The tests Missouri’s public school students take each year show they’re learning better, in general, but the results also show some problems. Missouri’s Mastery Achievement Tests measure how well students can apply what they’ve learned, if they’ve learned it. The results are used to compute whether individual schools meet standards for Adequate Yearly Progress and whether some that don’t should face consequences. Students are broken into ten ethnic, economic, disabled, and language-challenged groups. Education Commissioner Kent King says students in nine of those 10 groups met the standards in math, five of the 10 are proficient in communications arts. About 57% of Missouir’s two-thousand schools have met federal standards for progress. That’s a 7% increase from last year. About half of those that fall short have to offer students a chance to transfer to a better-performing school, or provide tutoring if transfer isn’t possible.
Your school district’s results are on the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education’s website. On the “School Data” page, select the name of a school district or charter school from the list provided and click on “Load Profile.” The link to the AYP report is located in the top-right corner of the school district’s data page.
