Ladue School District Sees Improvement on State Tests

Missouri Assessment Program Scores

Reed Elementary

Spoede Elementary

Ladue Middle

Students in third through eighth grade take the Missouri Assessment Program test in math and reading each spring. High school students take end of course exams in math and reading as well. The tests fulfill requirements laid out under the No Child Left Behind Act, a program that is designed to have 100 percent of students testing at grade level by the year 2014.

State benchmarks get more difficult the closer it gets to 2014. This year, in order to meet the goals and make "Adequate Yearly Progress," Missouri schools had to have 72.5 percent of students test at grade level in math and 75.5 percent test at grade level in reading.

State officials look at how well different groups of students do on the including white students, black students, students with low socioeconomic status and students with disabilities, among others.

Just 92 of the 557 districts in the state met the benchmarks for achievement in math and reading this year, according to the preliminary results released Thursday. Nearly 75 percent of schools across the state failed to meet the mark.

When schools fail to meet the goals, they face sanctions that range from having to pay for additional tutoring for students to having to allow students to switch to another school in the district that met the benchmarks.

Overall, the percent of Missouri students scoring proficient on both math and reading tests has gone up, however. On the state reading tests, the percent of students testing at grade level rose from 53.6 percent 2010 to 54.6 in 2011. On math tests, 54.2 percent of students scored proficient, up from 52.7 in 2010.

The Ladue School District students scored 76 percent on MAP testing overall, the same results they achieved one year ago. Ladue shares near top honors with Kirkwood and Clayton school districts. Lindbergh's rates were the highest in the region and second-highest in the state, behind the one-school elementary district of Davis in rural Clinton, MO. Lindbergh students improved from 76 percent to 79 percent this year.

This year, more students in the state of Missouri passed the state's annual tests in the springtime, marking another year of slow but steady progress.

Ladue Superintendent Marsha Chappelow felt her students did well, but did not want to comment before analyzing some of the preliminary data with her top district officials.

Fifty-four percent of the state's students passed their math tests and 55 percent passed English tests, according to preliminary reports of the Missouri Assessment Program made public on Wednesday.