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Students Struggle With New Test; Experts Say It Will Get Better

M-Step results were released this week. That’s the new, more rigorous standardized tests that replaced the 44 year old paper MEAP test.  As expected, results show students are struggling with the new test. 

“Anytime in the past when the MEAP would change sort of a format or test version, we’d see some sort of small drop in scores, but we knew this was going, not from apples to oranges but from apples to Pick up trucks.”

That’s Forest Hills Schools Superintendent Dan Behm, saying they knew Michigan’s new test, M-STEP, or Michigan Student Test of Educational Progress would prove difficult the first time around.  He says it was a huge change and proved especially difficult for students who usually scored well.

“Those type of high achieving students really struggled with this test, because they got harder and harder questions and they never had that phenomenon before, so they had more anxiety , more fatigue.”

Overall, results show 45 to 50 percent proficiency in English Language arts across kids tested in grades 3-8 and 11.  Math scores ranged from 28 to 49 percent proficiency.  Behm says however, scores should start to improve.

“I think we’ll certainly see an upswing with the second go around in the spring, because students will be more comfortable with the format, just from the test administration standpoint,   adults will be more comfortable with the format.”

The M-Step is aligned with national Common Core education standards and put less stress on multiple choice questions and bubble sheets, instead emphasizing the measurement of critical thinking and problem solving through essays and short answer written responses.

Jennifer is an award winning broadcast news journalist with more than two decades of professional television news experience including the nation's fifth largest news market. She's worked as both news reporter and news anchor for television and radio in markets from Grand Rapids and Kalamazoo all the way to San Francisco, California.