Oxford High School juniors did well above the state average after their first year of taking the new Michigan Merit Exam (MME).
The MME, which was taken this past spring, is a replacement for the 11th grade Michigan Educational Assessment Programs (MEAP) test and is considered to be a tougher gauge of how well students are prepared for college.
For the students at OHS, every subject on the MME saw an increase from last year’s MEAP results and beat the state average.
These results for the MME combine the Level 1 and 2 scores. The percentages equal the number of students who exceeded or met Michigan standards:
n 69 percent in reading (State average, 60 percent).
n 57 percent in writing (state average, 40 percent)
n 62 percent in English Language Arts (state average, 51 percent)
n 61 percent in math (state average, 46 percent)
n 86 percent in social studies (state average, 83 percent)
n 63 percent in science (state average, 56 percent)
From the 2005-06 MEAP to the 2006-07 MME, student’s results in the various subjects have increased.
Reading scores are up by 10 percent, writing is up by one percent, English Language Arts are up by seven percent, mathematics is up by 13 percent, social studies by four percent and science by five percent.
‘We were quite pleased with those results because we didn’t know what we were getting into with the MME,? said Jim Schwarz, Assistant Superintendent of Curriculum. ‘We did pretty well.?
Juniors at OHS also had to take the ACT as a portion of their assessment.
In the past, only college-bound students were required to take the test. This year, however, all students took it.
Although the state averages for the ACT have not been released yet, Schwarz said the average score for juniors at the high school was 20.3 on a scale of 1 to 36.
Two students at OHS scored a 34.
Last year, Oxford averaged 21.6 on the ACT, but Schwarz attributes this year’s lower score to a wider range of students taking the test.
‘Our high school teachers, within their departments, will be working on analyzing the specific data relative to benchmarks tested on both the MME and the ACT and how it affects their instruction,? Schwarz said.