March 9, 2004
Lansing– The State Board of Education unanimously approved today a resolution calling on each school district to ensure the participation of all students in the Michigan Educational Assessment system.
The action by the Board restates a similar policy it adopted in 2001 reflecting the importance of schools to assess pupil performance in math, science, social studies, and communication arts for the purpose of improving academic achievement and establishing a statewide standard of competency.
“With the implementation of the federal No Child Left Behind law that requires schools to test 95 percent of their students, we see this as an important message to send schools, students, and parents,” said State Board Vice President Herbert S. Moyer.
State Board Secretary Carolyn Curtin pointed out that of the 896 schools that did not make Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) this past year, as required by the federal law, 268 of them did not make AYP for the sole reason of not testing 95 percent of their students.
“Many high achieving schools did not make AYP this past year for that reason alone,” Curtin said. “Having every student take the state assessment test will not only help the school make AYP, but helps identify academic areas that may need improving in those schools and, of course, assess what our students have learned – especially by high school.”
The State Board also received an update from Dr. Ed Roeber, Senior Executive Director of the Michigan Education Assessment Program (MEAP), that the program is on schedule to report test results this Spring and Summer as planned.
The elementary and middle school assessment tests, taken by students between January 26 and February 13 will be released in early May. The high school tests will be taken in early May and released in mid-July.
Roeber told the State Board that MEAP staff have taken several steps to prevent the problems that occurred last year, when mistakes by a private contractor held up test results for months and included the loss of approximately 2,900 tests, from reoccurring.
Some of the improvements Roeber outlined include: the use of school identification documents on top of each school’s sets of answer sheets; the indication on these school identification documents on which answer sheets and/or the number of answer sheets being returned, so any “missing” answer sheets can immediately be noted; and the log-in of answer sheets by school, so that inconsistent shipments immediately can be traced.
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