests, a move that public school officials applaud as a way to get students to take the tests seriously. Southeast officials announced the scholarship program Tuesday. Twin Rivers School District superintendent Andy Arbeitman, who proposed the scholarship, was on hand for the announcement at the University Center. The Twin Rivers district is south of Poplar Bluff...
Yearlong preparations for MAP put to the test this week
(04/04/05) There is no last-minute cramming for the MAP. As local schools and those throughout Missouri begin taking the state's achievement tests this week, educators say the focus is on keeping students calm and confident, not hardcore review of lessons. "Preparation is a yearlong thing. If you haven't prepared for the MAP throughout the year, you can't prepare for it," said Dr. Rita Fisher, assistant superintendent of the Jackson School District...
Another round of required tests worries some teachers
(03/16/05) SALEM, Ore. -- As he plans out his next couple of weeks of lessons at the Grant Community School, teacher Daniel Jamsa already knows there will be some gaps in the schedule. The eighth-graders will be missing a history lesson while they take a standardized test. The seventh-graders will be missing a health class or two, also for testing time. And the sixth-graders will have to skip a language arts session to take their tests...
Public school mandates, assessments may be hurting science fair participation
(03/10/05) State and federal mandates such as standardized assessments are behind a decrease in entries in this year's Southeast Missouri Regional Science Fair, local educators say. The annual science fair, which was held Tuesday at the Show Me Center, has two age divisions, one for high school students and one for junior high students...
Schools deep into preparing for MAP
(01/24/05) There are still three months to go before the Missouri Assessment Program tests are placed on local students' desks, but preparation started long ago in most schools. There is no last-minute cramming for the MAP, the state's annual assessment in math, communication arts, science and social studies administered every spring to students in various grade levels...
Group leans toward tougher high school requirements
(01/21/05) A state education task force is leaning toward recommending tougher high school graduation requirements, its leader said Thursday. Jerry Valentine, a University of Missouri-Columbia professor who's leading the group, told the state Board of Education that while final recommendations are a couple months away, the group thinks requiring more courses in the basic areas of math, English, science and social studies is the way to go...
Bush looks to expand school tests
(01/13/05) The impact of the No Child Left Behind Act -- felt mostly in elementary education right now -- may soon spread to high schools across the nation. Under a new plan unveiled by President Bush Wednesday, the federal law would require all students in grades three through 11 to take reading and math tests annually and 12th-graders to take tests in both subjects every two years...
Jackson School District receives good audit report
(11/26/04) The Jackson School District received a clean bill of health on the 2003-2004 year audit, which was presented to school board members this week. The audit, which was conducted this fall by Larson, Allen, Weishair & Co. LLP, covers everything from net assets to expenditures to compliance with state and federal mandates...
Local schools' APR scores vary widely
(11/19/04) There's not a school superintendent in Missouri who hasn't memorized the acronyms by now -- AYP, MAP, NCLB. Recent state and federal laws have generated a dictionary's worth of new terminology and new requirements to match, so much so that the limelight has fallen away from older accountability systems, such as the Annual Performance Reports...
Schools can see data on whether they've met education goals
(09/28/04) SPRINGFIELD, Ill. -- Hoping to avoid a repeat of last year's problems, the Illinois State Board of Education is giving schools a new opportunity to double-check information that helps determine whether schools are meeting federal education requirements...
Jefferson School is praised for test results
(09/10/04) Jefferson Elementary beat the odds. That's what an official with the U.S. Department of Education in Washington, D.C., had to say about the Cape Girardeau elementary school during a special visit Thursday. Dr. Susan Sclafani, an adviser to the U.S. secretary of education, highlighted the achievement as part of a national tour of schools that showed major improvement on this year's state assessments...
Average SAT score unchanged from '03
(09/01/04) SAT scores for the high school class of 2004 were mostly the same as a year ago, though scores for some minority groups showed an encouraging increase. The average cumulative score on the country's most widely taken college entrance exam was 1026, the same as for the class of 2003. Scores on the verbal section rose one point to 508 while math scores fell one point to 518...
Schools, parents differ on MAP scores' value
(08/29/04) "Dear parents and guardians," the letter begins, "this past spring, your child participated in the Missouri Assessment Program." Hmm, MAP. Sounds familiar. But why should I care about this? What does it tell me about my child? In the next two weeks, Cape Girardeau parents will receive that very letter from their school district accompanied by their child's scores on the 2004 MAP communication arts, math, science and social studies tests...
Charter schools lack oversight, audit says
(08/26/04) JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- While generally critical of a lack of sufficient oversight of Missouri's charter schools by their sponsors, a state audit released Wednesday credits Southeast Missouri State University with actively monitoring its charter school...
State scores show gaps in education
(08/20/04) While local school districts did escape penalties this year by meeting new standards on the 2004 state student assessments, scores released by the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education Thursday reveal major gaps in student achievement...
Missouri ACT scores inching up
(08/18/04) Missouri students again scored higher than the national average on a major college entrance exam, according to data released by not-for-profit ACT. The state and nationwide data from 2004 also shows that students who take tougher high school courses perform better on the ACT, intended to be a gauge of how students will fare when they reach college...
School's first grade
(08/15/04) In 24 hours, school administrators across Missouri will sit down at their computers, type in a special password and access the future of their schools. Flourish or flop? Parties or penalties? The questions that have bounced in local educators' minds since last spring's standardized assessments will finally be answered...
State lowers test standard to meet federal guidelines
(08/15/04) One-hundred percent of all students proficient in math and communication arts by 2014 -- not many educators in Missouri or anywhere else think it's a goal that will likely be achieved in the next decade. But that's exactly what the U.S. Department of Education now expects of public schools, and Missouri's department of elementary and secondary education is among those in many states that lowered standards this year to help schools reach that goal...
Unfolding the MAP
(06/24/04) Marushka Royse squints at the flat-screen computer monitor in front of her, agonizing over each word in the short-response answers she's grading. The scores she awards for these answers could cost some Missouri school districts -- perhaps even her own -- large sums of money...
Missouri's average teacher salary lower than officials thought
(06/02/04) Missouri teacher salaries are among the lowest in the United States and have been for longer than state officials realized. In an annual report released Thursday by the National Education Association, Missouri's average teacher salary ranked 44th in the nation, a drop of nine steps from last year's ranking of 35th. However, officials with the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education discovered Tuesday that they'd reported incorrect data to NEA in past reports...
High school grads' grades rising
(04/29/04) WASHINGTON -- The grades of high school graduates keep climbing, reaching a B average in the latest count, but far less certain are gains in achievement. High school seniors in 2000 finished with a cumulative grade point average of 2.94 out of four possible points, with four equaling an A on the scale schools use, a study shows. A decade earlier, the typical grade point average was 2.68. It rose throughout the 1990s...
Revisions in standardized tests scoring approved
(04/22/04) JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- Legislation intended to cure what some see as a scoring problem on Missouri's standardized tests cleared the House on Wednesday and returned to the Senate. Students taking Missouri Assessment Program tests are scored according to more demanding guidelines than some other states use in their standardized tests. ...
Education chief says No Child Left Behind has enough funds
(04/20/04) COLUMBIA, Mo. -- The No Child Left Behind law is "sufficiently funded," Education Secretary Rod Paige said Monday, replying to criticism that the law passes along billions in costs to states and local school districts. "There is no unfunded mandate as far as the No Child Left Behind Act," Paige said during a forum hosted by Rep. Kenny Hulshof, R-Mo., at Columbia's Rock Bridge High School...
Study- State standardized tests predict college performance
(04/17/04) JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- Missouri's standardized tests hold high school students to a high standard and are a good predictor of a student's chances for success in college, according to a study by a University of Missouri professor. Michael Podgursky, who chairs the Economics Department at the Columbia campus, analyzed high school students' performances on the Missouri Assessment Program tests for the state Department of Elementary and Secondary Education...
Feds loosen language test standards
(02/20/04) A 9-year-old Hispanic boy arrives from Mexico two days before a local elementary school is scheduled to administer annual state assessments in communication arts and math. The boy doesn't speak or write English, but he's still required to take the tests. If he doesn't perform well, his scores count against the school in meeting federal standards...
House endorses bill revising standards on tests
(02/12/04) JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- The House gave initial approval Wednesday to legislation lowering the standards that Missouri students must reach to be judged "proficient" on state standardized exams. The bill would set proficiency benchmarks that are in line with -- but no higher than -- the standards used by the National Assessment of Educational Progress...
State says nearly all teachers strong in core subjects
(01/24/04) JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- Teachers in 95 percent of Missouri's public school classes were "highly qualified" by federal standards to teach their subject matter last year, state officials say, and plans are being made for raising the percentage. But at least one education advocacy group questions the usefulness of such a measurement, which all states were required to provide late last year under the federal No Child Left Behind Act of 2002...
Revisions proposed in state's testing standards
(01/16/04) JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- Grading of the state's standardized tests would be revised to measure Missouri schools' performances more precisely against national norms, under bills filed Thursday in the House and Senate. Sponsors of the legislation said the intended result would be fewer schools whose students score below the "proficient" level on the Missouri Assessment Program tests. State education officials have said Missouri's standards are more stringent than those of some other states...
Handful of schools switch sides on state list of failing school
(01/15/04) JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- After reviewing school records, state education officials said Wednesday that a small number of schools changed their fate on a list of those failing to make progress under the federal No Child Left Behind law. There was a net difference of 25 schools that met the required standards. ...
New expectations
(01/04/04) Seventeen-year-old Brent Bohn doesn't know what he had for breakfast yesterday, but he knows the exact date his family last ate at Cracker Barrel. He loves watching high school football, and his parents celebrated this year when, for the very first time, he chose to sit next to other students at a game instead of hovering at his father's side...
Scott City sees fewer discipline problems
(12/11/03) More than four times smaller in size than Cape Girardeau or Jackson, the Scott City School District had significantly fewer discipline incidents than the other districts last year. According to Scott City schools' annual report card, which was released Dec. 1, only four students were suspended for 10 or more days and just one student was expelled in 2002-03... 
Discipline problems set Cape, Jackson schools apart
(12/11/03)Two Missouri school districts -- they're neighbors, about the same size with similar academic programs and extracurricular activities. In both districts, more than 96 percent of classes are taught by highly qualified teachers. Students in each score higher than the state and national average on college entrance exams...
School report cards offer inside look at education in region
(12/02/03) Want to know how many local high school seniors went on to a four-year university after graduation last year? How about the average salary of administrators in a particular district, or how many students were suspended on weapons-related offenses in a certain school?...
Math up, reading steady in national test results
(11/14/03) WASHINGTON -- The nation's math report card shows promise, with more than seven in 10 fourth-graders and almost as many eighth-graders now achieving at a basic level or better. But enthusiasm over rising test scores is tempered by another figure: More than two-thirds of the students still can't do math at the level they should, based on federal standards... 
New fed standards rate area teachers highly
(10/23/03)Missouri's classrooms rank among the best in the country for having the most qualified teachers, according to information required by a new federal law. The U.S. Department of Education on Wednesday released the first nationwide figures on teacher quality under the federal No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 for 39 states and the District of Columbia...
Standard question
(10/05/03) No one disagrees that the basic concept is admirable: Expect all children to learn, and hold schools accountable if they don't. But the widespread confusion and disappointment following the first year of President Bush's sweeping education reform, the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, has left Missouri educators facing some tough realities...
Area schools examine test successes, failures on MAP
(10/05/03) Over the past five years, school districts in Southeast Missouri have seen little improvement on their annual state assessments. Districtwide scores from 1999, when the communication arts, math, science and social studies tests were first administered through the Missouri Assessment Program, show little variation from this year's scores...
MAP dominates school board discussion
(09/23/03) Callie Clark Southeast Missourian A dedication to improving scores on annual state assessments has set the atmosphere in Cape Girardeau schools this year. During a meeting of the Cape Girardeau School Board Monday night, representatives from the...
Schools - MAP scores may be mistakes
(09/18/03) The news that more than half of Missouri's 2,000 public schools failed to meet new federal requirements on this year's MAP tests came as a shock to educators across the state. But some officials, including those in local districts, now believe their schools made the state's "needs improvement" list by mistake...
Strapped school districts volunteer to fund testing
(09/09/03) A $7 million cut to state test funds has left Missouri school districts with the option of not taking annual assessments or paying for the tests with district money. Although state officials continue to emphasize the importance of the tests in tracking student achievement and in the federal No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, only around half of the state's 524 districts have volunteered to fork over the money...
School reform raises stakes
(09/07/03) Southeast Missourian State officials have called it the 800-pound gorilla that can't be ignored. Educators say it's as useful as putting a Band-Aid on a headache. Whatever the case, the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 packs a punch unlike any other education reform ever handed down by the federal government, and its demands are likely to hit local schools right in the gut...
Schools get poor marks on state test
(09/03/03) Southeast Missourian There were after-school tutoring sessions and hundreds of hours spent pouring over data. There were workshops and pep rallies held, hamburgers and college scholarships offered. Officials in local school districts say they did everything they know of to improve students' scores on annual state assessments. But many schools didn't make the cut...
MAP testing results show little progress
(08/20/03) Most Missouri students fared only slightly better or worse than a year ago in meeting state standards in reading, math and science, according to data released today by the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education. Results from the Missouri Assessment Program also showed that overall, tested students met yearly progress guidelines set out by a new federal law. More than 500,000 students took the MAP tests earlier this year...
Schools with most MAP progress named
(04/08/03) Hours of staff development and student preparation paid off for a select group of schools in Southeast Missouri that were recently named to the state's top 10 list of schools for showing the most progress on the 2002 Missouri Assessment Program scores...
Baiting students with burgers
(03/23/03) Brandishing a half-eaten Sonic cheeseburger in one hand and a pencil in the other, seventh-grader Craig Arnzen contemplated the definitions of synonym and antonym. He's one of 25 students at Scott City Middle School who spend an hour after school once a week being tutored for the upcoming Missouri Assessment Program tests -- tests that have no impact on students' grades, college admission or graduation requirements but carry great importance for schools...
School officials say a few areas on report cards cause concern
(01/14/03) A staffing shortage and low teacher pay were among issues local school administrators said concerned them after reviewing data compiled in their annual report cards. The report cards, recently released by school districts throughout Missouri, allow school officials and community members to size up annual progress in areas such as enrollment, attendance, test scores, teacher quality and finance...
North Elementary School shines in 2002 report card
(01/13/03) Teachers cite close relationship with parents for school's success By Callie Clark ~ Southeast Missourian A close-knit relationship between staff members and parents at North Elementary in Fruitland has raised the bar on student performance...
Holden unveils report cards for Missouri school systems
(12/11/02) JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- Report cards for every school in Missouri are now available to the public on the Internet. The school accountability report cards are a result of a 2001 law requiring accountability measures such as test scores, teacher experience levels and average spending per student to be made available to the public...
School districts on the way to meeting demands of new law
(11/18/02) It's 1,200 pages of legislation that will profoundly affect every school district in America on a level never seen before. The federal No Child Left Behind Act, signed into law in January by President Bush, raises the accountability of all public schools and brings new hope to parents who have children in failing schools...
Cape district has opportunity to improve
(11/17/02) A report in last Sunday's Southeast Missourian about the 48 percent minority enrollment at Jefferson Elementary School and the school's low Missouri Assessment Program test scores outlined a set of circumstances that deserves the attention not just of school administrators and board of education, but the community as well...
Board members discuss MAP test scores
(11/05/02) Disparities in Missouri Assessment Program test scores among Cape Girardeau schools have led individual schools to develop a plan of action based on their annual performances. Cape Girardeau School Board members held a roundtable discussion with administrators and teachers from each school Monday night to discuss disaggregated results from the 2002 MAP tests...
District considers tying MAP scores, principals' salaries
(10/08/02) INDEPENDENCE, Mo. -- The Independence School District is considering a proposal to tie student performance on state tests to salaries paid to its principals and central office administrators. The plan to incorporate students' scores on the Missouri Assessment Program tests into administrators' evaluations would tell school officials that it was important to be instructional leaders, said Independence Superintendent Jim Hinson...
MAP scores gauge teaching performance
(09/21/02) The moment Missouri school districts had been anticipating arrived the first week of September. The district-by-district, grade-by-grade Missouri Assessment Program scores were in, and with them the information on whether districts would receive their accreditation or whether that accreditation would be in jeopardy...
Checking the MAP Local districts received their spring Missouri
(09/15/02) After five years of Missouri Assessment Program testing, public school districts are finding the state's annual goal of increasing the number of satisfactory students while lifting low-performing children out of the bottom scoring levels is a tough one to maintain...
MAP scores
(09/15/02) STATEWIDE Social studies 4th grade Test takers in 2002: 71,144Percentage proficient/advanced 1999 2000 2001 2002 26 37.7 41.8 40.18th grade Test takers in 2002: 67,772Percentage proficient/advanced 1999 2000 2001 2002...
Teachers seek insight on MAP testing
(07/01/02) For more than 200 Missouri teachers, this year's summer vacation is an opportunity to spend three weeks doing something that is part of their jobs during the school year: grading tests. These tests are the Missouri Assessment Program tests, which are given to students in grades three through seven and nine through 11 in communication arts, math, science, social studies and health/physical education...
Teachers get taught through MAP scoring
(06/21/02)
School vows to find way to hold MAP tests
(06/18/02) The Cape Girardeau School District Board of Education vowed Monday night to find a way to fund the science and social studies portions of the Missouri Assessment Program test that will no longer be financed by the state. Superintendent Mark Bowles said that starting in the 2002-03 school year the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education will only provide partial funding for the math and reading portions of the test because of budget constraints...
Schools could offer MAP tests despite state cutbacks
(05/24/02) JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- Although lawmakers cut state funding, school districts still might be able to administer standardized tests in science and social studies -- if they are willing to pay for it themselves. The state budget recently passed by lawmakers includes a 60 percent cut in funding next school year for the Missouri Assessment Program tests, leaving enough money to pay for only the math and communication arts portions...
MAP testing begins
(04/07/02) School district accreditation around the state hinges on what happens during the next five weeks as students take the Missouri Assessment Program, or MAP. It's a standardized test given annually by the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education to students in grades 3-5 and 7-11 to compare progress in math, science, communication arts, social studies, health and physical education to state standards...
House panel slices into MAP test fund
(03/19/02) JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- Some education officials fear proposed cuts in the state budget could severely damage the state's key tool for measuring the performance of public schools. On Monday, the House Budget Committee adopted an amendment slashing the funding for the Missouri Assessment Program tests by more than 60 percent...
Teaching the test- Some schools gear to MAP
(01/12/02) Assessment is a vital part of the learning process. Used correctly, it provides educators a way to track the progress of individual students and guidance on teaching to students' strengths and weaknesses. Testing also allows school administrators to determine which teachers are effective in the classroom and which need professional development...
Local schools give MAP scores short shrift
(09/08/01) There wasn't much to cheer about when the Cape Girardeau School District released its Missouri Assessment Program test scores this week. There were only two categories where more than half of district students were proficient: fifth-grade physical education and third-grade science...
MAP test scores rise, still low in all subjects
(09/05/01)
Although fewer Missouri students are scoring low, about two-thirds still are not making the grade in such basics as math, science and social studies. Most students scored below their grade level in all five subjects of the standardized tests given under the Missouri Assessment Program, the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education said Tuesday... |