One of the areas at which Besendorfer said Joplin administrators will take a long, hard look in the coming weeks is South Middle School’s declining performance in the MAP tests. All the grades at South Middle School were below the state average in both math and communication arts. Some, such as eighth-grade math, were only 1 percent below the average. Others, such as sixth-grade communication arts, were more than 10 percent below the average.
“I was surprised by (South’s results),” Besendorfer said. “It makes us go, ‘Hmm, how are we going to address that?’ Because they did show a decline in achievement, and we will continue to look at those MAP scores in depth.”
Not one time is it mentioned in the Globe article that some of South's test scores, including eighth grade math and communication arts improved from the previous year. It would appear that the rest of the state has improved even more, but as I noted in the Sept. 3, 2006 Turner Report, there is a difference in the way these scores are graded in different regions. That year, I noted that all of the schools in the Springfield area miraculously had scores 10 or 15 points higher than those in the Joplin area. It is virtually impossible for every school in one area of the state to have students performing that much higher than students in another area of the state. That would mean all of the schools in the Springfield area are doing things right while all of the schools in Jasper, Newton, Barton, and McDonald counties are missing the mark. A quick glance at this year's MAP scores shows that the same pattern occurred. In eighth grade communication arts, the area in which I teach, Springfield generally had 55 to 65 percent in the proficient and advanced areas, while the Joplin area students, for the most part, scored between 40 and 50. Ash Grove in the Springfield area actually had 73 percent of its students in the top two categories, up from 46 percent the previous year.
When you consider that much of the MAP testing, especially in the communication arts area, consists of essay questions, you can see how the differences in grading could take place. No matter what state officials say about all tests being graded the same way, grading writing is a subjective process and it appears that it is being done differently in different areas of the state.
And while the tone of the Globe article was completely negative about South Middle School, it failed to note that our seventh grade communication arts scores, which were down slightly, have been among the top scores in the state in recent years and that this is the first year that the scores have even slightly dipped in that grade. Apparently, providing a clear picture of what these test scores mean was not the Joplin Globe's purpose.
When the Globe article addressed low sixth grade scores, it failed to examine whether these same students had also been having problems when they took MAP tests at the elementary school level the previous year. This is not a knock at our elementary schools. It is simply pointing out another basic flaw in MAP testing. The students are not being tested to see if they have improved; their scores are compared with those of the entirely different group of students who were in sixth grade the previous year. That would be like expecting a basketball team to have a better record the year after its seven-foot center and six-nine power forward graduate and are replaced by people who are eight to 10 inches shorter and with less physical ability. The job of a teacher is to take the basic material we are given and do the best we can with it.
The Globe is fully aware of the things i have mentioned, but for reasons of its own has not addressed any of them. The newspaper has done a disservice to the Joplin R-8 Schools, particularly South Middle School, and it has done a disservice to its readers.
The fact of the matter is that South has the same reputation it has always had; the worst teachers, worst students, and worst morale of any school in the area. You cannot believe the comments about how happy some are that the realignment will take place when the new school is built. You have horrible MAP scores. Deal with it. It doesn't matter what the past scores were, and they were not near what you are trying to distort them to be. You are judged on what you have done lately and apparently that isn't much. Even your principal knows this and has been trying to get out of there before he gets fired. The Globe was right on with this one.
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