5 Things Parents Need To Know
A New Definition of Proficient on State Required Tests
- Each year, public school students in grades 3-9 take the Michigan Educational Assessment Program (MEAP) test and 11th graders take the Michigan Merit Exam (MME).
- The Michigan State Board of Education recently approved new MEAP and MME “cut scores” for Mathematics, Reading, Science and Social Studies. A cut score is the score that separates test takers into various categories, such as advanced, proficient, partially proficient and not proficient.
- The new cut scores are higher and “raise the bar” for our students. They are intended to be a better measure of student progress toward being career and college ready.
- While we anticipate an initial decline in the number of students reported as “proficient,” we are confident this change will be temporary due to ongoing school improvement efforts and student support.
- If your student is reported as “not proficient,” it does not mean that your student isn't gaining academic skills or is falling behind. It means that on the day of the test, your student was not yet proficient on the material being tested. Several other measures are used in our district throughout the year to insure that your student is making academic progress.
We maintain high standards for our students and their test scores are consistently among the highest in the state. We anticipate this trend will continue even with the new cut scores.
Students who graduate from our district currently do have a good success rate for completing college, and we believe that with the redesign currently under way at our high school and the implementation of key initiatives at the middle and elementary levels designed to raise the bar for all students, we will realize even greater success on state assessments.
If you would like additional information about changes to the MEAP or MME, please contact your building principal or visit one of the following links.