Introduction

A well planned assessment program can provide valuable information to support the decision making process in many ways and at many levels, from the level of the individual student to that of the class, the school and the district. Assessment results can be used to help make important decisions that can affect school programs and the community and the lives of students and their families. Thus, assessments, the way they are administered and the way the results are interpreted and used, all become critical aspects of our district's assessment program.

The Kirkwood District's performance assessment program has been designed to provide different kinds of information about students, about curriculum and about instruction. While the results from any one measure may reveal limited information about individual students, the use of information from several assessments helps us to create profiles which can be used with some degree of confidence. Generally, assessment results are used in the following ways:

1. To provide students, parents, teachers, counselors and other school personnel with information about students, curriculum and instruction.
2. To provide school personnel and the public with impressions about the performance of groups of students on specific measures.
3. To provide school information about the correlation of specific measures to the curriculum's objectives and the instructional strategies.
4. To provide individual students with information about their performance on any given measure.

"The Kirkwood School District R-7 does not discriminate on the basis of sex, race, religion, age, national origin, handicap, or disability in admissions or access to, or treatment or employment in its programs and activities. Any person having inquiries concerning the District's compliance with Title IX and Section 504 should contact Dr. Deb Ayres, Assistant Superintendent for Human Resources and Administration, by calling (314) 213-6103."

Missouri Assessment Program Fact Sheet

The Test:

• The Missouri Performance Assessment (MAP) was mandated by the Outstanding Schools Act of 1993. All public schools in Missouri are required to administer tests in Math (grades 3 - 8, 10), and Communication Arts (grades 3 - 8, 11).

Three types of tests are used in evaluating student achievement:

• Multiple Choice Items: taken from the Terra Nova, a nationally-normed test, presents students with a question followed by four or five response options, one of which is correct.
• Constructed-response Items: require students to supply (rather than select) an appropriate response. Students may be asked to provide one-word answer, complete a sentence or show work in solving a problem.
• Performance Events: measures students' knowledge, and their ability to apply that knowledge in problem situations.

Test Reports:

• A four-step scale of achievement levels has been established to classify students' performance. The levels are: “Below Basic,” “Basic,” "Proficient," and "Advanced."
• Achievement Levels: describes the degree (level 1-5) students understand and apply the Show-Me-Standards using combined items from the multiple choice and performance sections.
• Reportable Level: the percent of students in the Reportable column is based on the sum of all four achievement levels.
• Descriptions: provides details on each level and gives the MAP combined score range.
• Percentile Scores: measures the performance on the multiple choice section and compares your child to students of the same grade level nationally. The Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education has elected to use Median National Percentile (MNP) scores in reporting group scores. The MNP is a measure of central tendency, the middle score in a set of ranked scores. Fifty percent of the scores are below this score and fifty percent are above it.