School officials concerned about new MEAP standards (From the 11-30 Lapeer County Press)

[William Gavette]

School officials concerned about new MEAP standards

BY PHIL FOLEY

810-452-2616  [e-mail]

IMLAY CITY — Imlay City area students aren’t any less intelligent, but Imlay City Community Schools officials are concerned that a change in state testing standards may make it appear they are and upset parents.

Eric Whitney, the district’s executive director of curriculum and instruction, explained to board members Monday night that the state board of education recently approved higher cut scores, which means fewer students in Imlay City, and across the state, will get a proficient score on the Michigan Educational Assessment Program (MEAP) test when the results are released later this year.

The new cut scores, or minimum score for students to be deemed proficient in a particular subject, are “much, much higher and really represent what it takes to be college and career ready,” said Whitney.

He cautioned when the state releases the results of October’s MEAP test in February or March, “you’re going to see that fewer students will be deemed proficient on state tests in our own district as well as statewide and it’s going to look drastic.”

Whitney told board members that while compared to other districts in the state Imlay City students post some of the highest test scores, based on the new cut scores, Imlay City results are going to be disturbing.

Based on the current cut scores, only 15 percent of Imlay City eighth graders would have been proficient on the science portion of last year’s test. However, that’s the same percentage of students that posted proficient scores across Lapeer County and the state.

Imlay City fifth grade fared better with 24 percent of them posting a proficient score in 2010, based on the new cut scores, compared to 21 percent of Lapeer County fifth graders and 17 percent of fifth graders state wide.

“This is only one test on one day in math and one day in reading and one day in writing,” said Whitney. “So it’s only one time out of the year that our students are tested and we have lots of other measures to make sure that we keep track of our kids’ progress.”

While calling the new cut scores a “wake up call,” Whitney told board members he doesn’t want them used to beat up on local schools. “Our teachers are working hard. Our principals are working hard. We are working hard on the curriculum to get it where we think it needs to be, to make sure we are really knowledgeable about what our kids are doing. We know where they are progressing and where they are not. We have interventions in place to make sure we’re not allowing kids to slip through the cracks.”