FeedsDowngraded
District disappointed by test results
When the Michigan Educational Assessment Program (MEAP) results for the class of 2006 were released on Friday, they weren’t what Wayne-Westland Community School officials had hoped for.
In keeping with statewide trends, students from the Wayne-Westland district saw their MEAP test results slide below the state average in every subject but one.
Now, Superintendent of Schools Gregory Baracy said, the district must face the challenge head-on to figure out how the district can prevent the problem in the future. District staff members have already begun to extrapolate the information provided by the state in search of some answers.
“We’ve got to review the data,” said Baracy. “It’s still a little too early to determine what went wrong.”
District-wide, Wayne-Westland class of 2006 students met with the most success on the reading section of the test. More than 60 percent of the 772 students tested managed to meet or exceed state proficiency levels. By comparison, however, statewide results showed that 70 percent of graduating students achieved that level—down from the 78 percent reported for the state average for the class of 2005.
Scores went downhill from there. Only 34 percent of the Wayne/Westland class of 2006 students met or exceeded acceptable scores on the math exam, versus 52 percent statewide. The district was also slightly below the state average on the social studies test as 74 percent of Wayne-Westland students failed to receive adequate scores, as opposed to the 63 percent success rate throughout the state.
Science scores reflected room for improvement, too, as about 45 percent of area students reached the state standard of proficiency, less than the 57 percent reported statewide.
However, the Wayne-Westland district bucked the trend when it came time to score the writing portion of the tests. Nearly 61 percent of Wayne-Westland students reached state achievement standards in writing while only about 55 percent of students throughout Michigan met that level.
There were no major discrepancies between the scores reported for John Glenn High School and Wayne Memorial High School.
Although Baracy acknowledged that the scores reported were low, he said that they shouldn’t be used to automatically place the new graduates in a negative light.
“With all of the blunders in MEAP assessment and erroneous data…people have come to take MEAP scores with a grain of salt,” he said. As of Tuesday, he said that the district had not yet determined whether or not they would need to challenge any of the findings.
Baracy added that he believes that members of the class of 2006 are prepared to face the future, whether they are college-bound or on the career track.
Although he theorized that the dropping scores might reflect factors such as the increasing number of students being tested, lack of consistency, and the ‘one size fits all’ exam style that might not work for some students, Baracy said that it doesn’t alter the outcome.
“What we’re seeing is more students who wouldn’t have taken the MEAP test in the past (are) now taking it,” said Edward Roeber, senior executive director of the Office of Educational Assessment and Accountability at the Michigan Department of Education, in a written statement. “These are students who didn’t see themselves going to college and therefore did not need to take the MEAP in order to qualify for the Michigan Merit Award, or students who believed they just wouldn’t have done well on the tests. Now these students are taking the MEAP assessments without the essential academic foundation, and it may be a factor in the lower test scores over the past four years as well.”
No matter what caused the problems, Baracy said the district wants to deal with those issues directly—by changing the way subjects are taught or working with the curriculum—rather than by offering up excuses or trying to find a scapegoat.
“The bottom line is our scores aren’t where they should be,” he said.
The Wayne-Westland district isn’t alone in their concerns, either.
“It is a statewide trend,” said Baracy. “We’re concerned about it as state issue as well as as a district issue.”
Despite the current concerns,Baracy said that he is confident that the district would be able to “meet the challenge” as the state continues to raise the standards for graduation.
