MEAP Scores (Update: Science Scores Underscore)

Michigan students make broad gains on 2012 MEAP exam

By Lori Higgins and Chastity Pratt Dawsey Free Press Education Writers

   Michigan students showed promising gains on the Michigan Educational Assessment Program (MEAP) in 2012, with increasing numbers of them passing the state exam across nearly all subjects and grade levels.

   But the grave reality — that fewer than half the students passed math, science and social studies exams — continues to demonstrate the formidable challenge schools face helping students achieve against tougher standards. Also, far fewer students are passing the exams after the state raised the standards for passing them in 2011.

   The Michigan Department of Education released the results of the MEAP exam on Monday. The results show that 67% of students in grades 3-8 passed the reading exam, 40% passed in math, 49% in writing and 15% in science. On the social studies exam, taken by students in grades 6 and 9, 29% of the students passed.

   Exams were taken in the fall.

   State Superintendent Mike Flanagan said in a news release that the one-year gains “demonstrate Michigan’s teachers and students are rising to the challenge of the rigorous standards established last year.”

   New standards for passing the state exams — established in 2011 — means students must answer far more questions correctly in order to get a passing score. As a result, MEAP pass rates for 2011 and 2012 are far lower than they have been in previous years.

   For instance, in reading between 62% and 70% of students passed the exam; in math, the range was 33% to 46%. Under the previous standard, pass rates ranged from 80% to 95%.

   Results encourage DPS

   Detroit Public Schools officials are encouraged by this year’s MEAP results — which show students gaining in 17 of the 18 tests given. The district’s 2012 performance is markedly different from its 2011 performance. The 2011 results showed DPS students showing increases in only five of the 18 tests compared with 2010.

   Officials attributed the 2012 gains to an intense focus on data.

   “There’s no doubt in my mind … that we’ve moved this forward,” said Roy Roberts, the emergency financial manager for the district.

   Some of the gains can be attributed to the loss of 15 of the district’s lowest-performing schools, which were transferred this school year to the Education Achievement Authority (EAA) — the new state reform district for the worst-performing schools in the state. That district’s scores — a reflection of the education students received in DPS since the tests were given in October — were abysmal.

   Karen Ridgeway, the DPS superintendent of academics, said an analysis of the data shows that the increases would have been slightly smaller had those schools remained in the district.

   The district’s enrollment declines could be a factor. DPS has lost more than16,000 students in the last year, including an estimated 10,000 who transferred to the EAA.

   Among the biggest MEAP gains for DPS was third-grade reading, where the 42.7% of students who passed the exam was up 9.9 percentage points from 2011, when 32.7% of the students were proficient.

   But though the percentage of students passing increased, the actual number of students who passed didn’t move much. For instance, in 2011, 4,702 students were tested in third-grade reading, and 1,537 passed the test. In 2012, 3,619 students were tested, and 1,545 passed.

   One particular bright spot: DPS students improved at a higher rate than the state in reading. Statewide, 37% of students tested in reading improved from last year’s test, compared with 42% in DPS.

   It may be difficult to determine the degree to which the scores were impacted by declining enrollment, the EAA taking over poor-performing schools, or DPS’s district-wide academic improvement plan.

   “There’s so many lenses you can look at the data through. You should look at it multiple ways,” said Gary Miron, a Western Michigan University education researcher. “It’s really hard to understand the changes or what to attribute the changes to.”

   Statewide, the science scores are particularly alarming. Just 13% of fifth-graders and 16% of eighth-graders — the only two grades tested in the subject — passed the science exams.

   That could have to do with how much tougher it is to pass the science exam compared with other subjects, said Judy Pritchett, chief academic officer for the Macomb Intermedi ate School District.

   Also a factor, she said, is that science — and social studies, too — tends to get less focus because so much emphasis is placed on reading and math.

   “In some instances, teachers just run out of time,” she said.

   • CONTACT LORI HIGGINS: 313-222-6651OR LHIGGINS@FREEPRESS.COM  . STAFF WRITER KRISTI TANNER CONTRIBUTED TO THIS REPORT.

MANDI WRIGHT/DETROIT FREE PRESS

   Dixon Educational Learning Academy first-grader Kendall Carter, 6, works on valentines Monday after the MEAP scores were released.

MANDI WRIGHT/DETROIT FREE PRESS

   Detroit Public Schools emergency financial manager Roy Roberts visits with first-grader Atesha Foster, 6, at Dixon Educational Learning Academy after announcing district-wide record gains on the MEAP test.

U.S. STANDARDS EXAM TO DISPLACE MEAP

   The MEAP in its current form will cease to exist in two years. In 2015, the state will roll out the Smarter Balanced Assessment, a test being developed right now that will be based on a set of rigorous, common standards that have been adopted by most states in the U.S.

   The standards will gauge college and career readiness and for the first time will allow Michigan to compare its students’ performance with those in other states.

   The MEAP won’t go away completely. The Smarter Balanced exam is only in English language arts and math, so MEAP tests will be developed in other subject areas. Michigan is among about two dozen states that will be administering the Smarter Balanced exam.