Education

Shelby County Public Schools invited the public on Thursday to attend an informational meeting on the development and plan for the new Northside Early Childhood Center, which will be built on the site of the old Northside Elementary School at 821 College St. in Shelbyville.

The Next-Generation Learners, the first component of the state’s new educational accountability system shows that the state, by its own measures, Needs Improvement.

Begun for the 2011-12 school year, the evaluation combines standardized and end-of-year test results in a complex formula for evaluating each school in the state, and eventually it will include accountability measures for teachers and administration, as well.

Results for Shelby County Public Schools show much the same as the state’s: improvement is still needed.

The fall MAP testing scores for Shelby County Public Schools showed big improvements at nearly every level when compared to last fall’s test scores and those from the past several years – and fell way short when compared to last spring.

Those somewhat conflicting findings from the Measures of Academic Progress test were discussed at Thursday night’s meeting of the Shelby County School Board.

Those tests, which are administered three times each year, showed:

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.

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.