The purpose of MAP Plus is to assist Missouri educators and citizens in an awareness & understanding of the Grade level Expectations (GLEs) and to facilitate the development and publication of a model curriculum for each content area beginning with CA & MA. A cadre of teachers with expertise in their content area (CA or MA) will be trained to serve as regional leaders to enhance the opportunities for continued professional development and support for districts as they align curriculum with the GLEs. The following educators have been selected to represent the Kansas City Region in the MAP Plus program:

Questions & Answers about No Child Left Behind –

And What It Means for Missouri

What is The No Child Left Behind Act?

In January 2002, President Bush signed the law known as “The No Child Left Behind Act.” It reauthorized the existing Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA). NCLB represents the most sweeping changes in federal law regarding public schools in nearly 40 years.

What are the goals of the law?

NCLB includes significant new accountability measures for all public schools. It is based on the ambitious goal that ALL children will be proficient in reading and math by 2014. By 2006, Missouri must develop new, annual tests in reading and math for grades 3-8 to measure students’ academic progress. The law also requires that all children in public schools be taught by “highly qualified” teachers. NCLB also calls for improving communication with parents and making all schools safer for students.

Does NCLB apply to all schools?

Yes. A few of the provisions of NCLB only apply to schools that receive Title I funds. Nearly 60 percent (1,320) of Missouri’s 2,300 public schools are Title 1 schools. NCLB, however, specifically requires each state to have a “single system of accountability,” with uniform standards for all students in all public schools.

Will NCLB override state standards?

No. The Missouri School Improvement Program (MSIP) is the state’s accreditation system for school districts. Through the MSIP standards (first adopted in 1990), the State Board of Education has already established school-improvement policies similar to those included in NCLB. The Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) intends to incorporate the requirements of NCLB into the accreditation process, to the degree possible, so there will be “one set of rules” for Missouri school districts.

What is “adequate yearly progress” (AYP)?

This is one of the key elements of the new law and probably the most complicated. To achieve the goal of all children being “proficient” (as defined by each state) by 2014, all public schools and districts must make satisfactory improvement each year toward that goal. Based on criteria included in NCLB, the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education has established specific annual targets for AYP in communication arts and math. (Note: NCLB refers to tests in “reading/language arts and math.” At least for now, Missouri is using scores from the MAP communication arts and math exams.)

This year (2003), the AYP goal for all schools in communication arts is 19.4% of all students being proficient. The AYP goal in math is 9.3% of all students being proficient. These same goals apply to all subgroups of students (see below). In 2005, these targets jump to 38.8% and 31.1%, respectively. Missouri’s “starting points” for determining annual AYP targets are based on 2002 MAP scores and the overall student proficiency rate in the school at the 20th percentile of total public school enrollment.

What are the consequences of not achieving AYP?

NCLB spells out an array of consequences for schools and districts that repeatedly fail to achieve adequate yearly progress. Any school that fails to achieve AYP for two consecutive years will be identified by the state as “needing improvement.” Initially, a school that does not make AYP for two consecutive years must offer students the opportunity to transfer to another school within the district. After a third year, schools must offer “supplemental services” (such as tutoring) for students. Schools that do not show adequate progress after five years may be forced to take tough “corrective action” such as replacing school personnel or extending the school year.

These penalties do not apply to non-Title 1 schools. In addition, the “transfer option” will not apply in many of Missouri’s small school districts because there is only one building serving each grade level.

What will happen this year to Missouri schools that don’t make AYP?

Last year (2002), Missouri identified 38 buildings that had not achieved AYP for two consecutive years, based on the standards that existed before NCLB became law. The 2001-02 school year then became the “base year” for determining AYP thereafter. For the 2003-04 school year, these 38 schools will remain on the “needs improvement” list and will be required to offer tutoring or other supplemental academic services.

In September 2003, the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education will identify a new group of schools that have not achieved AYP for the first year. These schools will NOT be subject to penalties during 2003-04. They could be required to offer the transfer option next year (2004-05).

What subgroups are accountable for AYP?

Each school and district, including charter schools, will be assessed to determine if it has achieved AYP in communication arts and math. In addition, each of the following subgroups will be monitored for AYP, unless there are 30 or fewer students in the subgroup:

Schools must make sure that at least 95 percent of the students in every subgroup are included in the MAP testing. If the 95 percent threshold is not met, that group cannot meet AYP, regardless of the subgroup’s overall scores. Missouri uses the term “Level Not Determined” (LND) to describe students who did not take the appropriate MAP tests or who did not make a valid attempt to complete a test. Thus, if any subgroup’s “LND” number exceeds 5 percent, that group will not meet AYP.

In the fall of each year, every Missouri school district receives an “Annual Performance Report” (APR) from the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education. The APR tells the school district how it did during the previous year on the 12 performance indicators that are now used in the accreditation system. These indicators include MAP scores and other measures such as attendance, dropout rate, ACT scores, etc.

Beginning in the fall of 2006, DESE plans to add AYP as the 13th performance indicator. Under this approach, districts would be able to earn points toward their overall accreditation rating, based on their AYP scores for total populations and subgroups.

(Note: The 2006-07 academic year will mark the beginning of the “4th cycle” of MSIP accreditation reviews. The new state tests are scheduled to be given in the spring of 2006; the results of those tests also will be available for the first time in the fall of 2006.)

If a school district has been recognized for outstanding performance,
can it also fail to achieve AYP?

Yes. This is likely to be one of the most disconcerting aspects of the new federal law for teachers, parents and students. Through the MSIP process, the state accredits the school district as a whole. Individual buildings are evaluated according to the MSIP standards, but they do receive a separate accreditation rating.

While school districts will be accountable for making adequate yearly progress, the focus of NCLB is on individual buildings. The standards of the federal law are extremely high in that every subgroup of students must meet the specified AYP standard.

Because of the different criteria used in the state’s accreditation system and those required under NCLB, it is quite likely that many school districts will have at least some buildings that fail to meet AYP standards with certain groups of students.

Will the MAP tests be eliminated?

No. The format of the current MAP exams will have to be adjusted so that less hand-scoring is required and to reduce the expense involved with testing every student every year. Committees of Missouri educators are now determining academic content that needs to be included in the assessments at each grade level. These “grade-level expectations”

will help define the content of the new tests. At this time, state education officials intend to retain the basic design of the current MAP exams, but with revisions that may be required to reflect the demands of NCLB.

How will Missouri stack up against other states?

We don’t know yet. It is quite possible that Missouri will have more schools identified for not achieving AYP than other states, because Missouri has adopted a high standard for “proficiency.” To comply with NCLB, the State Board of Education could have adopted a less-demanding definition, but it elected to maintain the standards that are currently used with the MAP tests. This means that many Missouri schools face a real challenge in meeting the AYP standards for all students. However, state education officials felt that it was appropriate to affirm high expectations for Missouri students and that it would have been too disruptive to the existing accreditation system to change the “proficiency” definitions this year.

The achievement level definitions (nearing proficient, proficient, advanced, etc.) that are now used with the MAP tests will likely be adjusted and realigned when the annual tests are implemented, starting in the 2005-06 school year.

What are the consequences of not achieving AYP?

What will happen this year to Missouri schools that don’t make AYP?

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Will the MAP tests be eliminated?

How will Missouri stack up against other states?