"It is a very dark time in education when politicians and corporate executives, who understand very little about how children learn, have imposed a profound, counter productive test on kids, schools, and teachers," claims Alfie Kohn, author and former educator. The Michigan Educational Assessment Program, otherwise known as MEAP, is not an equitable or fair method of evaluating student performance. The MEAP, established in 1969, is a standardized statewide test given to children in the 4th, 5th, 7th, 8th, and 11th grades. The MEAP scores are used by the state to measure a district's accountability, award money to schools and scholarships to students. Most seriously, the test determines whether a district is failing and could be subject to a state or local takeover.
The MEAP test says more about the conditions in which the children live, than about the quality of the education that they receive. The Free Press found through a computerized analysis of MEAP scores that factors such as poverty, single parent households and parental education, account for most of the differences between districts on the MEAP test. As the level of poverty goes up in a community, MEAP scores go down. An example being that only 49% of Detroit 4th graders passed the MEAP test compared to 84% in affluent Bloomfield Hills Pressure and stress to do well on the MEAP, is put on districts, which then filters all the way down to the students. Teachers feel pressured into using classroom time to prepare students for the MEAP. When teachers spend classroom time preparing for the MEAP, their students are not learning other fundamentals of that grade level or subject. According to Kohn, "every classroom hour teachers use to raise test scores is an hour spent not helping kids become critical, creative or curious thinkers." He goes on to say, "You can raise test scores by making people better at taking the MEAP without improving learning in a meaningful way."
Due to the extreme pressure to have students perform well on the test, some teachers have resorted to cheating, to insure that their students get better scores on the MEAP. According to the Free Press, on the 2001 school year MEAP, a record number of 67 schools were accused of cheating. Inappropriate practices were eventually found at 21 of those schools. Because of these numbers, the state Treasury Department is devising policy and procedures to investigate future cases of cheating.
Teachers believing that they must devise inappropriate practices, students stressing over a test that will not even go on their report card: what does this reveal about the MEAP test and what can be done to solve the problem? One excellent solution to the problem of the MEAP test is to develop a state wide required curriculum. This curriculum would help to reduce the impact of the present MEAP. "The best kind of exam is based on a set curriculum," says Diane Ravitch a research professor at New York University, "Everyone decides what they want children to learn, they teach that in class, then everyone is tested on it." In this way, students would be given a fair chance to do their personal best on the MEAP test. Under the present testing structure, the children that live in poorer communities are not given the same chance to do well on the MEAP. Some children in poorer districts could be capable and intelligent students. But, they are not given the same playing field on which to learn. A set mandatory state curriculum would insure that the MEAP is testing the children not the conditions of the community.
A mandatory statewide curriculum has been found to be successful in a few states. A good example is the state of Texas. According to Rand, a non profit research institution. Since 1990, when Texas' statewide test was first given to measure the state's mandatory curriculum, students have achieved extraordinary gains in reading and math. This success has been attributed to their adoption of a statewide mandatory curriculum. With the statewide curriculum in one hand and students with the urge to learn in the other, there will be a better playing field for all, regardless what area or economic status they represent.
Children are being misrepresented. One parent is losing custody of their child to the other parent because of the district in which they live. Realtors can sell houses in one area for thousands of dollars more than a comparable house in another district. This MEAP problem must be solved and a new mandatory statewide curriculum is the answer. Let's help all districts do well on this test. Let's make a fair playing field so all districts can experience success, not just those that have the proper conditions and upscale resources. Let's make the MEAP a fair and equitable test for everyone.