![]() Civil rights organizations particularly want to keep the light shining on achievement for students from different backgrounds. That provision is designed to limit schools’ ability to game tests by disproportionately excluding low-performing students from their results. Federal officials excused schools from the requirement that 95% of their students take the test. Schools are not obligated to compel remote-learning students to come to campus just to take standardized tests. While benchmark assessments play a valuable role in providing a short-term picture of student growth, M-STEP and MME connect the results to a broader picture of academic performance.Ĭhallenges exist in providing a clear picture. ![]() This is especially important considering the variety of instructional delivery methods districts used during this pandemic year. Standardized test results should supplement this information and allow state and school leaders to assess how individual schools and classrooms are performing overall. The priority for Lansing lawmakers should be to ensure that benchmark test results for individual children be collected and reported to parents and teachers to inform decisions that can boost student learning. But it’s far more effective as an argument for benchmark tests than against state standardized tests. Rice argued against the federal department’s decision by noting that benchmark tests “would be more beneficial in providing parents and educators with the knowledge of where children are academically and to help target resources and supports as a result.” That comparative statement is true as far as it goes. More parents are understandably ill-equipped to offer help with newer, unfamiliar math curricula. ![]() The latter subject especially poses an added challenge for thousands of students with limited or no access to in-person classrooms. Department of Education’s waiver denial, Rice fell back on the state’s earlier decision to require districts give out one of several different national benchmark assessments to track student progress in reading and math. While the state’s testing system is less than perfect, especially as administered this year, the value of preserving a long-term picture of school and student performance justifies administering them this year. Students in grades three through eight throughout the state have begun taking the M-STEP and 11th graders are taking the Michigan Merit Examination again after last year’s hiatus, contrary to State Superintendent Michael Rice’s hopes. Federal officials recently upset Michigan’s education chief by turning down a request to skip standardized tests for a second straight year. ![]()
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