Math wasn't always a breeze for Janet Meinke, the school district's new chief of assessments.

"In high school I got tutored in math every day by my aunt," the New Orleans-born math teacher said Thursday. "She was a chemistry teacher, and at the end it was really easy. Math does some amazing things."

Meinke, the first administrator pulled from the teaching ranks since interim Superintendent Joe Burke took over in August, has been tapped for a job that is frequently redefined by the state Legislature whenever it changes testing requirements, test score reporting and other student assessment rules.

In the modern educational system, test scores are the coin of the realm. When measuring how well kids do in Monroe County schools, Meinke will be the treasurer.

It's not just a math job, either.

Annual Yearly Progress, begun under the Bush administration's No Child Left Behind Act, requires standardized testing to determine how well students learn as they progress through the grades. The Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test is the Sunshine State's version of formal assessment for Annual Yearly Progress under No Child Left Behind. But that's not the only test Meinke will have to worry about.

There are lots of tests to score, measure, evaluate, compare and explain to educators, the public and politicians. This year's results are measured against last year's, and the hopes for next year are borne from the success and failures of this year's results. Under No Child Left Behind, scores are linked to a student's race, ethnicity, age and grade.

"We have reading tests, SATs, ACTs and other college placement tests. We have FCATs in several subjects in several grades, and we'll soon use Algebra I test for 11th-graders," Meinke said.

Each teacher gives a progress-monitoring test three times a year to see how curriculum is progressing, Meinke said. Part of her job is to train teachers to use software to make sense of the scores.

"The test is automatically scanned into a machine and scored. To get the data back out, teachers have to use [software]. Teachers use that program to look at that data, to see the results from the tests they give.

"They can determine where kids need remedial help," she said. "Individual teachers can use the data to look at individual classes and say, 'My fourth-graders didn't get the idea of something, maybe it's something I need to spend more time on with them.' "

Now student test scores are taking on added importance: The Legislature requires teacher performance to be linked to student performance.

"Differentiated accountability results are required to be sent to the state," she said. "I have to organize that data into the right format. ... The idea is that student learning is taking place."

Superintendent Joe Burke said he's happy about his choice to replace Bruce King, who served as district assessment director until this fall.

"Ultimately my decision was that Janet knew the Florida accountability system and [federal] Annual Yearly Progress, the ins and outs of the assessment process, and the new high school differentiated accountability rules," he said.

Burke also likes her relationship with teachers she now helps with their test data at Marathon High School.

"She understands how to help the principals and teachers understand how to use assessment data to improve instruction and student outcomes," he said. "She has the skills and personality to do it."

Meinke graduated from the University of Southern Mississippi with a bachelor's degree in mathematics and a master's in curriculum and instruction.

jguerra@keysnews.com