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Schools

Berkley MEAP Scores 'Disappointing,' but Above State Averages

District's curriculum director reports on the 2011 test results with new cut scores and previews a new evaluation test set to replace the MEAP.

Berkley's 2011 MEAP scores were "disappointing," but overall the school district's students taking the test were on par with other Oakland County districts and still scored well above the state averages.

Mary Beth Fitzpatrick, the district's director of Curriculum, Technology, Assessment and Grants, presented a breakdown of the district's 2011 MEAP scores at Monday night's Board of Education meeting. Some of the results were, in her own words, "disappointing."

The Michigan Department of Education's new, more rigorous way of evaluating test scores for grades 3-9, known as cut scores, brought down the scores for Berkley and around the state. With the tougher evaluation, scores in core subjects such as math and science dropped precipitously from the 2010 testing; however, when adjusting 2010 results to the new evaluating program, scores remained relatively constant, Fitzpatrick said.

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That consistency may not be much comfort to parents with only 20 percent of the district's students scoring proficient. The numbers are worse statewide, where the proficiency rating hovered around 15 percent. In 2010, under the previous evaluation system, Berkley students were at 85 percent proficiency.

"We clearly have some work to do in areas like science," Fitzpatrick told the board. "It's important that we not overreact to a snapshot in time, but we take the numbers seriously."

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Fitzpatrick also announced that the state would be implementing a new type of evaluation test to replace the MEAP, called the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium, beginning in the 2014-15 academic year. Fitzpatrick was unclear as to whether the state would administer the MEAP that first year of SBAC testing as well to avoid a gap in the evaluation process.

Read Fitzpatrick's full report here.

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