Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education

March 17 , 2006

State Board of Education Hears Proposal
To Replace High School "MAP" Tests

Missouri education officials are considering a plan under which the current "MAP" tests for public high school students would be replaced by a nationally recognized college-entry exam, such as the ACT or SAT.

A preliminary recommendation about the proposal was presented to the State Board of Education yesterday (March 16) in Jefferson City. The proposal was developed by an advisory committee that has spent the past year evaluating the state’s current high school testing program.

Under the proposal, beginning in the spring of 2008, the state would pay for all eleventh-graders in public schools to take a standardized college-entry exam, such as the ACT or SAT. It would include a writing test.

The new exam would replace the current MAP tests administered in grades 10 and 11. However, the MAP science test would be retained, because the existing college- entry exams do not adequately cover the state’s science standards. The MAP science test also would be given in grade 11.

Results from the new test would provide diagnostic and instructional information for students and teachers as well as the data needed to satisfy state and federal accountability requirements.

The Department of Elementary and Secondary Education estimates it would cost about $1.5 million more to adopt a college-entry exam for all students, compared to what the state now spends on high school MAP tests.

About 70 percent of Missouri high school graduates take the ACT exam on a voluntary basis each year. Illinois, Colorado and Michigan now require the ACT exam for all public school students. Other states also are considering the adoption of a mandatory college-entry exam as the core of their high school testing programs.

State education officials will hold a series of public meetings next month to provide more information and solicit comments about the testing proposals.

Department of Education officials emphasize that no decisions have been made about the plan, and they expect vigorous discussion of the testing proposals, said Stan Johnson, assistant commissioner of the Division of School Improvement for the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education.

Proponents of the plan believe students would take a college-entry exam more seriously and be motivated to try harder because such tests have greater credibility with parents, employers and higher education institutions. Critics of the plan believe it may intimidate some students or put too much emphasis on a "college-prep" curriculum.

"We believe there is strong alignment between what the MAP tests cover and what the college-entry exams cover, at least in the areas of communications arts and mathematics. In other words, they both test similar content. If necessary, we could supplement an existing national test to get the coverage we need in some academic areas," Johnson said.

"If we did not believe a college-entry exam was a suitable measure of what we expect all Missouri high schools to be teaching, this discussion would never have gotten off the ground. Educators in the field brought this idea forward because they think it would be more relevant for students, teachers and schools than the MAP tests," he said.

"We also recognize that Missouri educators have invested a tremendous amount of time and energy in creating the MAP testing program over the past decade. No matter what happens with this proposal, we will not turn our backs on that work nor on the philosophy that guided the development of the MAP," he said.

Johnson noted that a separate advisory committee, appointed by Commissioner of Education D. Kent King in 2004, also recommended replacing the current high school MAP tests. That committee’s work paved the way for the adoption last fall of new minimum high school graduation requirements by the State Board of Education.

Other Recommendations

The High School Assessment Committee also is working on a recommendation that will ask the State Board of Education to formally endorse the creation of a uniform electronic transcript for voluntary use by public high schools. The committee also will ask the board to endorse competency-based tests as a means of awarding academic credit to students.