Missouri students tested better in English, math and science; but, more schools in the state are not meeting federal progress requirements.
State test scores show more students from third grade through high school scored proficient or advanced in English and math than in 2009. More also scored proficient in science.
Students scoring proficient in math increased by around 4 percentage points in elementary, middle and high schools. In English, students scoring proficient rose by 3.3 points in elementary school, 1.8 in middle school and 0.6 in high school.
Overall in Columbia Public Schools the MAP results are the highest they have been in both mathematics and communications arts.
Columbia's results increased in every grade in math from last year.
However, some Columbia Public School MAP scores continue to be troubling as they remain below the state average.
"We shouldn't be there,” Columbia School Superintendent Dr. Chris Belcher said. “We're better than that. We are trying to remedy that. We have seen an increase in poverty in our school district over the last five years. That can explain some change, but that's not an excuse. I have no excuses for scoring below the state average."
Jefferson City Public Schools had in an overall increase from last year also.
“We are very happy with the results this year,” Jefferson City Public Schools Spokesman David Luther said. “We had a double digit improvement in six areas.”
JCPS did better than the state in 15 of the 17 areas; the two areas were missed by 0.2 percent.
The scores show that the school district did worst from the year before in 3rd grade and 7th grade communication arts, 3rd grade math and Algebra I.
“We have three areas where the district scores declined, but the decline was very small, and we’re still above the state average in those areas,” Superintendent Brian Mitchell said in a statement.
Results are used to measure progress for federal targets. This year 604 schools were identified as needing improvement, which is up from 495 last year.
Results from the Missouri Assessment Program were released Wednesday.
The final MAP scores and results will not be available until September.