By Meg Peters
Review Staff Writer
In the spring Lake Orion students will say goodbye to pencils with a new state assessment test.
Although the M-STEP, which replaces the 44-year-old MEAP test, will probably only be offered one time, it is a stride towards a deeper assessment of what students know.??
The catch is that the Michigan Department of Education (MDE) is required to bid out for another new state assessment to be issued in the 2015 school year. The results therefore cannot be compared to previous or future state testing. It is up to the schools to seek comparative data from individual district testing.
The Michigan Student Test of Educational Process, or M-STEP, is the first statewide assessment to be administered online, with a paper and pencil options for districts without the necessary technology.
The largest difference from the MEAP test is requiring school districts to have enough computers for students to take the test in the allotted deadline of eight weeks, Assistant Superintendent of Teaching and Learning Heidi Mercer said.
Lake Orion students have piloted a similar style of online testing over the past year, and Mercer is confident they are prepared for the change.
‘It is just having enough technology,? Mercer said, which Lake Orion is equipped to provide through systematic purchases in the last couple years. ‘We knew we were looking at a different kind of test, so I feel confident that we took advantage of those pilot tests.?
Everything came rather quickly.
M-STEP was designed in nine months, rather than following the state’s normal three-year test development schedule.?’After the Michigan Legislature switched gears in June, not approving the MDE’s proposal to use testing provided by Smarter Balanced, the MDE had to get creative, and fast.
Smarter Balanced is a multi-state testing consortium which previously was scheduled to develop 2014/15 testing for Michigan according to the Common Core State Standards. In June Governor Rick Snyder threw out the Smarter Balanced test the MDE had been preparing, however the MDE ended up incorporating bits of their testing into the M-STEP anyway? English language arts and mathematics’because they were running out of time.
The balance was providing higher level testing with enough time for teachers to prepare students for the different style of questions.
‘This test is not all multiple choice, which is great,? Mercer said. ‘It allows students who do better hands on to actually show what they know through the classroom activity and performance task.?
However, the politics of the scenario- shuffling around testing options until the last minute, has put teachers in a time crunch for minimal results.
‘That’s the one disadvantage. You can’t take this year’s results and compare them to last years. Then next year we could potentially have something else again, so we can’t compare those results. For a couple of years we basically are in limbo,? Mercer said.
But, she is happy with the direction the testing is moving.
Students will be tested in three parts: the computer adapted piece (online portion), on a classroom activity and be given a performance task.
Such tasks could include a science lab, or comparative reading essays, Mercer said, where it is required for the student to take the information presented, analyze it and critically think about it in order to find the answer.
‘These are skills that not only will be used on other tests, these are skills that kids need to master for today and the future.?
Apart from being completely online for nearly 80 percent of Michigan’s schools, and throwing in more critical thinking activities, the M-STEP differs from the Michigan Educational Assessment Program (MEAP)?’in that it tests content from the current year, rather than the year before.
Students in grades three through eight will be tested in English language arts and math, 4th’graders and 7th’graders will be tested in science, and 5th’and 8th’grade students will be assessed in social studies.
The M-STEP will also test 11th’graders using the Michigan Merit Examination, consisting of the ACT plus writing, WorkKeys, and M-STEP testing in math, science, social studies and language arts.
Michigan officially adopted the federally implemented Common Core State Standards in June 2010, although its execution was temporarily halted and restored in October 2013. With modification to its original plans, the legislature approved the Common Core Standards, but not the Smarter Balanced testing that went along with it. Smarter Balanced will provide testing in math and language arts to 17’other states and one territory in the spring.