A "MAP attack" 

Fourth graders Ashley Cooper and Adriana Love said a new plan that has them writing every day in every class helps them be better students.

The Write Focus program also helped Meadows Elementary School show strong year-to-year improvement in the Missouri Achievement Placement (MAP) program. This is the statewide testing to find out how well Missouri students are learning.

The faculty and staff in the Riverview Gardens School District adopted several new programs after the district achieved only a "provisional accreditation" rating in 1999. That rating was an indication the district's students weren't learning enough. 

But, last month, the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) singled out Riverview Gardens for making good improvement on 2000 tests. 

However, the state officials weren't ready to say the district was where it needed to be in educating their children. 

But, Meadows Principal JeanAnn Staley said, "Everyone, from the administration on down, is focused on student achievement." That includes new learning programs, more help for individual teachers and much more work with all students. 

Staley said the school has nicknamed its new plan the "MAP attack." It includes more than just teaching. "We analyze test scores. Teachers work as a team with groups of eight students. We improve their vocabulary," she said.

Another part is to help students understand the MAP tests. These tests ask students to explain concepts, not just recite facts. 

Staley said, "In 1999, we had students look at the test, not understand the questions and just start bawling." 

Teachers worked on explaining what concepts were. They also worked on the students' self-esteem about taking tests. "We saw a lot more confidence this year," she said.

Ashley Cooper and Adriana Love are examples of students who were helped. 

Ashley is now a fourth grader at Meadows school. She said, "We worked on writing almost every day. We even had to write out a plan for our dance steps in gym." She added, "By the end of the year, I thought I was a good writer." 

Adriana is in the fourth grade class with Ashley. She said, "The writing everyday helped me learn my words and write my stories." She said the writing also helped her learn in her math and science classes.

Jackie Griffin was the third grade teacher for Ashley and Adriana. This year, she moved with them to fourth grade. Principal Staley said having a teacher with the students for more than one year helps the youngsters feel more at home. 

Meadows school also improved their teaching of science with the Rise Program. This gives students more hands-on science experience rather than just learning out of a book. 

For instance, youngsters got a chance to actually count the spots on a lady bug, with the help of a magnifying glass. They looked at other bugs under a microscope. 

Teacher Griffin said, "We had a 'curator' who brought science materials right to our class."

The students also were able to build homes for insects and could take them home. But, Adriana admitted that didn't go over too well with her mother. "She didn't want any crickets chirping away at home," she said. 

Ashley said a part of the science program she liked was the "moon calendar" that the class kept. They would chart the stages of the moon. "We got to know about the waxing and waning of the moon," she said. 

These new programs helped Meadows school to reverse the score results for language arts  from 1999 to 2000. In 1999, third graders at Meadows had 74% of its students in the bottom two classifications, with only 26% in the top three classifications.

In 2000, 79% were in the top three classes while only 21% were in the bottom two. 

In science, the improvement also was dramatic. In 1999, 59% were in the bottom two classes while 41% were in the top three. In 2000, only 13% were in the bottom two while 87% were in the top three classes. 

The MAP news for Riverview Gardens wasn't all good. The district's middle school scores showed much smaller improvement. The high school students actually got lower scores in some categories in 2000 than in 1999. 

Assistant Superintendent Bobby Gines said, "The high school is a real challenge."