I have a few links for the following post.
The subject of all these articles is the MEAP retake. On October 9th and story ran in the Jackson Citizen Patriot that disclosed the writing topics for the 5th and 6th grade MEAP test. The state superindendent of Public Instruction Michael Flanagan, says that the test needs to be fair to all students. What does being fair mean? It means that all 5th and 6th graders throughout the entire state must take the writing portion of the MEAP again.
All of this because an article was published that gave away some of the topics on the writing test. One of the articles that I read gives the example that all writing tests aren’t even taken on the same day in Michigan, so who’s to say that these 5th and 6th graders aren’t dialing and making cross state phone calls to help out their other friends? Being that tests in the past weren’t taken on the same day does that make them invalid, because there was a possibility that these elementary school students had a complex underground network of shuffiling answers? I am also curious as to how many 5th and 6th graders across the state read the Jackson Citizen Patriot. How many of these conniving students looked over this article with their hearty breakfeast of Captian Crunch and Leggo Waffles?
I wonder if maybe it’s just a bit ridiculous to think that this article is a complete breach of the MEAP test? It seems ludicrous to spend thousands and thousands of dollars of the states money to retake this section of the test. It doesn’t make sense, it’s a waste of money. Especially since the reason the state is retaking this test doesn’t make sense. I am willing to wager that the majority of these 5th and 6th graders don’t care enough to make the effort to search this article out, read it, and then guess as to what the actual questions are on the test, being that the article only gave topics.
This is, as one article states an “overreaction”. There is no point in wasting the time and money on this retake. Also has the state considered the extra time this will take away from the students courses? Teachers and students struggle enough as it is with the MEAP why make them waste more of their time on it?
2 responses so far ↓
1
Jenny
// Dec 4, 2007 at 5:33 am
Yikes. I can see how this issue can cause a lot of hullaballoo. Standardized testing is, by nature, standard, so I can see the point of the leaders who called for the retake. I would hate to be a kid who didn’t get an advantage and was adversely affected.
This leads to the question ‘WERE any kids adversely affected?’ Like you said, come on, how many kids even read the newspaper, but even for those who did- what’s the difference? How much advantage is there for that kind of thing? The still had to do all actual writing for the test during the time period (and without supplemental materials).
I think this issue could lead to a discussion about how we test writing. Why not release a topic ahead of time? Why all the secrecy?
2
A Finely Crafted Run-on Sentence » Community
// Dec 4, 2007 at 6:27 am
[...] Comment 4 [...]
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