There’s some good news and some so-so news, according to the folks at Lake Orion Community Schools. At the March 14, board of education meeting, assistant superintendent Heidi Kast gave a power-point presentation on last fall’s MEAP testing of Lake Orion students.
MEAP (Michigan Education Assessment Program) tests students in math, reading, writing, social studies and science. Students in grades 3-9 are given the MEAP tests, while 11th graders are given the Michigan Merit Exam (MME) test in March. The MEAP tests were taken last fall. In all areas, Lake Orion students outperformed most other districts in Oakland County ? and in all areas local kids tested higher than the county average.
Compared to the 2010 tests, Lake Orion students improved their scores in reading and math, while the numbers dipped in science (30 percent proficient to 29), social studies (53 to 51 percent proficient) and writing, where the number of students proficient dropped from just under 67 percent down to 63 percent.
Kast told the board, scores this year were tallied differently ? this year the state used ‘cut? scores for math, reading, science and social studies. According to Kast, the ‘cut? scores puts students into categories as a measure of how they will fare at their future educational level. The new scores also take into account economic status and any learning disability.
According to the district’s website, ‘While we anticipated an initial decline in the number of students reported as “proficient” under the new cut scores, we are confident this change will be temporary due to ongoing school improvement efforts and student support.?
Kast reminded the board and audience that while ‘the media? reports the raw proficiency numbers, the district watches how students do at each level and uses test scores to help individual students perform better in the future.
Kast said Lake Orion compares itself with districts around the state, and is on par with those districts. The districts Lake Orion uses to measure itself are Clarkston, Rochester, Brighton, Northville and Rockford.
Of the 28 school districts in Oakland County, here where Lake Orion 3-8 graders’ MEAP scores rank: Reading (82 percent proficient), 5th in county; Mathematics (60 percent proficient) 7th in county; Writing (63 percent proficient), 8th in county; Science (29 percent proficient), 6th in county; Social Studies (51 percent proficient), 6th in county.
The scores are available on the district’s webpage at lakeorion.k12.mi.us/test_scores.html