Herald Palladium MEAP Article

Area schools score well on MEAP math but writing skills lag
By DAVID WARFIELD
H-P Staff Writer
Area school districts learned this week how they match up against the rest of the state, as the Michigan Department of Education re­leased this school year’s ele­mentary and middle school MEAP scores.
Roundly beating state av­erages at the top of the list were Mattawan, Lakeshore and St. Joseph schools. Ben­ton Harbor, Covert and Eau Claire schools struggled well below state proficiency stan­dards in most areas.
The Michigan Educational Assessment Program tests students in reading, writing and mathematics in grades 3­8. Fifth- and eighth-graders are also tested in science, and sixth-graders in social stud­ies.
The results are from the 2007 MEAP exams taken in October.
MEAP scores are a part of what determines Adequate Yearly Progress, a measure of academic progress from year to year. Under the fed­eral No Child Left Behind law, schools that persistently fail to meet AYP face NCLB sanctions.
The Michigan Department of Education reported this year’s statewide math scores improved in all but fifth grade.
Eighth grade saw a jump in science and reading, while writing improved at the third-, fifth-, seventh- and eighth-grade levels.
Still, writing scores lag somewhat behind other sub­jects both locally and state­wide, especially in the earlier grades. Only 45 percent of Michigan fourth-graders met or exceeded state standards on writing tests this year.
St. Joseph Schools Curric­ulum Director Craig Hubble said this is because school officials have had little time to adjust to shifting stan­dards.
Writing scores have looked this way for many years, he said, because until several years ago the state changed how it measures proficiency every few years.
“It’s a very subjective score to begin with,” he said. “Schools haven’t had a con­sistent number of years to work on what the state is ex­pecting.”
 Wide gaps in verbal ability among young children tend to level out with age, he said. That also creates a more even picture by eighth grade.
Local results
Some area schools showed significant improvement over their 2006 MEAP scores.
Sixth-, seventh- and eighth­ graders at Berrien Springs Middle School beat the 2006 marks in most areas.
The biggest gains came in eighth grade, where reading proficiency improved by 17.6 percent, writing by 3.2 per­cent, math by 9.3 percent and science by 15.3 percent.
Principal Ryan Pesce said a number of literacy and behav­ioral intervention programs at the school have given indi­vidual students the extra push needed for success.
“As a staff, we are certain that things we’re doing are helping,” he said. “Teachers can basically tell you, by the student, what they need to work on.
“We just have a very aca­demic, goal-oriented build­ing. The students performed better because they wanted to.”
The programs were only put in place this year, he said.
School officials are hoping 2008 brings more dramatic improvements.
Berrien Springs third-grad­ers scored slightly lower overall than the 2006 class, fifth-graders significantly lower, but fourth-, sixth- and seventh-graders made mod­erate gains.
All of Bridgman Elemen­tary’s third-grade math stu­dents scored at or above state standards on the math exam. They were the sole group in The Herald-Palladi­um survey to achieve 100 percent proficiency in a sub­ject.
Coloma students improved over last year’s scores in 14 areas across all grades and subjects. Scores dropped in five areas and stayed basi­cally steady in two.
“I see some improvements going on,” said Scott Pauley, principal of Coloma Middle School. “Overall, it looks like we’re moving up.”
Countryside Academy in Benton Harbor saw scores all over the board, from a high of 97.3 percent proficiency in third-grade reading to a low of 50 percent proficiency in sixth-grade social studies.
In many areas, the school saw double-digit fluctuations from 2006. Sixth-grade math went up 16.3 percent, from 51.3 to 67.6 percent profi­ciency, while social studies in the same grade dropped from 65.8 to 50 percent.
Lyn Sperry, elementary school principal at Country­side Academy, said the fluc­tuations come from having a small sample size of test-tak­ers.
“We are a small school,” she said, “so a few students can make a big difference.”
Countryside has about 500 students from grades K-12. Because all attend through schools of choice, it means many are coming and going from year to year. This also makes the scores less predict­able, she said.
Countryside has seen steadily rising scores over its 11 years of operation, Sperry said, especially in combined writing and reading.
Countryside far outper­formed its neighboring char­ter schools, the Mildred C. Wells Academy and Benton Harbor Charter School.
Benton Harbor Charter School tested below state av­erages in all areas but third­ grade writing. Still, real im­provements are visible. This year’s eighth-grade class more than doubled the per­centage of students testing at or above proficiency in writ­ing and math.
Contact David Warfield at dwarfield@TheH-P.com.<BR< A>>

John Madill / H-P staff
A group of Berrien Springs Middle School students stands behind teachers (from left) Kimber Sotnyk (language arts), Gheresa McEachrane (special education) and Iris Vergara (English). Principal Ryan Pesce credits the teachers with a big role in the success the school has had in raising MEAP scores. A fourth teacher who helped in the effort but missed the photo is reading specialist Angie Geis.