LINN — Linn High School Principal Erin Sassmann recently presented the district’s 2025 high school MAP, EOC, and ACT testing data, discussing results for each grade and plans to address areas that fell below expectations.

Sassmann began by explaining the scope of the report. “These test scores are from our spring of 2025 MAP, which is our Missouri Assessment Program, our EOCs, which is which is end-of-course testing, and our ACT,” she said. “We know some of this data is not comfortable to look at. When you leave this presentation, we want you to understand our goals for the future, and the plans our teachers are already putting in place to help our students achieve at higher levels each year.”

She said sixth-grade English Language Arts (ELA) scores rose 4% in the grade-level comparison (different groups of students who took the same test in different years) but fell 7% in the cohort comparison (follows the same group of students as they move up a grade), while math stayed the same in the grade-level comparison and dropped 2% by cohort.

Sassmann explained that grade-level comparison is not her favorite number to consider. “This is not always my favorite one to look at because it’s not the same kids,” she said. “You’re not seeing how the same kids grow, but this is showing what our teachers are doing in the classroom from year to year.”

In that comparison, sixth-grade ELA increased from 22% proficient/advanced in 2023 and 27% in 2024 to 31% on 2025.

“We’re a smaller school, so whenever you look at 4% or 5%, that’s just one or two students,” she added. “Sometimes, it feels like a lot, but in a smaller school, it just makes it look like a lot more with those percentages.”

The longer-term chart from 2018 through 2025 showed that sixth-grade ELA remains below the state average but has climbed back since a post-2021 drop. “We’re slowly but surely crawling up there and getting there. So I’m really proud of our sixth-grade teachers for what they did this last year,” she said.

Superintendent Bob James told the board that the spike in 2021 followed by a sharp decline is being seen statewide. “Everyone anticipated a cliff in 2021 but I also think the state does,” he said. “It’s important for you guys to know that they choose what proficient and advanced after the kids have tested and see the scores. So, then they parse out, what level (they) want to say is proficient based on whatever attitudes and sensibilities they have, whatever tides are ebbing and flowing, I believe, and quite a few others do that. Those 2021 scores represent a scale score that was lowered in order to meet the threshold of proficient and advanced, so that we didn’t fall off academic cliff after covid. Most people suspect that’s the reason you see that jump at 2021, and then the drop.”

Sassmann said constantly shifting scores make the state’s categories difficult for teachers to interpret. “It blows your mind,” she said. “Advanced and proficient is never the same, from math to ELA, from to sixth grade to eighth grade. The ranges change. You can’t just say, ‘Hey, proficient is from 200 to 500.’ It changes for every single thing we look at, which actually drives the teachers crazy.”

James added, “They choose cut points to present the narrative.”

Sassmann then switched to cohort charts that follow the same group of students from one grade to the next. For that sixth-grade group, the cohort ELA score dropped 7% from fifth to sixth grade, from 38% to 31%.

“This is the one that I really like to look at,”she said. “So, what I do is, I take that one group of kids and I can show you what they’ve done from fifth grade to sixth grade, and then, as we go through the presentation, seventh, eighth and high school.

“They did drop slightly from fifth grade into their sixth-grade year,” Sassmann continued. “Even though our scores rose from one group to the next, the same group did drop some. That is something we want to look at. But when you look at that 7%, it’s only two students; I say only, but it’s two students. It’s not 15. So, that’s two students that we can grab and get back up this next year.”

Sixth-grade math stayed the same by grade-level comparison (31% vs. the state average of 45%), with the cohort dropping about 2%.

James explained how staff are using test results to identify and fix curriculum gaps rather than just looking at proficiency percentages. “The better information that we get from this, other than proficient or advanced, is curriculum data, if I’m being real honest,” James said. “Yes, we do need targeted intervention to pull more kids out of that basic and below basic into proficient and advanced. But what we’re seeing, more often than not, is pretty big curriculum gaps.

“Regardless of how many kids are in the class, if all 50 of them tested and we’re below state average on this set of standards, then we do a curriculum audit,” he continued. “We figure out that we only spend two days on that standard, and we expand that to three. Where we have 89% of our kids successful or proficient in a particular area, and we figure out we have two days on that, then we might spend only one or one and a half class periods on it, so we’re really tracking it by standard and then targeting individual students through our Wildcat time to give them the additional tutoring and the instructional enforcement that they need to hopefully get over this.”

Seventh-grade English Language Arts increased from 25% to 36% in the grade-level comparison, and the cohort for that group rose to 36% after a dip the previous year. Sassmann said she was very happy with that gain, despite note quite meeting the state average of 40%. “I know that this is Mrs. Churchill, and she’s been working a lot on revamping her classroom,” Sassmann said.

Cohort scores were 35%, up from 27% in 2024 and closer to 2023’s 36%.

Seventh-grade math moved from 39% to 41%, just 2% below the state average of 43%.

Cohort data showed a drop in 2024 and a slight rise in 2025. “We did a drop in 2024 but, again, that was the same group that had that drop in ELA also. And they’re back up where they need to be now, or getting closer,” Sassmann said. “They dropped a little bit that sixth-grade year, but now they’re heading back up in the right direction.”

Eighth-grade ELA dropped from 51% to 40% by grade level, but the cohort chart showed that group climbing back up after big losses in sixth and seventh grades. “We were at 51% last year. We did drop to 40% this year, but we’re still really close to that state average (43%), which is really good,” Sassmann said. “So, we’re going to see where we saw that drop and try to get back up there, that 3%, this year.”

Cohort data showed a 15% increase from last year. “This is the same group of students all the way from fifth grade on up to eighth grade,” Sassmann explained. “For sixth and seventh grade, they saw a huge drop (22% and 25% respectively), but now they’re back up to 40%, which is really amazing. And again, we’ve been working really hard on that curriculum.”

Eighth-grade math slipped from 61% to 58% by grade level but remained above the state average (43%), and the cohort moved from 29% in fifth grade to 58% in eighth. “Math in eighth grade is above the state average, which is very exciting,” Sassmann said. “Laura Voss does a phenomenal job in eighth-grade math.”

“This is the one area where we’re blowing the state average out of the water,” said Board President Dr. Shawn Strong. “I want to see the rest of it, but so far, it tells me one teacher makes all the difference.”

Sassmann agreed that a teacher’s relationship with their students makes a huge difference, so her staff is working on building rapport with their students.

Eighth-grade science, a long-time weak spot, increased 11 percentage points, from 15% to 26%. Sassmann attributed the low scores to staff turnover.

“In the four years I’ve been here, we’ve had three different science teachers in eighth grade,” she said. “We have not had a good constant, somebody getting in there, digging into the curriculum, getting it steady, getting it where we need it to be. But last year, we did jump up 11% which is really great. But also, 39% is the state average. Science is low in the state as well. Our goal is to keep crawling back. We have an amazing science teacher right now who’s really digging into the curriculum, so hopefully this year, that’ll make a difference. Let’s hope that we can keep her in that position for a while. I think longevity really helps.”

The largest decline came in freshman Algebra I, where scores fell from 57% to 27%. “This is the one that is really upsetting to me,” Sassmann said. “I have lots and lots of theories on that, but to me, this is an autopsy right now. We don’t want to go into the theories of that, but we want to look at what we can do to make it better for this next school year.

“We are quite a bit away from the state average (45%), and we are well aware of that,” Sassmann continued, adding that she has already begun making plans with staff for how to improve those scores.

Dr. Strong questioned whether freshman math was taught by a new teacher, and Sassmann said it is taught by both a veteran and a new teacher.

“Because if in eighth grade they’re blowing it out of the water, they should still be blowing it out of the water in ninth grade,” Strong said.

“We agree,” James said.

Cohort data also dropped sharply, from 57% in 2024 to 27% in 2025.

Sassmann outlined specific changes planned for Algebra I, including increasing rigor while designing lessons to improve comprehension, engagement, and retention. “We’ve also found in a lot of these areas, we’re not teaching to the rigor that they have on the MAP or the EOC, so we need to bump up some of our stuff in the classroom to make sure they’re ready for that test,” she said.

Tenth-grade Government stayed about the same and near the state average, which Sassmann said is a positive sign, given how many districts struggle in that subject.

Biology I dipped slightly but remains above the state average of 39%. “I’m just really impressed,” Sassmann said. “I want to give kudos to Jordan Sallin, because in 2022, he was at a 27% he’s now at 41%. So, he’s changed some curriculum pieces, he’s changed the way he’s done things in the classroom, and I’m very impressed with how far he’s gone.”

English II scores also improved, despite both teachers being new to that content. “I was very impressed, because in our English department last year, we had a brand-new teacher who was coming from being a librarian. They had never taught high school English before. We also had a critical shortage teacher in one of those classrooms, and she’d never taught high school English either, and we went up,” Sassmann said. “I was very impressed with their hard work and learning. I mean, they put the nose to the grindstone and figured out what those kids needed. So I was very impressed with their scores. And again, in that, ELA, we beat the state average this year, which is great.”

For ACT, Sassmann reported a 98% graduation rate, and an average ACT score of 18.5. “The state’s about 19.8, so we’re heading in the right direction,” she said. “We have a lot of plans this year to work on ACT items in our junior and senior classes. That is definitely something in our forefront.”

Sassmann said staff is using assessment standards to adjust instruction across core and elective classes, and explained the plans in detail.

She closed the presentation by emphasizing that the data is meant to drive daily decisions. “Our goal moving forward is using this data to grab our instruction, find out where our kids are low, use it in the classroom, and use it every day,” Sassmann said.