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Students use MAP tests as protest
By Shane Anthony
ST. CHARLES COUNTY — Some Wentzville School District students quietly protested a schedule change by intentionally failing state tests.
District leaders won't know for sure how many until August, but some students filled out their Missouri Assessment Program tests with gibberish. Administrators say an additional 10 students at each of the district's two high schools left their answers blank this spring. Elizabeth Miller, 17, who just finished her junior year at Holt High School, was among them.
"The students had to think of a way that they could tell the administration that they didn't like what they were doing in a way that would affect them," she said.
Students who opposed the schedule change said they feared shorter class periods might lead to less depth — particularly in science classes.
Melody Marcantonio, assistant superintendent of student services, said blank tests aren't anything new, and she has seen it happen in other school districts.
"There are kids every year that do that because they are nearing adulthood, and it's a way they can protest," she said. Some students simply don't want to take the tests and don't, she added.
Marcantonio said educators have been concerned for years about the fact that MAP tests hold schools accountable, but, particularly at the high school level, there is no accountability for students. MAP was designed to measure schools' performance, but students aren't graded individually on them.
That isn't the case in other states. Illinois, for example, incorporates the ACT in its Prairie State Achievement Exams, and those scores can be looked at by colleges.
Missouri plans to change its approach, too. Michael Muenks, director of assessment for the state Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, said state officials are looking for companies to provide a new test for high school students.
MAP currently is given to sophomores in mathematics and juniors in communication arts. The tests — like their counterparts for elementary and middle school students — include multiple choice and written response questions. Because the written portion can't be graded by machine, the test results aren't reported to districts until August.
Also, school officials aren't allowed to copy students' tests or review their answers before they are sent away for scoring. So, it isn't possible right now for students to be graded on their MAP scores.
But the state school board voted in February to change high school tests to end-of-course exams in 2008-2009. Muenks said the tests would be given whenever a student finishes algebra I, English II or biology. The state also is looking at requiring tests for English I, algebra II, geometry, integrated math II and III, physical science, algebra-based physics, physics II, chemistry, government and American history.
Muenks said the idea would be for teachers to be able to take copies of the written tests as soon as the students finish them. Meanwhile, results from multiple-choice questions would be scored quickly and returned to schools in time to affect students' grades.
Muenks said the state board discussed making the tests worth 10 percent of a student's grade, but stopped short of requiring it. It will be up to local schools to decide how they want to use the tests, he said, which balances the idea of an exit exam with the idea that one test may not show everything a student has learned.
"I think schools will be excited about it just because the kids will know it's part of their local grade," he said. "But we all know there's more to what a student learns than what you can get off a test that's an hour long."
Elizabeth — a straight-A student — sat quietly at her desk for an hour and a half each day during MAP testing. She said she never opened her test booklet. Her approach departed drastically from MAP tests she took in the past, she said.
"Before the administration stabbed us in the back, I took it very seriously," she said. "I know most students really tried because they wanted to show how much they learned."
Wentzville's school board voted Feb. 5 to change high school and middle school block schedules. Starting this fall, students at Holt and Timberland high schools will have seven-period days. Their school day had four blocks. Next school year, they'll take each of their classes every day instead of every other day.
That decision angered some students, who packed school board meetings along with their parents and teachers. Elizabeth attended one meeting wearing a shirt that compared Superintendent Terry Adams to Hitler and Stalin.
Adams promoted the schedule change as a way for the district to save $1 million to $2 million that could be spent on teacher salaries and to provide daily instruction for students in core classes such as math, communication arts and science.
Elizabeth said she and other students felt the school board and administration didn't listen to them. "I don't think they really noticed or cared about us wearing T-shirts or saying anything or writing letters," she said. But MAP tests, she said, reflect on the administration and board.
The protest didn't sit well with all students. Sam Disney, 15, who just finished her sophomore year at Holt, said the protest was immature.
"When unhappy with a decision, they should voice their opinion like a young adult would; not by throwing a temper tantrum," she said, adding that the scheduling decision already had been made.
"The board members have been clear that they are not changing their minds. "Therefore, this 'protest' never had anywhere to go," she said.
For now, the tests are likely in a warehouse in Indiana or California, awaiting grading. "We're anxious for our scores," Marcantonio said.
— Shane Anthony
St Louis Post-Dispatch
2007-06-11
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