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 Schools
in Focus: Meap Test Primer
How parents can navigate MEAP muddle; Understanding the test
helps adults teach children at home.
by Maureen Feighan, The Detroit News, October 28, 2003
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It's considered one of the single biggest barometers of how
schools and students across Michigan are performing: the MEAP
test.
But as parents across Michigan and Metro Detroit await
individual student MEAP scores this month, many admit
deciphering the MEAP acronym -- Michigan Educational Assessment
Program -- is tough enough without trying to understand the
scores.
"Michigan Educational Assessment Placement?" said Tim Martin,
whose son, Adam, won a $2,500 merit scholarship three years ago
after doing well on the MEAP at East Detroit High School. "That
doesn't sound right. It's the sound the roadrunner makes -- MEAP,
MEAP."
Welcome to MEAP 101. Educators acknowledge the state's most
comprehensive assessment test -- approved by the state
Legislature in 1969 and given to roughly 550,000 students this
year -- can be complicated and confusing.
But experts say the MEAP is digestible if parents take the test
and try to understand how it works. Administrators and testing
coordinators recommend parents familiarize themselves with the
MEAP by downloading practice tests from the state's Web site,
talking to teachers and principals, and understanding how the
tests are scored.
The MEAP test is both an individual measure of a student as well
as a measure of a district. It helps determine if a child has
learned the material expected at his or her grade level. It also
shows how each school district scores overall at each grade
level.
The more parents understand about the MEAP, how it's structured
and what it's designed to test, the more they can do to help
their children with skills such as problem-solving and reading
comprehension, said Shereen Arraf, Dearborn Public Schools'
testing and assessment coordinator.
"We only have kids for 181 days," Arraf said. "So there's a lot
(parents) can do at home to support what we're doing in the
schools."
Administrators say parents also need to remember that the MEAP
test is just one gauge of how schools are performing. Other
indicators include academic programs, attendance rates and
teacher development.
The MEAP test "is just a snapshot of a particular class," said
Kris Gekiere, Farmington Public Schools' school improvement and
accreditation administrator. "You're not looking at how the same
kids performed over time."
Districtwide scores by grade, which were released in early
October after months of technical delays, are based on the
percentage of students who meet or exceed statewide standards,
not the percentage of questions students got right. Individual
student scores, on the other hand, show the number of points a
child scored of the total number possible. Based on those
scores, students are categorized at one of four proficiency
levels, such as "exceeds standards" or "meets standards."
Opting out
Romeo resident Doris Neumeyer doesn't want her son, Brian, to be
a part of the MEAP snapshot.
Neumeyer said she doesn't like the way districts mold curricula
around MEAP tests, which she believes hurts critical-thinking
skills. She plans to keep Brian, a fourth-grader, out of MEAP
tests this year.
"I'm not for taking a test for the sake of taking it," Neumeyer
said.
The MEAP was initiated by the Michigan Board of Education in
1969. For its first four years, tests were from a commercial
test publisher. Students were ranked in comparison to one
another, also known as grading on a "curve," but the scores gave
no indication of whether kids were meeting a set standard.
By 1973-74, educators and state education officials set out to
change that and began crafting a test with specific performance
objectives in mind.
The state's decision to develop an assessment test designed to
reveal what students know or understand based on set standards
made Michigan a leader nationally, said Marilyn Roberts,
director of the state's Office of Educational Assessment.
By the 1970s and 1980s, education officials in other states were
clamoring to develop standards on which to test students because
they believed the nation was losing jobs to other countries,
Roberts said. By then, Michigan had had the MEAP test for more
than a decade.
"The rest of the nation has caught up with this now," Roberts
said.
Test keeps changing
But being one of the first of its kind doesn't make the MEAP any
easier to understand, parents say. Local school districts say
drawing conclusions from the test is difficult because parts of
the test keep changing.
The latest change was a new English and language arts test
introduced this year. Roberts said the MEAP is now in line with
the state's content standards approved by the state board of
education in 1995.
"In the past seven years, I've seen (changes made) two or three
times," said Arraf, with Dearborn schools. "Sometimes we can't
use MEAP because you can't compare from year to year."
State officials say the test has changed to keep up with
changing statewide content standards, but it doesn't change
every year. The MEAP is now in line with standards the state
board of education approved in 1995, Roberts said.
Changes aside, assessment test scores should never be the sole
way parents gauge schools, said Ron Dietel, an assistant
director for research and communication at the Center for
Research on Evaluation Standards and Student Testing.
Dietel said whenever he fields calls from parents contemplating
switching schools based on test scores, he encourages them to
look at attendance rates, academic programs and Advanced
Placement classes in any district or school they're considering.
And the best way to gauge a school? Visit it, Dietel said.
"There's nothing more important than getting out and visiting a
school."
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