Missouri high school students did better on end-of-course exams this year

Missouri high school students scored better this year on end-of-course exams than last year, according to results of those tests released this week by the state Department of Elementary and Secondary Education.

Only biology scores dropped, with 74.3 percent of the state’s high school students scoring proficient or advanced in that area in 2015while only 66.8 performed in those top areas this year.

Performance on English went from 73.6 percent scoring proficient or advanced to 79.2 this year. Algebra climbed from 62.1 percent to 65.8 percent and scores for American government remained virtually flat with about 63 percent scoring in the top areas.

The high school scores were released along with state-wide results for grades three through eight on Missouri Assessment Program tests.

“Student achievement on the MAP tests is among several factors used in school districts’ annual performance reports to determine accreditation under the Missouri School Improvement Program,” education officials said in the test results report.

Kansas City Public Schools and Hickman Mills schools, which both have provisional accreditation, have been working towards full accreditation for the past few years.

State education officials said that since Missouri changed some of the tests, the 2016 results will not negatively affect district accreditation or teacher evaluations.

And, because tests were new in English language arts and math, those results can not be compared with how students performed in those areas last year.

In the lower grade levels, scores for English scores ranged from 58 percent of seventh graders hitting the proficient or advanced mark to 63.2 percent of fourth graders who scored at that level.

The math performance wasn’t as good for younger students. Those scores ranged from 52.5 percent of fourth grade students hitting the proficient or advanced mark, to 40.3 percent of eighth grade students reaching that level.

Science scores were compared and the latest results of the science tests taken by fifth and eighth- grade students shows performance in that area has declined each year for the past three years.

The state department will release district by district performance reports to the public later this month.