State to review test standards; MAP levels called 'unrealistically high'

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.

"I think they're trying to re-determine what the word proficient means," Scott City superintendent Diann Bradshaw said.

The current terms used in scoring the MAP tests are misleading, Bradshaw said. Most people think that if a student scores proficient on the test they are scoring at grade level, but proficient really means the student is scoring above grade level and that should be changed, Bradshaw said.

State Education Commissioner D. Kent King said Monday, "Some of the current MAP standards are unrealistically high, and we are ready to address that concern."

"Our challenge is to find the appropriate balance," King said. "We want to establish standards that are right for kids, realistic, and will help us keep pushing for higher student achievement."

"The state standards were set prior to No Child Left Behind so therefore there needs to be an alignment to be more in line with what the rest of the country is doing," Jackson superintendent Dr. Ron Anderson said.

Anderson said the proposal has to be looked at in context with No Child Left Behind, otherwise there are unfair penalties that some Missouri schools can receive that don't match up with other states.

About 100 educators and citizens met earlier this month with state education officials to come up with the recommended grading changes. The revisions were prompted largely by a 2004 state law requiring the MAP standards to be more closely aligned with those used by the National Assessment of Educational Progress.

In some cases, Missouri's current standards are tougher than those used for the national test. In other cases, they are similar.

Here's one example of how the proposed change would work: About 15 percent of Missouri eighth-graders scored "proficient" or "advanced" in math last year on the MAP test. On the NAEP test, about 26 percent reached that mark. The proposed grading standards for the MAP test are intended so that 40 percent of eighth-graders would score "proficient" or "advanced" in math.

In that example, Missouri's standards would go from being tougher to being easier than those used on the national test.

Staff writer Aurora Meyer contributed to this report.