LINN — Linn R-2 Elementary School Principal Cammie Higgenbotham presented Missouri Assessment Program (MAP) testing results at the Sept. 19 board meeting, which showed a slight decrease in some areas.

“We are going to present a lot of data tonight,” she said. “As you look at this data, remember this is how students take information from the classroom and use it to show their knowledge without assistance. We also know that some of this data is not going to be comfortable to look at, but when we leave this presentation, we hope you understand our goal is to address some of these areas in the future, and some of these plans are already in place.”

Third-graders made a strong showing. In ELA, 40% scored proficient or advanced, which was on par with the scores from last year’s third-graders. Within those parameters, however, 8% more students scored advanced or proficient, resulting in an overall improvement over last year’s students. In math, 46% of third-graders scored well, as opposed to 30% the previous year.

Among fourth-graders, 37% scored well, as opposed to 46% of last year’s group. When comparing fourth-grade scores this year to their third-grade scores last year, however, the change was less severe, with 40% of the class scoring well last year as opposed to 37% this year. Higgenbotham said the 3% drop was equivalent to one less student scoring well. Fourth-graders experienced a larger drop in math scores, with only 37% scoring proficient or advanced, compared to 46% of last year’s fourth-graders. These students also exhibited a slight drop when compared to the previous year’s fourth-graders, with 31% scoring well as opposed to 35%. Still, their proficiency was actually up 1% when compared to their third-grade math scores (30% proficient/advanced).

Fifth-grade ELA scores were up 3% when compared to last year’s fifth-graders (38% versus 35%) but down 8% when compared to their fourth-grade scores (46% proficient/advanced). Fifth-grade math scores also dropped slightly, with this year’s class scoring 33% proficient or advanced, compared to 34% of last year’s fifth-graders. When studied alongside their fourth-grade scores, fifth-graders also saw a slight decrease, from 35% to 33% scoring proficient or advanced. Fifth grade is the first year children are tested in Science, and that test covers knowledge from grades 3-5. This year’s scores dropped significantly from last year, with only 37% of fifth-graders scoring proficient or advanced, compared to 51% last year.

“We have plans, several of which are already in place, and if they’re not in place, they’re going to be in place very soon to help improve student success,” Higgenbotham said. “The first thing we’re going to do is continue to revise and build our curriculum. The teachers worked really hard this summer to redo their scope and sequence and make sure we were hitting all of the standards and setting it within the timeline of the year.”

They are also adding more rigor and critical thinking to all curricula and analyzing MAP data by item to develop and implement plans to address missing skills. To address missing skills, the school has created daily response to intervention time for grades K-2 and 3-5 and is increasing student engagement at all levels using cooperative learning strategies. 

“Another thing we’ve been looking at is exploring options for different curriculum resources we can try to pilot, to try to fill some of those gaps as well,” she said, “Right now, teachers are creating their curriculum, and so we’re really going to focus on trying to explore more options for those resources to pilot, and really try to get that common language going from grade level to grade level. Then, with i-Ready, we also have a really awesome thing happening this year, and it’s called i-Ready individualized pathways. So, the kids took their diagnostics this week, and based on where they scored, it will give them individual lessons to work on each day, where they’re at, and then the rigor will increase as they move forward.”

Higgenbotham added that the system will also flag the teacher if the student struggles with a lesson several times so they know to go back over the information with that child. 

“Everything so far has really been focused on instruction, but one thing we’re doing to help our environment this year is both of us admins are on mobile desks, so we’re trying to be out of the office as much as possible, in classrooms, in the hallway. I think if we help the teachers and staff with the environment, that’s really going to play big into letting them do what they need to do and provide quality instruction to the students.”

Board VP Mark Baker commented that it’s hard to compare apples to apples when a grade might have significantly more kids one year than it did the previous year. “When you look at it that way, the majority is basic or above, and that’s good,” he said.

Board member Brett Phillips added that Higgenbotham’s presentation was very well done, and he appreciates the effort to increase student engagement because the highest test scores will come from the classrooms with the most engaged staff. “I also appreciate the fact that (it’s) a goal of ours to add more rigor to what we’re doing, and a goal of ours to review the depth of knowledge,” Phillips said. “Of course, I would be interested in seeing something more very specific and data-driven regarding those two items at some point in time. I think that’s the two most important things you can be focusing on, and you are. We need to be adding rigor to our curriculum, absolutely positively, in this district, and I appreciate your efforts in doing so.”