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Mississippi Assessment

Decent Essays

The controversy and uncertainty around the legislated curriculum and the current system of accountability are causing a lot of anxiety in my school community. To put it bluntly, there is a real sense of urgency to see lawmakers, educators, community leaders, organizations, and interest group to reform education in the state of Mississippi. Students are failing the state assessments by increasing numbers and everyone is nervous about the new Mississippi Assessment Program (MAP). This assessment is more rigorous and requires more critical thinking. In addition, students in the third grade are now required to take and pass the MKAS2 assessment to be promoted to the subsequent grade. This requirement has a lot of teachers and parents worried. The …show more content…

On one end they have to continue to prepare students who failed the PARCC assessment last year and on the other end, they have to wonder about the demise of the entire assessment as well as the unknown with the new assessment. This is particularly hard for me and my district. My leadership experiences have been affected because as the District Test Coordinator, I have always believed that I should have the answers to questions and concerns from administrators, teachers, students, and parents but unfortunately, I do not. As a result, it is difficult to get stakeholders on board when they constantly hear conflicting reports. I fear that the contradiction and inconsistency with the state assessments will to have a negative effect on students’ performance this testing cycle.
Given all the ambiguous and quarrel with the new assessment, I would recommend the elimination of MAP assessment for this year. I think this will benefit students in my school district as well as throughout the state tremendously. As a school counselor and district test coordinator, I see first-hand what our children have to endure while preparing and taking these assessments and it seems unfair for them to have to test under these circumstances. MDE and state officials need to come to an agreement on the best way to assess students in Mississippi before they punish students by assessing them on something they do not even like or want. Our students deserve a fair chance to graduate from high school and this policy change will afford them that

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