Vol. 40, No. 24
CONTACT: JIM MORRIS |
June 9, 2006
How I Spent My Summer Vacation:
500 Teachers Are Grading MAP Tests This Month
For most teachers, summer vacation means a break from the routine of grading students’ homework and tests.
But more than 500 Missouri teachers have signed up this month to help score a part of the thousands of Missouri Assessment Program (MAP) tests that public school students took earlier this year.
For the sixth summer in a row, the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, in cooperation with the test publisher, CTB/McGraw-Hill, has arranged for Missouri teachers to help grade part of the MAP exams at sites across Missouri.
Starting this week (June 6-9) and continuing next week (June 12-15), teachers are working at sites in 12 school districts across the state: Columbia, Hazelwood, Liberty, Lindbergh, Macon, Raytown, Rockwood, Rolla, St. Joseph, Sikeston, Springfield and Webb City.
Instead of marking paper tests with red pens, the teachers are working at computer screens. The tests are scored electronically through a secure Internet connection to a computer lab at each site. The teachers spend two days in training before they begin evaluating students’ responses. At each location, Missouri teachers are scoring tests from a different grade level in either math or communication arts.
The main purpose of the in-state scoring project is to help Missouri teachers become more familiar with the structure of the MAP tests and the hand-scoring procedures used with parts of the MAP exams.
Every MAP exam contains multiple-choice items, which are machine-scored by the testing contractor. About one-tenth of each exam, however, consists of short-answer, constructed-response questions and "performance events" that must be hand-scored.
The MAP testing program expanded significantly in Missouri this year with the introduction of "grade-level" tests in communication arts and math. As a result of the federal No Child Left Behind act, Missouri was required to expand MAP testing to include communication arts and math for all students in grades 3-8.
This spring, about 500,000 public school students took MAP exams in communication arts in grades 3-8 and grade 11. They took math exams in grades 3-8 and grade 10. About three-quarters of Missouri school district also gave MAP exams on a voluntary basis in science and social studies at selected grade levels.
Teachers must apply to participate in the in-state scoring project, and each teacher must have at least two years of experience in the subject area for which they score the MAP tests. Each teacher earns a $100-per-day stipend during the test-scoring project.