DOCUMENT' RESUME

ED 109 232 TM 004 693

AUTHOR Huyser, Robert, J.; And Others

TITtE Educational Assessment: The Michigan Plan.
PUB \DATE 75
NOTE 20p.; Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the
American Educational Research Association'
(Washington, D.C., March 30- April 3, 1975)

EDRS PRICE MF-$0.76 HC-$1.58 PLUS POSTAGE

DESCRIPTORS Academic Achievement; AchieveMent Tests; Basic
Skills; Decision Making; *EducatiOnal_Assessment;
*Educational Objectives; Educational Resources;
Elementary Education; Grade 4; Grade 7; Mathematics;
7 Reading; *State Programs; *Student Evalwationl
Student Needs; *Testing Programs
IDENTIFIERS *Michigan Educational Assessment Program'
1

ABSTRACT
The Michigan Educational Assessawnt Program an
contribution to ti i provement of education in the state are
describeeinthis report. The Program provides local and state
educational decision-makers with necessary information-on human and _ -,----

financial resources and student attainment of sets of performance -

objectives thought to be necessary for-students in the state. The
educational assessment provides data useful in determining specific
areas of academic need in the basic skills for individual students,
classroomi, schools, and the entire state: The MichiganEducational
Assessient Program is being improved and expanded to provide even
better informational services to the state's educational system in.
the future. More complete testing of all-learning areas will be done
in future years and the program will be expanded to include grades
one, four, seven, ten, and twelve. The ultim4te goal of the Michigan
Educational Assessment Program is to help, assure that all Michigan
*pupils will attain in the basic skills. (AuthoF/DEP)

,f

****************************************** ****************************
* Documents acquired by ERIC include ma y informal unpublished
.

* materials not.available from other sources: ERIC makes every effort *

* to obtain the best copy available. nevertheless, items of marginal *
* reproducibil41,are often encountered and/this affects the quality *
* of.the microfiche And hardcopy reproductions ERIC makes available *
* via the ERIC Document Reproduction Service (EDRS). EDRS'' is not
* responsible for the quality of the original document. Reproductions *
* supplied by EDRS are toe best that can be made from the original. *
***********************************************************************
 -7-

Students Included in the Program

At the fourth and seventh grade levels, almost all students in

participating schools are tested. The only exceptions are: (1)"certain

,,-
mentally handicapped students and (2) other students who the Local School

District Assessment Coordinator felt would be completely unable to cope psycho-

logically with competitive nature of an assessment test. All total, approximately

320,000 fourth and seventh graders take the reading and mathematics tests

each year.

In addition to the public school students tested, about 16,000

non-public school seventh graders were included in the program. Testing

of non-public seventh graders is supported under special provisions of the

Elementary and Secondary Education Act, Title III.

The first grade assessment effort in 1974-75, however, was different

than that of the fourth and seventh grade, since this was an attempt to

gather data on an experimental set of tests. Instead of testing every

pupil, a statewide sampling of pupils was used. Even so, because of the

sampling design, about 70,000 first graders participated.

11
 FOREWORD

Since its beginnings in 1969, the Michigan Educational

Assessment Program (MEAP) has developed into a program

which supplies information to decision-makers at all levels,

from the individual parent to the state legislature. As might

be expected from such a large scale effort, the MEAP has had

an exciting history of discovery and change--for example, the

change in 1973-74 from norm-referenced to objective-referenced

testing. In addition, during these six years, the existence of

the state educational assessment program has itself encouraged

educators to change--to reexamine their teaching methods and

materials, to improve their student testing programs, and to

improve their ability to use data to make decisions about school

programs and improvements.

Thanks are due to those Michigan educators and other citizens

who assisted in the development of the performance objectives

which form the basis of the objective-referenced tests and to the

Michigan educators who developed the tests. The leadership of

the State Board of Education in initially proposing and actively

supporting the program is to be commended; as are the Governor and

Legislature for their continued support.

The assessment program was designed and administered by the

Research, Evaluation, and Assessment Services, Michigan Department

of Education, with the assistance of the Measurement Research Center,

Iowa City, Iowa, and the advice of the Research, Evaluation, and

Assessment Services Advisory Council.

This report, which describes the 1974-75 educational assessment

and plans for the future, was written by the staff of the MEAP.

Questions and/or comments about this report may be directed to the

Supervisor, Michigan Educational Assessment Program, Michigan Department

of Education, Box 420, Lansing, Michigan 48902.

John W. Porter
Superintendent of
Public Instruction

4
 INTRODUCTION

1969, the State Board of Education initiated the Michigan

Educational Assessment Program in an effort to provide much-needed data

about student achievement in the state's schools. Despite the fact that

education is constitutionally the responsibility of the state government,

prior to 1969 there was no reliable information available on the extent to

which students in the various local school diitricts were learning the

basic skills. The state assessment program was begun to help fill this

need.

Simply stated, the state assessment program asked the question,

"How are our students doing compared with what we want them to know?"

To answer the question, statewide testing of fourth and seventh graders

was begun and was directed primarily toward readilicand mathematics.

In beginning an assessment program, one has to make some assumptions

about what is being taught. The Michigan Department of Education assumed

that the texts, instructional materials, and achievement tests used in

Michigan schools reflected fairly well the content areas and could be used

as a basis for the new assessment tests. Standardized, norm-referenced

tests were subsequently developed and became a part of the educational

assessment effort.

However, in 1970, a number of local school district officials

challenged the use of standardized, norm-referenced tests as good indicators

of what was being taught. They also questioned the instructional utility

of the single summary scores being reported by the assessment program.

Thus, beginning in 1970, the State Board of Education instructed

the staff to begin a clear definition of educational goals and student

5
 -2-

performance expectations in the academic areas. Citizens, educators,

students, and Department of Education staff were all involved in

determining specifically what wills children should attain in Michigan

schools. This process was based on the assumption that these people

could--independently of any set of texts or instructional materials- -

define common goals and objectives for Michigan children.

The result of this prOcess was adoption of The Common Goals of

Michigan Education and publication of Student Performance Objectives in

some ten instructional areas for kindergarten through grade nine. The

current tests used in the Michigan Educational Assessment Program are

based on these learner objectives in reading and mathematics. However,

although there are twenty-two educational goals for Michigan, the state

!assessment program as it is presently designed basically seeks to address

(only the following three goals:

1) Basic Communication and Mathematics Shills

2) Sciences, Arts and Humanities

3) Physical and Mental Well-Being

To summarize, the Michigan Educational Assessment Program was

begun to provide needed information on the extent to which Michigan students

were achieving in school. Early versions of the program used tests which

were based on an analysis of goals and objectives embedded in texts used

in Michigan schools. Current versions of the tests are designed to match

goals and objectives which were developed as clear statements of intent for

the schools of the state. The following sections of this report describe the

scope of the program, the manner in which it assesses student attainment

of educational goals, and the information it produces.

 PROGRAM OBJECTIVES

The first objective of the MEAP is to provide the State Board

of Education, the Executive Office, the Legislature, and citizens with

data describing the levels of student basic skills attainment in math

and reading, changes in those levels over time, and other relevant

descriptive data about each of Michigan's schools and school districts.

Given quality information about schools, these people are capable of

making better decisions about school resources and operation.

The assessment program annually analyzes and reports descriptive

data about each K-12 school district on twenty-two different variables

tech as basic skills educational achievement, racial ethnic minority

status, student drop-out rate, pupil-teacher ratio, etc. These data

are gathered, analyzed, Ind reported in such a way that it will be

possible to determine yearly levels and changes in these levels as

time progresses.

The second objective of the program is to provide local educators

with specific information about the levels of basic skills educational

attainment of students and other relevant descriptive data for their

own schools and school districts. While the provision of data to local

educators has always been a feature of the assessment program, the

1974-75 MEAP is continuing an effort begun in 1973-74 to concentrate

on this dimension through the provision of test data for specific

learning objectives. These test results are provided for each fourth

and seventh grade student, each classroom school and district.

-3-

7
 -4-

These data can be used as a basis for initial determination of

strengths and weaknesses in individual pupil instructional programs

and the more general curricula. More extensive data gathering and

analysis may be needed, but the assessment program data can serve as

a beginning point for program improvement.

The third objective of the Michigan Educational Assessment

Program is to make available to parents through the local schools

reliable information on fourth and seventh grader's attainment of

basic math and reading skills. It is assumed that every parent has

an interest in his or her child's progress in school, that such interest

is in itself beneficial to the child, and that parents have the right

to know how well the child is attaining a basic education. The program,

therefore, makes available to the local.school principal and teacher

detailed and reliable test information on the attainment of selected

reading and mathematics skills. The Michigan Department of Education

encourages the local school staff to share this information with parents.

The objectives of the Michigan Educational Assessment Program are

directed to providing relevant information to people at all levels of

educational decision-making. With this effort, the Department of Education

hopes to improve the education of all Michigan students, particularly

those who are most in need of special state funds to improve their basic

skills.

8
 SCOPE OF PROGRAM

Learning Areas

As mentioned in the INTRODUCTION, the Michigan Educational

Assessment Program began by addressing educational goals which were not

explicitly stated but were embedded in current teaching materials. While

this was the basis for determining student needs in the past, resources

subsequently were provided by the Department of Education to generate a

specific set of educational goals and learner objectives in answer to

concerns of school officials that the standardized, norm-referenced tests

then in use did not adequately reflect the curriculum of Michigan schools.

Once developed, these goals and objectives became the basis for the

state assessment program to begin assessing student needs with objective-

referenced tests.

The Michigan Educational Assessment Program basically addresses

only three of The Common Goals of Michigan Education. These three, mentioned

previously, have been divided into ten instructional subdivisions:

1) Communications Skills

2) Mathematics

3) Science

4) Art

5) Music

6) Social Studies

7) Physical Education

8) Health Education

9) Foreign Language

10) Preprimary

-5-
9
---,Specific sets of instructional objectives have been constructed for each

of these ten academic areas.

The Michigan Educational Assessmen't Program at the present time

addresses communication skills (specifically, reading), mathematics, and

the preprimary level. In each case, the Program only tests a subset of

the minimal reading and mathematics performance objectives. In addition,

developmental work is progressing for assessment in the remaining areas.

Of these ten areas, only mathematics and communications skills

are programmed for every pupil testing--i.e., every pupil at certain grade

levels will take a common set of test questions and an individual report

of results will be provided to the local school. The other areas are

proposed to be conducted on a sampling basis.

Grade Levels

The Michigan Educational Assessent Program, since its beginning

in 1968, has tested fourth and seventh graddbstudents in all of the

state's 531 K-12 public school districts. The fourth grade level was

selected because it is the end of the very important primary years and

?le seventh grade because it is the end of the elementary sequence.

First grade pupils were tested in 1974-75 for the first time in

a statewide sampling procedure designed to develop a valid and reliable

assessment of the preprimary objectives. Assessment at this age level

is thought to be important because by law it is the beginning of the

child's formal education years.

At each grade level, the assessment tests were administered in late

September of the school year. This was done to permit the prompt return

of the data within about six weeks.

10
 -7-

Students Included in the Program

At the fourth and seventh grade levels, almost all students in

participating schools are tested. The only exceptions are: (1)'certain

mentally handicapped students and (2) other students who the ,Local School

District Assessment Coordinator felt would be completely unable to cope psycho-

logically with competitive nature of an assessment test. All total, approximately

320,000 fourth and seventh graders take the reading and mathematics tests

each year.
...

In addition to the public school students tested, about 16,000

non-public school seventh graders were included in the program. Testing

of non-public seventh graders is supported under special provisions of the

Elementary and Secondary Education Act, Title III.

The first grade assessment effort in 1974-75, however, was different

than that of the fourth and seventh grade, since this was an attempt to

gather data on an experimental set of tests. Instead of testing every

pupil, a statewide sampling of pupils was used. Even so, because of the

sampling design, about 70,000 first graders participated.

11
 INFORMATION GENERATED

Resource Measures

In addition to the achievement measures in reading and

mathematics, the Michigan Educational Assessment Program analyzes

and reports information on several other measures. These measures

describe some of the school conditions which influence the educa-

tional program and help in the interpretation of results. The

human resources data shown in FIGURE I are collected and reported for

every school,Ischool district, and the entire state. The dis-

trict financial resources shown in FIGURE 2 are reported for

every district in the state.

FIGURE I

HUMAN RESOURCE VARIABLES

1. Professional Instructional Staff per 1,000 Pupils

2. Teachers per 1,000 Pupils

3. Average Years Teaching Experience

4. Percent of Teachers with Master's Degree or, Above

5. Average Contracted Salary per Teacher

-9- 12
 -10-

FIGURE 2

DISTRICT FINANCIAL RESOURCES

1. State Equalized Valuation per Resident Member

2. Local Revenue' per Pupil

3. State School Aid per pupil

4. K-12 Instructional Expense per Pupil

5. Elementary Instructional Expense per Pupil

6. Total Current Operating Expense per Pupil

7. Total Operating Millage

In addition, the Program also reports the percent of

minority students for each school, district, and the state, as well

as the student dropout rate for each district and the state.

Achievement Measures

For the fourth and seventh grade reading and mathematics

assessments the tests are objective-referenced in design (i.e.,

measure each specific performance objective). The reports provided

each school district show student attainment or non - attainment of

each objective tested.

For each student who participates, an "Individual Student

Report" is produced which shows how he or she answered each test

13
question and whether-or_not each objective was attained.

For each classroom, the teacher is given a "Classroom Listing

Repo-t" which summarizes the performance of each student and a

"Classroom $ which summarizes th( class performance on each

objective.

Each school principal receives a set of the student records for

the office file and, additionally, a set of all Classroom Summaries

and a summary report for the entire school.

Local superintendents receive the data for each school building

and the entire district.

The statewide sample of first grade students in 1974-75 was

experimental. Nevertheless, each participating student, teacher, and

school received data on the objectives they tested, and state officials

received the aggregated data showing the statewide performance on

all of the included objectives.

Dissemination of Information

The major potential benefit of these data is the improvement of

educational decision-making and education in general. In order to

demonstrate the utility of the data and the means of interpreting them,

the assessment program has developed a number of methods to assist local

districts in utilizing the information once it has been received.

Included in these are interpretive manuals, filmstrips, consultative

services, briefings of local assessment coordinators, and in-depth training

workshops.

In 1974-75, assessment staff members conducted fourteen workshops

throughout the state. Workshop participants were given assistance in

reading the various report forms and interpreting the data.

14
 -12-

Guidelines and suggestions were offered by staff to aid in the proper

utilization of the data and communication of the data to citizens and

parents.

The assessment staff also routinely communicates through letters

with the district superintendents and assessment coordinators in order

to conduct the assessment program as smoothly and conveniently as

possible. Telephone communications are also encouraged.

The main goal of the dissemination activities, whether they be

workshops, interpretive manuals, filmstrips or other types of communication,

is to help all levels of decision-makers to understand and know how to use

the data properly.

15
 FUTURE PLANS

Grade Levels

As an extension of the logic which directed the assessment

program to grades one, four, and seven, current plans call for

future assessements at grades ten and twelve according to the time-

table shown in FIGURE 3.

FIGURE, 3

TENTATIVE TIMETABLE FOR EXPANSION OF THE

MICHIGAN EDUCATIONAL ASSESSMENT PROGRAM

School Year
GRADE 1973-74 1974-75 1975-76 1976-77 1977-78 1978-79

1 Pilot Pilot Pilot X X

4 X X X X X X

X X X X X X

10 Pilot Pilot X X

12 Pilot Pilot X,

Assessment at the end of ninth grade is important because itf

marks the point at which the young person is about to embark on the

senior high program, including specific vocational training or preparation

for future education at the college level.

-13-
16
 -14-

Assessment at the twelfth grade will permit a determination

of the extent to which the state's educational system has been able

to provide for the attainment of certain minimum high school competencies.

0

The skills to be tested are thought to be necessary for a smooth transition

into adulthood by high school graduates.

Preparations are underway for an experimental set of tests

to be tried out at the tenth grade level, perhaps in 1975-76. Work is

also progressing in the development of the minimum high school skills

for use in the twelfth grade assessment with possible implementation

in the next few years. These skills are being written in the areas of 1)

aesthetic-humanistic appreciation, 2) personal and family management,

3) employment skills, and 4) civic and social responsibilities.

The end result of full implementation of these plans will be

a state educational assessment program at each of the important ages

of 6, 9, 12, 15, and 18 as shown in FIGURE 4. This informational

system will then be able to assist local educators in meeting the

needs of all children and youth as they prepare for adulthood.

FIGURE 4

Michigan Department of Education

meeting the needs of all children and youth
3 6 9 12 15 18
7 r

I adulthood
O
PI
J..
Promsov E lemenury
...d.. lomat A9
0 Mame.
limner.)
Preichoo1 Sehoo7 H411.
Litool U
A
V Dollop
CDNINSth"11.2,3 0,4110"'"14,54 OHARA 7,11,4
A
Gesiw10,11,12 T A CorRinvint
14444114/4
1
:14, L c,......
intIVIIIMIOnld
RsIssienoRIRT

40,34 4 1 AR. TA L A0-10-11

IN 441121314 A'.141417 j
,....__ _..._ _....

CHILDREN YOUTH

17
 -15-

Learning Areas

Work is progressing toward fourth and seventh grade assessments

beyond the basic core of reading and mathematics objectives. Since only

a portion of these objectives is currently measured, an attempt will be

made to test a few new objectives each year.

Further, the staff of the Michigan Educational Assessment Program

and the Instructional Specialists Program in the Department are working

together to develop valid measures in academic areas beyond reading and

mathematics. In 1974-75, for example, experimental science test items were

pretested\to prepare for their possible inclusion in future assessments

on a sampling basis. Other subject areas will be treated in a similar

manner as each year passes.

Information about every student in every learning area is probably

not needed, and time constraints make the collection of such data impractical.

Therefore, future assessments will provide for a combinatior of data useful

for local teachers and data useful for state decision-makers. State

assessments other than reading and math are scheduled to be administered

on a cycling basis to permit sampling the various learning areas from year

to year.

18
 SUMMARY

The purpose of this brief report was to describe the Michigan

Educational Assessment Program and its contribution to the improve-

ment of education in the state. The Program provides local and

state educational decision-makers with necessary information on

human and financial resources and student attainment of sets of

performance objectives thought to be necessary for students in the

state.

The educational assessment provides data useful in determining

specific areas of academic need in the basic skills for individual

students, classrooms, schools, and the entire state.

The Michigan Educational Assessment Program is being improved

and expanded to provide even better informational services to the

state's educational system in the future. More complete testing of

all learning areas will be done in future years and the program will

be expanded to include grades one, four, seven, ten, and twelve.

THE ULTIMATE GOAL OF THE MICHIGAN EDUCATIONAL ASSESSMENT PROGRAM

IS TO HELP ASSURE THAT ALL MICHIGAN PUPILS WILL ATTAIN THE BASIC SKILLS.

-17-

19
 SELECTED PUBLICATIONS OF THE MICHIGAN EDUCATIONAL
ASSESSMENT PROGRAM

1973 Reports

Objectives and Procedures. Lansing, Michigan: Michigan Department

of Education, August, 1973.

Individual Student and Classroom Reports: Explanatory Materials.

Lansing, Michigan: Michigan Department of Education, 6ctober,
1973.

School and District Reports: Explanatory Materials. Lansing, Michigan:

Michigan Department of Education, October, 1973.

State Summary of Results, 1973-74. Lansing, Michigan: Michigan

Department of Education, no date.

Technical Report. Lansing, Michigan: Michigan Department of

Education, (in press).

1974 Reports

Objectives and Procedures. Lansing, Michigan: Michigan Department

of Education, August, 1974.

Individual Student and Classroom Reports: Explanatory Materials.

Lansing, Michigan: Michigan Department of Education, October,
1974.

School and District Reports: Explanatory Materials. Lansing,

Michigan: Michigan Department of Education, October, 1974.

Other

A Position Statement on Educational Accountability. Lansing, Michigan:

Michigan Department of EducatiOn, 1972.

Michi an's Educational Assessment Program: Grades to Be Assessed.

ansing, c igan: is igan Department o E ucat on, anuary,
1974.

The Common Goals of Michigan Education. Lansing, Michigan: Michigan

Department of Education, September, 1971.

20