Center for Charter Schools director says teachers key to improving student test scores

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Students in Michigan are performing at lower levels than students in other states, according to a report by the Midwest chapter of The Education Trust, a national education reform organization.

Mary Kay Shields, interim director of the Center for Charter Schools at Central Michigan University, said teacher performance played into the outcome.

“It’s no doubt teachers are the key, whether or not a child succeeds clearly is based on whether or not you have a good teacher,” she said. “CMU absolutely understands that without good teachers you cannot have the level of expertise needed for that child to succeed.”

The federal No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 requires all states to have a form of academic assessment for students. In Michigan, the assessment for students is the Michigan Education Assessment Program, which all students in elementary and middle school are required to take once a year.

The threshold for MEAP proficiency has been lowered so students are considered competent, but would not pass the National Assessment of Educational Progress if tested.

“In the past the MEAP test was considered a very challenging test, but it sounds like the scores needed to pass the MEAP test may have been lowered so that it does not look like we have as many failing students as we do,” said Linda Boyd, principal of Fancher Elementary School, 801 S. Kinney Ave.

The Grand Rapids Press reported the Michigan Board of Education will discuss a proposal to raise thresholds for determining proficiency for both the MEAP and the Michigan Merit Exam from this month. The suggestion came from the Department of Education in January.

The report also said income-levels play no role in a student’s academic performance in Michigan. Students who come from high and low-income households are not meeting the same educational standards when compared to students of high and low-income households of other states.

Policy Analyst for Education Trust Anna Rowan said there is a “really interesting” initiative taking hold across the country called the Common Score Standard.

“State leaders, educators and governors have come together to realize that it’s inefficient to have these 50 set of state test,” she said. “We want to identify a set of standards that go across K-12 so that all students across the country are being taught at high levels so that we don’t have students in one state who are very well prepared and have high standards set for them and then students in another state who aren’t as lucky.”