The latest MEAP scores were released Wednesday. In them, there's good and not so good news to report.
Michigan students in grades 3-8 are doing better at reading and math this year compared to last.
In 2011, on average, 64% of 3rd thru 8th grade students met or exceeded expectations in reading. Only 61% did so in 2010.
Meantime in math, 37% of kids in those grades met or exceeded expectations. Compared to roughly 35% in 2010.
As for other subjects statewide, on average, elementary and middle schoolers tested in science, social studies and writing saw a decrease in expectations met. But on the whole, state educators say they're encouraged by the results since a tougher grading scale went into effect last year.
The MEAP scores released Wednesday are more difficult to compare with previous years because of the tougher grading scale that went into place last fall. Now, it takes a lot more correct answers for a student to score as "proficient."
"Essentially what is happening, is students are expecting to be able to correctly address much more rigorous content than they had to correctly identify in the past when we had the lower cut scores. So, it really is about increasing the expectations of how well the students learn the content. We've had the content standards in place for quite some time, so that addressed what students were supposed to learn, but cut scores address how well they're supposed to learn that content," said Joseph Martineau, Michigan Department of Education.
The Department of Education re-calculated test scores from previous years using the new scoring scale to provide a more meaningful comparison.
To find out how your district did click here.
