Shelby County School Board: Newest MAP test scores will evaluate summer program

The Shelby County Board of Education will hear a report on the district’s first round of MAP testing during its regular meeting on Thursday.

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The session will be at 7 p.m. in the district’s offices at 1155 Main St. in Shelbyville.

The Measures of Academic Progress tests are given three times each year – once each in the fall, winter and spring ­­– to gauge progress. The fall tests can be used to judge a student’s progress from one year to the next and set the baseline for growth in the same school year.

The board is normally eager to see the fall MAP results for both those reasons and to measure growth of the students in the district’s aggressive summer reading academy.

This is the district’s fourth year with the MAP testing program, and its second year with a full summer reading academy lineup.

Although last year’s fall MAP results fell short of expectations with many of the schools’ an individuals’ grades showing an increase in the number of students below the normal average from fall 2009 to fall 2010, the scores of the summer school students were much improved.

Last year’s summer school results showed that half of the 107 students in grades 7 and 9 moved at least one grade level or beyond their grade level in reading. And at the elementary school level 73 percent of the 236 students showed improvement, with more than 50 improving at least one-half of a grade level.

Southside Elementary update

The board will hear an update on the new Southside Elementary building project and vote on whether or not it’s ready to be submitted to the Kentucky Department of Education for review. The KDE must approve all building plans to ensure that they meet state standards.

If the board sees the plans as fit to be submitted, then, pending KDE approval, the job would be released to bid. The current schedule has the building construction beginning in late March 2013 and occupancy by summer 2014.

Teacher recognition

The board will recognize Chellie Gaither, the librarian at West Middle, for publishing her first book, Kissing Mitch Murray. Gaither wrote the book last year during the National Novel Writing Month in which she and fellow West teacher Vivian Crump participated, getting suggestions and help from students.

After spending the summer editing the book, it was published and is now available on Amazon.com, where it can be ordered as a paperback or as an E-book for Kindle.

Gaither and Crump are planning to do the Novel Writing Month program again this year and are including student versions. November is National Novel Writing Month, and the program is open to all students in the county.

The program will kickoff with a meeting on Monday from 5 p.m. to 6 p.m. in the West Middle Library. Other schools may also host their own meetings.

Also at the meeting, the board will:

• Recognize What Outstanding Work award winners.
• Consider approval of intent to apply for the Race to the Top – District Grant.
• Consider approval to allow the Collins band and the social studies department to use common-carrier transportation.
• Consider approval of a request for shortened school day for two students with disabilities.
• Enter closed session for the purpose of discussing proposed pending litigation.
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