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Posted on Thu, Mar 31, 2011 : 3:42 p.m.

Washtenaw County school districts follow statewide trends on MEAP scores

By Kyle Feldscher

This story will be updated as reactions from local school officials become available.

Washtenaw County school districts followed statewide trends in MEAP testing for Fall 2010, mostly seeing slight gains in math and social studies and slight drops in reading and science.

Some of the biggest increases in the county came in Manchester Community Schools, where 92 percent of students met or exceeded expectations in social studies, a jump of 10 percentage points from 2009. Superintendent Shawn Lewis-Lakin said district officials are analyzing test scores but are pleased with the gains the district made.

“Overall, this data confirms our place among top-tier districts in our state and region,” Lewis-Lakin said. “We are proud of our students, families, community and all those employed by the district who are committed to student academic success.”

This year’s test scores included significant gains, and a few large drops, in district’s around the county.

The top five changes in the percentage of students meeting or exceeding expectations were:

  • A 17.2 percentage-point increase in third grade math in Willow Run Community Schools.
  • A 16 percentage-point increase in eighth grade math in Manchester schools.
  • A 15 percentage-point decrease in fourth grade math in Willow Run schools.
  • A 14 percentage-point increase in eighth grade math in Ypsilanti Public Schools.
  • A 12 percentage-point increase in eighth grade math in Milan Area Schools.

To view a spreadsheet of MEAP scores for each district, click here.

To find a specific school, click here.

Statewide, math scores grew while reading scores held steady at the fourth- and fifth-grade levels and dropped at the third-, sixth-, seventh- and eighth-grade levels.

This is the last testing period before proficiency levels are raised, which state officials believe will lower scores next year.

“We want to provide an authentic view of where students are academically,” said Mike Flanagan, state superintendent of public instruction. 

Flanagan said the state is raising the "cut scores," or the scores needed on a test to be considered proficient, and wanted to give schools districts a year to prepare for the higher scores.

Milan superintendent Bryan Girbach said the jump in eighth grade math scores was something the district has been working toward for a couple years. 

"We are very satisfied with the jump in eighth grade math, we have focused on middle school math for the last couples years,” he said. “It was an area of concern of ours a couple years ago.”

Kyle Feldscher covers K-12 education for AnnArbor.com. He can be reached at kylefeldscher@annarbor.com or you can follow him on Twitter.

Comments

AMOC

Sun, Apr 3, 2011 : 4:01 p.m.

@Wonderin' - Well, actually, teachers DO write the MEAP tests. Teachers and recently-retired teachers get paid by the State of Michigan to come up with test items for grade levels they are certified to teach. The items are edited to change the details, so that it isn't too unfair for those particular teachers' students. Other teachers get paid to grade the writing portions of the test. And for the most part, you can't get in on those part-time, tax funded jobs without having a teaching certificate. Every teacher who wants to can get access to both &quot;sample&quot; questions and the curriculum content from which all the questions for the subject and grade level MEAP will cover. So can you. It's on the Michigan Dept of Education website. See <a href="http://www.michigan.gov/mde/0,1607,7-140-22709_31168---,00.html" rel='nofollow'>http://www.michigan.gov/mde/0,1607,7-140-22709_31168---,00.html</a>

AMOC

Sun, Apr 3, 2011 : 3:52 p.m.

I too would have liked to see a comparison between Washtenaw County students, Michigan students and students nationally., because I think that showing the our local school districts' results in that context would tell a very different story. While it's nice that some MEAP scores increased, both in schools and across the state, the reason MEAP &quot;cut scores&quot; need to be increased is that the performance of Michigan's students has been stagnant or negative on nationwide tests such as the NAEP, or international comparisons such as TIMMS or PISA. Measuring our students with an elastic &quot;ruler&quot; as we have been doing with the MEAP for the last 8 or 9 years does no one any favors. It has allowed teachers and schools to maintain their delusion that they are doing an &quot;excellent&quot; job of educating the kids we taxpayers entrust to them. In reality, the level of knowledge needed for a student to be considered &quot;proficient&quot; has been dropping over the years, so that more kids will pass and more schools are allowed to maintain the status quo for their adult employees.

xmo

Fri, Apr 1, 2011 : 1:41 p.m.

It would be nice to see how these students compare to a National or International standard. Something that is not so Fluid and Fluffy. At least it business, you can get graded on profit or lack of it while schools they seem to change the base line so that everybody Feel's good but very few are getting a better education. In the mean time, we are asked to invest more and more money into education without any scientific results. Crazy isn't it? You would think teachers (Those who teach our children) could come up with a test to show reading,math etc proficiency.

Wonderin'

Sat, Apr 2, 2011 : 1:09 a.m.

Do you actually think teachers write the tests? That's almost as funny as the fact that you are griping that &quot;few are getting a better education&quot; even when the standardized test scores are high.

Dan Ezekiel

Thu, Mar 31, 2011 : 10:49 p.m.

As a teacher, I often see these types of statistics: &quot;A 17.2 percentage-point increase in third grade math in Willow Run Community Schools... A 15 percentage-point decrease in fourth grade math in Willow Run schools.&quot; As a science teacher, I'd like to point out that when we say this year's third graders had an increase in their math scores, they are not being compared to their own achievement last year, but to this year's fourth graders (last year's third graders). Different class cohorts often have different characteristics, academically and in every other way. It's likely that next year, Willow Run will report a huge increase in math achievement by fourth graders, while the achievement of fifth graders will drop. This is what happens when you compare one group's achievement with another's....

Spyker

Thu, Mar 31, 2011 : 10:29 p.m.

Congratulations are due again for the Second Grade Teachers at Lincoln's Brick Elementary. For the second year in a row their prior-year students scored highest in the district for Third Grade Math Proficiency on the MEAP.