March 27, 2008 10:34 pm
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By Joe Hadsall
jhadsall@joplinglobe.com
As Missouri students prepare for the annual MAP tests, the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education has released its top-10 lists for performance on last year’s tests.
Eight schools in five area school districts have been recognized by the department for student performance on the Missouri Assessment Program tests.
The area schools are Joplin’s Duenweg, Duquesne, Kelsey Norman and Royal Heights elementaries, Carthage’s Pleasant Valley Elementary, McDonald County’s White Rock Elementary, Monett Middle School and Mount Vernon Middle School.
The MAP tests are part of the Missouri School Improvement Program, which assesses how successful a school district is at educating students. Scores from the MAP tests also are used to rank schools according to the No Child Left Behind Act.
The lists are composed of the 10 schools with the highest percentages of students scoring in the “advanced” or “proficient” rankings. The state department formulates top-10 lists for each grade that takes the tests and further divides them based on the school’s population.
This is the second year in a row that Duenweg has been recognized. Last year, the school was recognized for math-test performance by fifth-graders in 2006.
Three groups of students from Duenweg made top-10 lists for 2007: 85 percent of third-graders testing in math; 87.5 percent of fifth-graders testing in math; and 75 percent of fifth-graders testing in communication arts.
Principal Doug Adams said there was no single secret that led to the pupils’ success.
“It’s a combination of a lot of hard work by students, teachers and parents,” said Adams, who also is principal at Duquesne. “I’m surrounded by awesome teachers with hearts of gold who work themselves to death.”
Other Joplin students on top-10 lists include: 87.5 percent of Duquesne third-graders testing in math; 78.1 percent of Duquesne third-graders testing in communication arts; 75.6 percent of Kelsey Norman third-graders testing in communication arts; 83.3 percent of Royal Heights third-graders testing in communication arts; and 81.6 percent of Royal Heights fourth-graders testing in math.
Only 10 other school districts in Missouri earned more spots in the top-10 lists.
Seventh- and eighth-graders at White Rock Elementary, in Pineville, made the lists for performance in math; 79.2 percent of seventh-graders and 67.2 percent of eighth-graders tested in the highest rankings.
“I wouldn’t expect any less,” said Principal Adam Lett. “We have an awesome math teacher, and our whole math department is top-notch.”
Lett said the school prepared for the 2008 tests on Thursday with a pep assembly. Students also dressed in camouflage so they could “attack the MAP,” he said.
Fourth-graders at Pleasant Valley Elementary in Carthage made one of the lists. Eighty percent of students tested high in communication arts.
Principal Brenten Byrd said the performance was a result of the same type of preparation found at many schools.
“We embed constructive-response questions in our teaching,” he said. “That way, students have exposure to those and are ready to answer.”
In addition to the school’s teachers, Byrd credited Fairview Principal Ronna Patterson, who was principal at Pleasant Valley during the testing. Last year, Carthage’s Mark Twain Elementary earned a spot on the lists for performance in 2006.
About 65 percent of seventh-graders at Mount Vernon Middle School tested in the top-two rankings on the communication arts tests. Eighth-graders at Monett Middle School made lists for testing highly in both math and communication arts.
On the Net
Top-10 lists for Missouri schools’ performance on the 2007 MAP tests are available at http://dese.mo.gov/divimprove/assess/TopTen/index.html.
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