Five schools in Cape, two in Jackson fail to meet testing standards

WANT TO KNOW HOW YOUR SCHOOL DID? Check out Missouri Assessment Program scores for all schools in Southeast Missouri here.

Cape Girardeau's Central Middle School failed to meet federal and state academic standards for two years in a row, prompting the state of Missouri to put it on the state's list of schools needing to improve standardized test scores.

Last year -- the first year that fifth- and sixth-graders took the state tests -- the middle school failed to meet target goals among black, special-needs and low-income students.

Only 14.5 percent of black students scored proficient on the Missouri Assessment Program math test this year, prompting the state to identify the school as one in academic trouble.

Under the federal No Child Left Behind Act, schools and school districts must meet academic proficiency goals in seven categories from the student body as a whole to student subgroups.

The school is one of five schools in the Cape Girardeau School District and two in the Jackson district that failed to make adequate yearly progress in Missouri Assessment Program math and communication arts test scores, Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education preliminary data shows.

Of the five schools that failed to make adequate yearly progress, Central Middle School is the only Title I school in the area that failed to make it for the second consecutive year. Title I schools are those that receive federal money earmarked to help low-income students.

The middle school is one of nearly 200 Title I schools in Missouri that the state has identified as needing improvement. That's up from 130 a year ago.

The No Child Left Behind Act outlines a number of steps that must be taken at Title I schools, with tougher consequences for each year that the schools don't make adequate yearly progress. Those provisions range from allowing students to transfer to other schools -- after two years of failing to make adequate yearly progress -- to eventually replacing school staff.

Cape Girardeau schools assistant superintendent Pat Fanger said the district will have to file an improvement plan with the state listing steps it will take to try to improve Missouri Assessment Program test scores at the middle school. School officials have yet to decide how to try to raise the scores.

Parents won't have the option to move their students to a better performing school. That's because under No Child Left Behind, students can only transfer to other schools in the same district. Since the Cape Girardeau district has only a single middle school, the transfer option doesn't apply, Fanger said.

In the Cape Girardeau School District:

• Central High School did not make adequate yearly progress in communication arts and math. Only 17.2 percent of black students scored proficient or higher in communication arts. Only 14.8 percent of black students scored high enough on the math test. Only 14.3 percent of special-needs students met the threshold on the state math test.
• The junior high school didn't make adequate yearly progress in communication arts and math. Only 11.1 percent of special-needs students, 12.9 percent of black students and 18.1 percent of low-income students scored proficient or higher on the communication arts test. Only 14.4 percent of low-income students, 7.6 percent of black students and 6.5 percent of special-needs students scored proficient or above on the math test.
• Franklin Elementary School didn't make adequate yearly progress in math because only 17.4 percent of low-income students met or exceeded the proficiency goal.
• Jefferson Elementary School didn't make adequate yearly progress in communication arts because only 14.8 percent of black students and 19.3 percent of low-income students met or exceeded the goal.

In the Jackson School District:

• The high school didn't make adequate yearly progress in communication arts because only 21.3 percent of low-income students scored proficient or above.
• The middle school didn't make adequate yearly progress in communication arts because only 11.9 percent of special-needs students met the proficiency standard.

In the Scott City School District:

• The middle and high schools didn't make adequate yearly progress, school officials said. Students in several categories in the middle school failed to meet the proficiency goal in math while high school students in two categories didn't meet the proficiency standard for communication arts, superintendent Diann Bradshaw-Ulmer disclosed in a written statement.
• Scott City Elementary School, which is a Title I school, had low math and communication arts test scores in several student categories. Low-income students didn't reach the proficiency goal in math and communications arts, school officials said.

But state records indicate the elementary school made adequate yearly progress because it didn't have a sufficient number of students in various student subgroups and in some cases academic proficiency was boosted by DESE's statistical formula.

The formula accounts for a margin of error, according to DESE.

Missouri's goal

Under federal law, schools are judged on the basis of standardized state tests in math and communication arts. Public school students in grades three through eight in Missouri are tested in math and communication arts each spring. A math exam is also given to high school sophomores and a communication arts exam is given to high school juniors.

For 2007, Missouri's goal was for 42.9 percent of students in all categories to score proficient in communication arts and 35.8 percent score proficient in math. The target goals are up from 34.7 percent and 26.6 percent proficiency in communication arts and math, respectively, last year.

Statewide, schools on average exceeded the goals. In all, 44.3 percent of public school students scored proficient in communication arts and 44.8 percent scored proficient in math.

The target goals keep increasing. Under federal law, 100 percent of students are supposed to be proficient in math and communication arts by 2014.

Local educators say that's unrealistic. But officials with the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education say the state agency will continue to raise the threshold to comply with federal law.

Stan Johnson, assistant commissioner of DESE, said Missouri has higher proficiency standards than some states.

"We have high expectations for our kids," he said.

As the targeted goals for proficiency increase, the number of Missouri schools failing to make adequate yearly progress will grow, Johnson said.

But Johnson said DESE doesn't have a choice. "We have to comply with No Child Left Behind," he said.

Looking for errors

Both Cape Girardeau and Jackson school officials said they plan to review DESE's figures to see if any errors were made.

Cape Girardeau schools superintendent Dr. David Scala said some of the data may be incorrect.

Schools have 30 days to report any errors to DESE. The final numbers are scheduled to be released by Oct. 1.

Scala cautioned against jumping to conclusions.

Last year, Jefferson and Blanchard elementary schools initially didn't make adequate yearly progress. District officials offered parents an opportunity to transfer their students to better-performing elementary schools.

But the transfers never occurred because DESE finally determined that the two schools made adequate yearly progress. They did so because of a change in state calculations that rewarded schools whose students showed improvements in test scores while still falling short of proficient scores.

Administrators in the Cape Girardeau and Jackson school districts said they believe their students in elementary grades through high school have shown improved scores overall over the past several years.

Jackson assistant superintendent Dr. Rita Fisher said test scores have been going up in a number of student categories in the district's schools. "We see progress," she said.

Cape Girardeau school officials said they have taken steps in recent years to improve student achievement. "We are moving in the right direction," Fanger said. "We do a lot of tutoring in math and communication arts."

Franklin Elementary School principal Rhonda Dunham was disappointed her school didn't make adequate yearly progress. "Our kids tried very hard," she said.

"We have done an enormous amount not just here but throughout the school district to improve scores. We have to keep trying," Dunham said.

mbliss@semissourian.com

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