North Kansas City Families,

The Missouri Assessment Program (MAP) Grade-Level Assessments evaluate students’ progress toward the Missouri Learning Standards. Grade-Level Assessments provide important information that contributes to decisions concerning individual students, groups of students, and educational programs. Assessments are given in the subject areas of Communication Arts (grades 3-8), Mathematics (grades 3-8) and Science (grades 5 and 8).

A policy statement, adopted by the Missouri State Board of Education, designated the purposes of the Missouri Assessment Program as:

• Improving students’ acquisition of important knowledge, skills and competencies;
• Monitoring the performance of Missouri’s education system;
• Empowering students and their families to improve their educational prospects; and
• Supporting the teaching and learning process.

The effectiveness of an assessment program depends on the wise choice of assessment methods, appropriate administration procedures and accurate interpretation of results.

The Grade-Level Assessments include multiple types of questions or items:

• Selected Response (also known as multiple choice) items are composed of a question followed by a series of possible responses. Students must select the correct response or responses.
• Constructed Response or Short Text items require students to supply an appropriate response rather than making a selection from a list of choices.
• Performance Tasks/Events allow students to work through more complicated items using real-world scenarios.
• Technology Enhanced items make use of technology in the presentation of the item, the ways in which students respond, or both. For example, students might listen to a story and then drag and drop labels into a diagram, or click on specific parts of a text to provide a response.

Your child’s Individual Student Report (ISR), includes an Achievement Level, which will describe his or her performance as Below Basic, Basic, Proficient, or Advanced. The report will also include a short description of the knowledge and skills that are typically demonstrated by students in each Achievement Level.

The Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) publishes a Guide to Interpreting Results (GIR) that provides additional details about the content of the Individual Student Reports. The GIR is available on the DESE website at: https://dese.mo.gov/sites/default/files/asmt-gl-gir-spring-2018.pdf

Message from Central Office:

In the Spring of 2018, the Missouri Department of Education administered new assessments in English Language Arts and Mathematics. Additionally, the department of Education created new cut scores for each level of performance. As with years past, these levels of performance include Advanced, Proficient, Basic and Below Basic. With the establishment of the new cut scores for each level of performance, you may see some variation in how your child performed as compared to the Spring of 2017. For, example, you may notice your child scored Proficient in Math in 2017 and Basic in 2018. This difference may likely be a result of the change in cut scores and not a change in your child’s understanding of the grade level standards. If you would like more information regarding the assessment or your student’s scores, please plan to attend the “Understanding MAP Scores” Parent Meeting on January 9^th at 5:30 in the library at Linden West Elementary.

Shelly Sanders

Proud Principal of Linden West ES