Merit Exam

By Cynthia Schmeiser

For a number of years headlines in local papers pronounced the failings of public and charter schools. When we worked so hard to put the ACT in place as our test, our critics concluded that we'll never be able to show improvement. They also said our averages would go down.

Well, not so.

This year, with 100% of our students taking the ACT we have growth --significant growth.

My Saturday morning paper had this headline: "Schools do well in state Merit Exam."

Our members and their teaching staff are seeing the means to get our students to the next step. Good job!

While students are making some progress on the Michigan Merit Exam in math, social studies and writing, with the same or worse scores in other subject areas, still fewer than half of students are proficient in writing and math and, overall, scores don't reflect college readiness, Superintendent of Public Instruction Mike Flanagan said on Tuesday.

Writing and math scores each improved by three points this year, with 44 percent of 11th grade students scoring proficient or advanced in 2009 compared to 41 percent in 2008 and 49 percent receiving those marks in math this year compared to 46 percent last year, according to test results released by the Department of Education.

MASSP members took action last week explaining to legislators why EXPLORE is important for all students entering high school. Their work was successful!

The Senate embraced member support with the following in the Senate version of HB 4447:

"MEAP and Merit Exam Changes. The Senate added language prohibiting exam funding to be spent on an expanded social studies exam, pattern scoring, or any assessments developed by the Department for the purposes of Sections 1278a and 1278b of the Revised School Code. Intent language also was added that the Department replace its current MEAP for grades 3-8 with the Iowa Test or a similar exam, and the allocation was included for the "Explore" exam in grades 8 or 9. (Sec. 104 and 104b))"

On Monday I was with some association directors and the conversation was centered on lack of state dollars. A higher education person shared the Promise Scholarship for the Class of 2009 could be shifting to a needs based program thereby reducing the amount of available scholarship dollars and, the program would likely come to an end after this year.

So, today (Thurs., June 11th) I scheduled a meeting with the Chair of the House Higher Education appropriations committee so to get the facts on the demise of the Promise Award and share this news with our members in an article that is due.

Improving student knowledge should trump short-term savings

The state's tough new high school curriculum is the most important education reform in Michigan in a decade, but it's being threatened by politicians who are putting short-term savings ahead of the state's long-term interests. While other states and nations are rapidly implementing innovative education reforms to compete for knowledge economy jobs, Michigan lawmakers are considering major cuts that will undermine two of the most essential economic boosters: the new high school curriculum and state assessment.