R-5 school board reviews MAP test, NCLB scores

Thursday, September 11, 2003

There's good news and bad news when it comes to the Nevada R-5's performance in meeting state and local school improvement goals under the state's MAP testing program and the federal No Child Left Behind Act. The good news is that, overall, Nevada students improved their scores in most MAP testing areas, and have steadily shown improvement in four core areas -- math, communication arts, social studies and science -- since the test was first officially implemented as the Nevada R-5 district's baseline in 2000. The 2000 scores provide the starting point from which Nevada's degree of annual improvement is measured, according to Christi Peterson, school district administrator. The bad news is that not all scores improved this year. In fact, some actually went down. "When we got our scores this year, we were disappointed. We were up in some areas, and down in some, but we have gone up in our overall scores," Peterson said. In fact, many schools' scores went down this year in reading comprehension at one level or another -- the area that also troubled R-5 schools at the third grade level, because third graders from R-5 scored lower in reading comprenhension than in the past. Peterson said some variance is expected from year to year, for a number of reasons. One reason, she noted, is that the children tested aren't the same children. Other possible explanations include a change in the test that occured this year and environmental factors. Peterson said some have even speculated that student concern about the Operation Iraqi Freedom, which broke out about the time students were taking the test, may have had an impact on students' scores. "That's not an excuse. The bottom line is this is something we want to improve on this year. We're committed to improving each year," Peterson said. But new federal rules mandated by the federal No Child Left Behind Act implemented this year are proving frustrating for adminstrators. Despite the district's overall success in steadily improving MAP test scores, the district failed to meet improvement standards set by NCLB at every school except Truman Elementary. The federal report card for schools is based on math and communication arts scores, and, ironically, it's the elementary schools who excelled, according to a news release from the U.S. Department of Elementary and Secondary Education. Heartland, high school and middle school scores all failed to meet improvement levels set by NCLB. However, Nevada schools aren't the only ones finding themselves in this position. Even some large, suburban schools such as Lee's Summit and St. Charles, which historically have scored very well on state tests and have achieved "outstanding" accreditation levels, failed to meet NCLB standards in some areas. "We've moved up (in MAP test scores) every year, and that's a challenge we always accept, to improve," said R-5 superintendent Ted Davis, noting that MAP tests are "extremely challenging. It requires reading of fairly complex material and answering questions. They have to show their work in some cases, and they have to think." And, he noted, some students who have only reached the third level on the MAP test, or the nearing proficiency level, have gone on to score very high on the ACT, and have done very well in college. Davis said the district's goal is now and always has been to improve each year, and they've done that. However, the new federal rules may not be realistic when put into the context of the systems in place in individual states. Under NCLB, each state is responsible for its own testing system, and in some states, such as Arkansas, schools seem to be consistently able to meet NCLB goals. Davis explained that "NCLB says 100 percent of students will be at the top two levels," of the state test, by 2014, but the challenging standard students must meet to score at that level under the MAP test makes this an unrealistic goal. "It's like saying we have a few who are able to high jump six feet, so they should all be able to do that. It's a worthy goal, and it's a challenge. Getting there will be more than a challenge." The likelihood of getting the majority of students to meet that goal is high, Davis said, but when it comes to the schools special education population, such an expectation may be unfair. "If moving up were the standard, then 70 or 80 percent would probably be able to do that. All of them? It isn't possible," Davis said, reiterating that the school would strive to meet that goal. Davis said a standardized, national test may be needed to fairly evaluate schools under NCLB; however, Peterson said the state appears to have no plans at this time to scrap its MAP test. "There have been millions spent on (developing the test)." "It would be nice to know where every child is (academically.) But NCLB will never tell us that," Davis said.

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