Better scores on MAP fall short
Post Dispatch Article on Test Scores
By David Hunn and Kevin Crowe
ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH
Wednesday, Aug. 12 2009
Missouri school test results improved for the fourth year in a row, but only
half as quickly as needed to meet rising federal requirements.
About 50 percent of the state's students passed last spring's English and math
tests, an improvement of a few percentage points over the prior year, according
to results just released by the state department of education.
Moreover, fewer students fell into the tests' bottom category, "below basic,"
and more students scored in the highest, "advanced," than ever before.
Yet, despite the progress, about 400 of the state's 550 districts and charter
schools failed to improve quickly enough to meet the rising federal No Child
Left Behind standards.
And, for the first year, the state's combined results couldn't meet the federal
targets in either English or math.
Tuesday, state officials focused more on the improvement.
"We're pleased the state is making progress," said state education Commissioner
Chris Nicastro.
But Nicastro, in her second week on the job, said Missouri must improve more
quickly, and highlighted a few areas she'd like to focus on, including early
childhood education and teacher training.
"There are lots of things
under way to improve schools in Missouri," she said. "The challenge is to
figure out what's working, and expand."
Nicastro and others also used the release as an opportunity to call for changes
to the federal law.
Carter Ward, executive director of the Missouri School Boards' Association,
called state test scores "solid."
"It is (No Child Left Behind) that is failing to provide an accurate picture of
schools that truly are in need of improvement and those that are performing
well," Ward said in a prepared statement.
"We are on an inevitable march toward including nearly every school and school
district in the state on the 'needs improvement' list."
Indeed, even the best districts in Missouri began failing to meet the federal
targets in the last few years.
Recently such trends across the country have led politicians to debate whether
the law's requirements are too rigorous, some calling for an overhaul, others,
for a complete scrapping. U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan said he would
like to see the law reviewed by Congress later this year.
The criticism mostly comes from No Child Left Behind's lofty goal - the law
says all students in the country must pass their state tests by 2014. The U.S.
Department of Education left the states to choose intermediate yearly goals.
In Missouri this year, 54 percent of each district's students had to pass the
math test, and 59 percent English - an increase of 9 and 8 percentage points,
respectively.
But districts are held accountable for each major group of students, too. So,
for instance, black, white, special education and low-income students - each as
individual "subgroups" - must all meet the same bar.
Despite yearly bit-by-bit increases in the percent of Missouri students passing
the tests, less than one-quarter of the state's districts met the federal goals
this year.
