ST. LOUIS — Students across Missouri are under pressure as state testing is underway and it's a time of year many families dread.
The Missouri Assessment Program (MAP) is used to accredit schools and districts in Missouri, so good scores and growth are important for the state.
Not everyone is the best standardized test-taker, though, and this yearly assessment can be daunting for children.
That's why 5 On Your Side spoke with Education Plus CEO Chris Gaines. He said when students test well on the MAP, the accreditation status at the district goes up, which in turn means more funding for schools.
So, what can you do as a parent to help your kid?
- Make sure your child is going to bed at a consistent time and is getting a lot of rest.
- Make sure they're eating a good breakfast.
- Talk with your child about taking the test seriously and trying their best.
Gaines wants to remind parents not to stress too much, though.
"I think parents understand and teachers understand that the MAP test is just one little snippet that provides an overall picture of how a student performs. It's not the be-all, end-all. Our state may treat it that way, but I think educators and parents know that's not the case," he said.
We all know the pandemic dramatically impacted students learning and we saw that in the MAP test results after COVID-19.
The good news is we did see some improvements overall in scores statewide, but Gaines said there are still some areas of improvement though.
"We are still seeing some lag from the pandemic, especially for probably some of our younger students, who may have been out of school for an extended period of time, when they may have been learning to read or learning core concepts that are important later on in their school life," he said.
5 On Your Side dug into the results from last year's MAP testing, and here are the main takeaways:
- Overall performance rates have not reached pre-pandemic levels.
- Increase in performance in ELA, except for grades sixth and seventh.
- Math and science increased overall.
- Social studies declined.
Gaines said the major impact of the pandemic that's still affecting these scores is low attendance in schools.
"Talking to superintendents, their attendance rates, are running 5-7% below historical rates. I actually talked with a superintendent, who was just frustrated with the number of parents who just randomly take their child out of school for a week to maybe go on a trip. That wasn't something that we necessarily saw a lot of during the pandemic," he said.
Gaines said the problem with student attendance has been identified by the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education as a challenge in Missouri and rates are down significantly across the state.
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