Minority students are closing the gap in MEAP tests, and math scores are up almost across the board – a trend that could come to a screeching halt next year as state educators brace for more rigorous standards.
The state Education Department released scores today for Michigan Educational Assessment Program tests taken last fall by students in third through eighth grades, with the largest statewide gains posted by girls, minority students and children with disabilities.
Scores for districts and schools are available on the state Education Department website.
State third-graders posted the highest marks, with 95 percent scoring proficient on math exams, with fourth-graders just behind with 92 percent. Reading scores trailed slightly in most grades and held steady in two. Third-graders were tops, with 87 percent meeting the proficient mark.
Scores indicate that black students, as a group, moved closer to white classmates, especially on eighth-grade reading tests. The average scores between black and white students were 26.4 points apart in 2005, but that gap is down to 7.9 points in 2010. The gap between Hispanic and white students was 21.5 points five years ago, but that was cut to 10.1 percent this year.
In math, the achievement gap between white and minority students closed an average of 14 points over five years, with black seventh-graders moving from 41 points behind in 2005 to 21 points in 2010. Hispanic students moved from 27 points behind to 10 points.
But are the gains worth celebrating?
The state Board of Education voted last month to change “cut scores,” the percentage of questions that students must answer correctly to be deemed proficient, after Education Trust-Midwest, an advocacy group, accused the state of “lying” to parents about how well students were performing.
While more than 80 percent of Michigan fourth-graders were proficient in readings, just 30 percent hit the mark on the National Assessment of Educational Progress exam, a federally sponsored test offered to a sampling of students.
Students can get as few as 40 percent correct on some MEAP tests and still be considered proficient. Third-graders had to choose a correct answer from three choices, while other grades have to pick from four choices on MEAP tests.
The tests have implications beyond district bragging rights. Scores are used, in part, to meet federal No Child Left Behind requirements. Schools and districts failing to show across-the-board improvement face a progressive series of sanctions.
Education Department staffers have said that the existing cut scores “are based on skills sufficient in an old manufacturing economy” and that the new standards should instead reflect college and career readiness.
Districts already are bracing their communities for the scoring changes expected on next fall's MEAP. Grand Rapids educators expect at least 60 percent of their schools to fall short of the federal testing goals, called “adequate yearly progress,” after almost all buildings reached the mark in recent years.
Superintendent Bernard Taylor addressed an expected drop off in his Saturday “state of the schools” speech.
“Let me be the first to say publicly that the new 'cut scores' are not a bad thing – on the contrary, they are exactly what is needed to ensure that our students are academically ready when they graduate,” he told community leaders gathered at Ottawa Hills High School.
“Because it’s time that we all face the facts: that school districts and our state are leaving too many children behind. This is not just a GRPS issue. It is happening in school districts rich and poor, large and small, urban, suburban and rural – all across the state – where students are graduating, but they are not academically ready for college or a career.”
A composite math score for Grand Rapids students shows a 27-point increase between 2005 and 2010. The gap between white and black students during that time dropped from 32 percent to 23 percent, and the space between Hispanics and whites changed from 25 percent to 13 percent.
Despite the cut score controversy, Education Department staff members said the improvement among minority groups between 2005 and 2010 is still notable because the scoring standards have been consistent.
Fifth- and eighth-graders take science MEAPs, while sixth- and ninth-graders take a social studies test.
Statewide, fifth-grade science scores dipped slightly from 81 percent proficient to 78 percent, and eighth-graders were up two points to 78 percent proficient. Social studies scores were up 2 percent for both sixth-graders and ninth-graders.
Students took new writing tests this year, with 47 percent of fourth-graders and 48 percent of eighth-graders reaching proficiency.
While the state school board approved the concept of raising the cut scores in February, the scoring standards aren't expected to come before members for approval until May, at the earliest.