K.C. schools closing the gap on MAP scores.

Byline: Joe Robertson and Lynn Franey

Sep. 14--Even in a year when the Kansas City School District's state test scores showed all around positive trends, the bottom line can still be discouraging.

On the upside, Superintendent Bernard Taylor took that first glance at the results of the 2005 Missouri Assessment Program, or MAP, and saw the gains.

"It's incremental," he said. "But our initial view gives us a lot to be optimistic about."

Yet the district, for all its effort, can only trim away at the gap between its scores and the state's averages. The ever increasing demands of the federal No Child Left Behind Act even stress advantaged suburban districts -- let alone Kansas City with its high rates of poverty and transience.

How reassured can a parent be if the gains in math still leave the district, when comparing the percentage of students performing at the proficient or level or above, some 17 points behind the state average at the fourth grade, 9 points behind at the 8th grade, and 13 points behind at the 10th grade?

Similar numbers repeat for communication arts and science.

And those checking in on the city's charter schools,…