May 19, 2016
CLINTON, Miss. – The Mississippi Department of Education (MDE) announced today that more than 98 percent of Mississippi Assessment Program (MAP) testing has been completed, marking an important milestone for the state’s first large-scale, online assessment.
Administered for the first time during the 2015-16 school year, MAP is the new statewide online assessment for English Language Arts (ELA) and Mathematics for grades 3-8 and Algebra I and English II. The testing window for MAP assessments started on April 25 and will conclude on May 20.
“The number of people who have been monitoring and assisting with the administration of this assessment was huge. To have no major disruptions as was seen in other states around the country is significant. I appreciate the hard work of MDE’s Division of Research and Development and Questar Assessment for working long hours to ensure that any technology challenges were addressed and resolved,” said Dr. Carey Wright, state superintendent of education.
To date, close to 220,000 students have completed tests in English Language Arts and mathematics, while close to 34,000 students completed the Algebra I test, and 33,000 students completed the English II test. To prepare for the state’s first large-scale, online assessment, the MDE partnered with staff from the testing vendor, Questar Assessment, to provide technical support and customer service to districts. Forward Assessment Support Teams (FAST) have been deployed throughout the state to respond quickly to districts that require on-site support. Preparations included 12,000 paper copies of tests that are securely stored and available if necessary.
Also, MDE’s Division of Research and Development Chief Dr. J.P. Beaudoin and Executive Director Walt Drane have made field visits to school districts to ensure the MAP assessment is running smoothly. This support will continue throughout the testing window.
“We prepared well in advance to address the technology challenges that are expected when administering a large-scale assessment entirely online,” Beaudoin said. “We have been tracking every call, question and issue to ensure testing runs as smoothly as possible.”
Dr. Bonita Coleman, superintendent of the Ocean Springs School District, said her leadership team appreciated the level of customer service and responsiveness they received.
“The transition to our third assessment in three years has been eased by working in tantamount with the state-level assessment team. We were delighted to be personally visited by Dr. Beaudoin and his staff and to actually sit and talk with them about any questions, concerns or potential problems that we perceived from a very solutions oriented vantage point,” she said.
Beaudoin visited 29 districts during testing, and FAST teams were deployed regionally to provide technical assistance as needed. The assessment team led daily calls with district test coordinators to provide updates and answer questions.
“Compared to last year, testing was much smoother,” said Ray Morgigno, superintendent of Pearl Public School District. “There is always the possibility of technical issues with online testing and with testing stretched over a three-week period; that is just the nature of the beast. However, we, in Pearl, successfully tested all students with only slight Questar connectivity issues that caused a very small number of students to have to restart the testing process. Both Questar and the MDE were very responsive when we needed assistance, and we appreciate their efforts.”
Under Beaudoin’s leadership, Mississippi educators participated in the development of MAP, which replaced the Partnership for the Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC) test. MAP was specifically developed for Mississippi because the state ended its membership in the PARCC testing consortium and new tests were needed to measure student mastery of the Mississippi College and Career Ready Standards (MCCRS).
MAP assesses students on critical thinking and problem-solving and goes beyond multiple-choice questions to get a deeper understanding of students’ learning. Students will be required to apply their knowledge and skills to address real-world problems and describe their reasoning.
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Note: Dr. J.P. Beaudoin and Walt Drane visited the following districts during the MAP assessments.
Week 1: Grenada School District, Desoto County School District, Corinth School District, Booneville School District, Oxford School District, Lafayette School District, Tupelo School District, Okolona School District, Starkville-Oktibbeha Consolidated School District, and Leake County School District
Week 2: Hinds County School District, Rankin County School District, Harrison County School District, Moss Point School District, Pascagoula School District, Ocean Springs School District, Gulfport School District, Stone County School District, Richton School District, Perry County School District, Union City School District, Scott County School District
Week 3: Coahoma School District, Clarksdale School District, Greenwood School District, Leflore County School District, Sunflower County Consolidated School District, Leland School District, Vicksburg-Warren School District
Media Contact:
Patrice Guilfoyle, APR
Director of Communications
601-359-3706
Jean Cook, APR
Communications Specialist
601-359-3519