Most Michigan students would fail MEAP, MME under tougher test standards

[Bozita]

Most Michigan students would fail MEAP, MME under tougher test standards
11:23 AM, Nov. 3, 2011
BY LORI HIGGINS
DETROIT FREE PRESS EDUCATION WRITER


Just a little more than a third of Michigan students in grades 3-7 who took state math exams during the last school year would have earned passing marks if tough new standards had been in place, according to data released today by the Michigan Department of Education.

Older students would have fared worse. Just about a quarter of students in grades 8 and 11 would have passed.

The MDE today released the last four years' worth of results from the high school Michigan Merit Exam (MME) and the elementary and middle school Michigan Educational Assessment Program (MEAP) exam. But the numbers were released with a twist.

The state took the tough new standards for passing the exam – standards that now will require students to answer far more questions correctly to pass – and applied them retroactively to old test results.

Nearly every third-grader under the old system -- 95% -- passed the state math exam in 2010. Eighty-seven percent of them passed the reading exam. But if the tougher standard had been in place, only 35% would have passed in math and only 63% in reading.

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[Doc_Technical]

1. Bring back the McGuffey Readers.

The objective of schools should be to educate,
not have a large percentage of students
pass increasingly less challenging tests.

[Bozita]

2. GOPers and some Dems want the public schools to fail.

If too many kids pass their stupid tests, they feel a need to raise the standards.

Killing off the teacher unions is goal #1.

For profit charter schools are goal #2.

Somewhere, Arne Duncan is smiling today.

[Bozita]

3. kick for the night shift