Oxford Schools Curriculum Director Karen Eckert was not happy when she opened her newspaper last week and saw that MEAP scores for 2003 had been released to the public – and not to her yet.
“I was very unhappy to read some information that was wrong and coming from the MDE (Michigan Department of Education),” said Eckert. “The media was told that these scores had been sent to the schools, but they had not.
“In fact, I had to go to the website myself to see what they were talking about. And then I had to work all the numbers to get the final percentages and see if what the media was publishing was correct.”
Not only had the final MEAP scores from the Class of 2003 been released to the public, but Eckert also felt the impression of whom the scores represented was misleading.
“These are not the scores taken by the juniors of this past spring,” she explained. “These are the scores of 18 months ago – from the graduated class of 2003.”
The cause of these problems stems back to who can take the high school MEAP and when they can take them. According to Eckert, the MEAP is given twice a year (once in the fall and once in the spring) and high school students can take the tests for the first time in the fall of their sophomore year.
This means that students have six opportunities for taking and retaking any portion of the MEAP. Also, the final scores for a class can not be released until 18 months after what is known as the “junior year first take,” in the spring of a student’s junior year, since the final time available to retake the test is in the spring of the senior year.
When considering the Education YES! and No Child Left Behind legislations, Eckert believes the federal and state governments will be using different results; however, she is still uncertain.
“I’m of the understanding that AYP (Adequate Yearly Progress) will be using the junior year scores and not allowing any retakes,” she stated, “and that Education YES! will be using the final class results. I’m not positive though because there are so many variables.”
The scores that have been released for the Class of 2003, the one which graduated this past June, showed that even though Oxford High School had more students taking the MEAP, fewer were exceeding or meeting Michigan standards:
• In math, of the 241 students who took the test, 65.9 percent were at or above Michigan standards. For the class of 2002, 240 students took the test with 80 percent passing.
• In reading, 239 students took the test with 70.3 percent passing. For the 2002 class, of the 236 who took the test, 77.5 percent met or exceeded Michigan standards.
• In science, 67.8 percent of the 242 who took the test passed. In the class of 2002, the same number of students took the test, but 71.9 percent met or exceeded Michigan standards.
• In writing, 238 students took the test with 61.8 percent meeting or exceeding Michigan standards. For the class of 2002, 234 students took the exam, with 78.6 percent passing.
• In social studies, Oxford Schools saw a drastic increase. A total of 242 students took the exam, up from 238 in the 2002 class, and 30.2 percent met or exceeded Michigan standards, up from 23.1 percent.
When compared with state scores, Oxford students placed above all state-wide averages:
• In reading, the state average was 67 percent. Oxford High School had 70.3 percent.
• In writing, the state-wide average was 61 percent while Oxford edged over the top with 61.8 percent.
• In math, the state average was 60 percent while Oxford had 65.9 percent.
• In science, the state-wide overall was 61 percent, Oxford had 67.8 percent.
• And in social studies, the state average was 26 percent, and Oxford High School had 30.2 percent.
Like Oxford High School, all of the state averages went down for the graduated class of 2003 when compared with the graduated class of 2002.
MEAP scores are important to high school juniors and seniors because the Merit Scholarship is tied to their results. Those students who meet or exceed Michigan standards across the board automatically receive the $2500 scholarship. Eckert said this is often referred to as an “all or nothing” scholarship.
The results from the graduating class of 2004’s results “first take” will be made available within the next couple of weeks. Eckert said she is not looking forward to explaining to parents why there are two sets of scores and who they represent.
“Now we’re going to be receiving the results from this past spring’s tests with the junior class and the people are going to be very confused,” she stated. “This is not an easy thing to understand in the first place, and it just became more complicated.”