Administrators struggle to close the MAP gap

Like many across Missouri, the Cape Girardeau School District is wrestling with a long-standing achievement gap between black and non-black students on state tests.

The disaggregate results of the 2002 Missouri Assessment Program tests, which are broken down by gender, ethnicity and learning disabilities, show black students' scores are significantly lower.

Among the district's five elementary schools, there was an average difference of 27 percentage points between black and white students scoring at or above the proficient level on the social studies, science, communication arts and math portions of the 2002 MAP.

State and local education officials say there's no clear reason for the disparities, which is why finding a solution has been so difficult.

It would appear that the gap narrows as students age: The difference between black and white students' performance in Central Junior High in four subject areas was 25 percentage points. At Central High School, the average difference was 14 percentage points.

But school officials say that's not necessarily because black students' scores have improved.

"Where the gap seems to be closing, it's not that minority scores have risen, but that non-minority scores have dropped," said superintendent Mark Bowles.

Cape Girardeau School District is far from alone in their struggle to balance the MAP scores. According to officials with the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, black students as a whole score below white and Asian students on virtually all standardized tests.

This year, DESE reported some gains in closing the gap, but officials say there remains a significant difference.

Across the state, there was an overall average achievement gap of 20 percentage points between black and white students scoring in the proficient and advanced levels on this year's MAP.

In Cape Girardeau, school administrators have held meetings with minority students, parents and community members in recent years to discuss solutions to the problem.

Individual schools have implemented after-school tutoring programs, altered curriculum and applied new teaching strategies in an attempt to improve MAP scores.

"In spite of a great deal of effort that was put into it, there have no solid findings on what to do about the gap," said Bowles.