Twenty-nine percent of eighth graders in Michigan are proficient in math. That’s according to new test results from the Michigan Educational Assessment Program – or MEAP. Proficiency levels for kids in grades three through eight also fell this year. But as Michigan Public Radio’s Laura Weber reports, the bleak results were expected.
MEAP scores are now being evaluated for so-called “college readiness,” which means the standards for proficiency are more rigorous. This year about a third of kids tested as proficient in math and about two thirds were proficient readers. Joseph Martineau with the Michigan Department of Education.
“This is a more accurate representation of how well we’re preparing students for this new economy in which we’re working,” he says.
He says he thinks these scores should serve as a wakeup call to the state. But Martineau also notes he is pleased that if the new test score standards are applied retroactively then there is an incremental improvement in proficiency this year.