and Metro Detroit await individual student MEAP scores
this month, many admit deciphering the MEAP acronym -- Michigan
Educational Assessment Program -- is tough enough without trying to
understand the scores.
MI Granholm Moves
MEAP Back to Education - With the delays of the last Michigan
Educational Assessment Program test scores release still fresh in the
public's mind, Governor Jennifer Granholm did Monday as she had
earlier promised and issued an executive order moving administration
of the statewide test back to the Department of Education.
House OKs MEAP
Bill Extending 2003 Deadline - A bill that would give students
qualifying for the Merit Award until November 15, 2003 to apply for
the scholarship passed the House on Wednesday. SB 701, passed
unanimously, would affect just this year, because of the delays
schools and students have endured in getting the scores on the
Michigan Educational Assessment Program tests. (10/03)
Download "The Assist" (April
2003; pdf size=455kb) -
If IEP Teams
decide a student should participate in the MEAP, they must also
decide if the student needs "standard" or "nonstandard"
accommodations. When nonstandard accommodations are used, the
student's score is NOT eligible for Merit Awards, and it will
count as a "zero" or "not proficient" in Adequate Yearly Progress
calculations under No Child Left Behind. In this issue of
The Assist, see the full listing of standard and nonstandard
accommodations, see the IEP Team State Assessment Decision-Making
Flow Chart and checklist which help teams determine the type of
test a student will take, and learn how you can comment on the new
Draft Guidelines for Determining Participation in State Assessment
for Students with Disabilities.
AP Test May Change Teaching - The Advanced
Placement test, close to surpassing the SAT as the most popular examination in
the country, is undergoing an adjustment designed to change not only high school
teaching but the way introductory college courses are taught throughout the
country, College Board officials said Tuesday.
Exposing The Mystery of
Standardized Test-Question Writers - For those stressing about upcoming
MCAS tests, here's a tip from some inside sources: The first questions will be
easy, and if an answer seems right, it probably is. That's because test makers
aren't evil trolls plotting student failure, but normal people who know how
For people who are concerned about
standardized testing in general, not just as pertains to kids with
IEPs, the FairTest website might be of interest:
http://www.fairtest.org/. If you go to that site and
click on "assessment reform network" (ARN) you will link to a page
that allows you to join a listserv devoted to many of the issues
being raised in this thread. However, I do want to warn
folks that this group as a whole is not very interested in
disability/special education issues -- the focus is on other
diversity issues like race and social class, but also on the ways
tests are being used and what they are doing to classroom
practice. You may have seen an ARN t-shirt here or
there -- they're nice, if esoteric: black with a picture of a
tomato plant and the words "High stakes are for tomatoes".
Seeking Alternatives to Standardized Testing - Is there some
other way to make low-income neighborhood schools better than through
the annual standardized testing required by the new federal No Child
Left Behind law? In 1974 Deborah Meier created the Central Park East
School in the East Harlem neighborhood of New York City. That school
showed, through its students' success in college and the workplace,
that the children of day laborers, garment workers and welfare
recipients could achieve academic success by being treated in public
school as if they were graduate students. Instead of being given
regular standardized multiple-choice tests, they were evaluated
through reviews of their written work and interviews with experts in
the subject matter they had studied.
Tools Help Individualized Educational Program (IEP) Teams Decide Which
Assessments to Use for Students with Disabilities - The