Student scores on the state’s standardized test (M-STEP) fell statewide last year.
However, some local students continued to fare well on the test, taken last spring.
Leland Public School was ranked among the 50 public schools in the state in four of five areas of the state required testing.
“We are really proud of our staff’s hard work and our kids’ growth and achievements,” Leland Superintendent Stephanie Long said. “Our school’s success is due in large part to our small class sizes, personalized attention of teacher and support staff provide, our intervention programs, and our whole school-whole child approach.”
Years ago, students were tested less frequently. More recently, standardized tests requirements have increased dramatically.
A bagful of acronyms M-STEP, ELA, PSAT, SAT, stand for different required assessments.
Michigan’s state-wide assessment program M-STEP stands for the Michigan Student Test of Educational Progress. The M-STEP assesses Michigan Standards for English Language Arts (ELA), Mathematics, Science, and Social Studies in grades 3-8 and Science and Social Studies in grade 11. ELA is English-Language Arts.
In grades 8 and 9 students take the PSAT, which is the precursor for, SAT, an entrance exam used by most colleges and universities to make admissions decisions.
The purpose of the SAT is to measure a high school student’s readiness for college, and provide colleges with one common data point that can be used to compare all applicants.
According to the state Department of Education, Leland came in 38th overall with 56.5% of students demonstrating proficiency in all subject areas.
In Science, Leland ranked 11th with 67.5% of the 77 students proving themselves. The school came in 21rst in Social Studies with 44.7% demonstrating proficiency.
The school district ranked 34 of 50 in English/Language Arts with 62.9% of 197 students tested showing proficiency.
In 2016, the Michigan Legislature passed a law which identifies third grade students struggling with reading and writing. The law, which called for retention of third graders who failed to prove proficient, was revised in 2023 removing the retention component of the law.
However, a new law goes further to address the needs of struggling students. Senate Bill 567, will require school districts identify a “literacy coach” to take the lead in the training of teachers and staff to analyze assessment data to develop strategies for student success. Schools have until 2027 to implement the program.
“Do already do 95% of what the state is going to require,” Long said.
Locally, more about half county third graders were “proficient” in ELA.
At Glen Lake, 56.1% of third graders proved proficient. At Leland, 52.6% of new readers were proficient and Suttons Bay 45%.
No across-the-board results were available for Northport due to small class sizes. However, 56.3% of fifth graders were proficient in ELA.
And while schools are obligated to administer the tests, the efficacy of the tool is questioned.
“We have our students take the M-STEP because we are required to,” Northport Superintendent Neil Wetherbee said. “The data that comes from that test is nearly useless.”
Students take the test midspring and results aren’t available until late summer or early fall.
“This isn’t timely enough to be overly useful,” Wetherbee said.
Additionally, the results are primarily pass/fail based on arbitrary cut scores established, sometimes retroactively, by the Michigan Department of Education, Wetherbee said.
“We have other local sources of data that are timely, as in immediate, and targeted down to the child-standard,” he said.
Northport uses a multitiered system of support to process and review student data. These team meetings occur every six weeks, which is why M-STEP data that comes out once a year and four months too late, has no value in individual student conversations.
“We have interventions in place for all elementary students reading below the 65 percentile. Some of the supports are provided by the classroom teacher and some are provided by our reading interventionist,” Wetherbee said.
The impact of the thirdgrade retention law have been negligible.
“Since its inception, I believe we’ve had only one student receive a letter from the state saying that the student was behind enough to be of concern, which we already knew.”
The strongest ELA performance in grades 3 to 8 at Glen Lake was seventh grade, with 64% of students proficient. In the same age group, more than 3/4 (77.5%) of Leland fifth graders made the grade in this subject.
At the middle school level, eighth graders statewide who took the PSAT saw vast improvement, going from 59.7% proficient or above in 2023 to 64.5% in 2024, according to MDOE.
But local students appear to need some remediation in this subject. At Glen Lake, the county’s largest school in terms of enrollment, had a profi ciency of 61.1%.
Their counterparts at Leland came in at 38.9%.
Twenty-one, point four percent of Suttons Bay’s eight graders were proficient in mathematics.
Suttons Bay teachers meet twice monthly in Professional Learning Communities to see what students need additional instruction and devise plans to address deficiencies.
While standardized tests are valuable in measuring student proficiency, there’s another test that many see as a better assessment tool.
The NWEA (Northwest Evaluation Association) test is given to students in the fall, winter and spring with results in nearly real time, allowing teachers to help students well before a deficiency could become a real problem.
