MEAP Tests Unfair?
by MADDIE J
November 6, 2009
We're all familiar with the MEAP test; ever since third grade we've dreaded those grueling test weeks in October, the monotonous drone of teachers reading off the same sheet of directions to you over and over again. We've almost memorized it by now; 'You may not use spelling books, dictionaries, grammar books, thesauruses, or any other reference books to aid you on this test'. We all have this big idea that it's a huge, important test (which it is, don't get me wrong). It's the standard of where we should be right now, or 'how smart we should be'. But is it really effectively assessing our prowess?
The MEAP, or the Michigan Education Assessment Program, is a test that is required to be taken by all kids in Michigan grades 3 through 9 that assesses our progress in Math, English, Social Studies (History), and Science, the four primary core classes that are a staple in our academic environment. Many people argue that this test isn't very fair; the grades that we receive in the summer don't always reflect us in the way that we would like to be reflected. For example, a student could be an outstanding, innovative, and creative writer, but receive poor marks on the writing section for their English MEAP. Or they could be exceptionally skilled in reading, but their MEAP grades say otherwise. This has happened to lots of students, and its always confusing and upsetting when you are graded poorly on an area that you were very confident on.
The directions are more than often fairly vague on what you're supposed to be writing on the essay sections; its difficult to understand what they're really looking for. It gives you multiple suggestions on how you might write about the topic (which is usually a single word or abstract idea) but it doesn't specifically state what they expect from you. Most kids need a solid outline of what's expected from their answer to answer effectively. Also, the subjects throughout can be somewhat "random" -- (or so says Jenna M, 8th) -- and we should be able to answer these questions somewhat confidently from what we've gathered from prior knowledge. The questions range from the anatomy of cells to rock sediments in no particular order.
"I don't think the MEAP is very fair," says Jenna. "You could have been having a bad day on the days that they test you, so you might not get as good a score as you could have."
There's a lot of factors that go into test-taking; some kids get cripplingly nervous when a test looms on the horizon, and when the actual test arrives, they fall apart and blank out, forgetting everything about the material they're being tested on. Also, there are many different kinds of intelligences that can't be measured by a standardized test, like physical intelligence or creative intelligence, which isn't properly represented in the academic field. The test scores we receive back in the summer could possibly be inaccurate. There's a seriously limited range on which we're graded; essay writing and reading comprehension in the English MEAP, and just multiple choice questions in Math and Science MEAPs.
Of course, this could happen with every test we take throughout the school year, but our MEAP scores are especially important (though not as important as our SATs in high school). They measure how much we have learned in our school year. If our scores are not represented correctly, it could cast us in a completely different light as students. Kamie P, 8th, says "MEAP doesn't really grade you fairly; all they see is just the essays that you write and the answers that you bubble in, its not like they know who we are."
So is it really necessary to listen to the repetitive, droning words of the rule sheets on the MEAP? Or is there a more fair way to take a test that measures our intelligence?
by MADDIE J
November 6, 2009
We're all familiar with the MEAP test; ever since third grade we've dreaded those grueling test weeks in October, the monotonous drone of teachers reading off the same sheet of directions to you over and over again. We've almost memorized it by now; 'You may not use spelling books, dictionaries, grammar books, thesauruses, or any other reference books to aid you on this test'. We all have this big idea that it's a huge, important test (which it is, don't get me wrong). It's the standard of where we should be right now, or 'how smart we should be'. But is it really effectively assessing our prowess?
The MEAP, or the Michigan Education Assessment Program, is a test that is required to be taken by all kids in Michigan grades 3 through 9 that assesses our progress in Math, English, Social Studies (History), and Science, the four primary core classes that are a staple in our academic environment. Many people argue that this test isn't very fair; the grades that we receive in the summer don't always reflect us in the way that we would like to be reflected. For example, a student could be an outstanding, innovative, and creative writer, but receive poor marks on the writing section for their English MEAP. Or they could be exceptionally skilled in reading, but their MEAP grades say otherwise. This has happened to lots of students, and its always confusing and upsetting when you are graded poorly on an area that you were very confident on.
The directions are more than often fairly vague on what you're supposed to be writing on the essay sections; its difficult to understand what they're really looking for. It gives you multiple suggestions on how you might write about the topic (which is usually a single word or abstract idea) but it doesn't specifically state what they expect from you. Most kids need a solid outline of what's expected from their answer to answer effectively. Also, the subjects throughout can be somewhat "random" -- (or so says Jenna M, 8th) -- and we should be able to answer these questions somewhat confidently from what we've gathered from prior knowledge. The questions range from the anatomy of cells to rock sediments in no particular order.
"I don't think the MEAP is very fair," says Jenna. "You could have been having a bad day on the days that they test you, so you might not get as good a score as you could have."
There's a lot of factors that go into test-taking; some kids get cripplingly nervous when a test looms on the horizon, and when the actual test arrives, they fall apart and blank out, forgetting everything about the material they're being tested on. Also, there are many different kinds of intelligences that can't be measured by a standardized test, like physical intelligence or creative intelligence, which isn't properly represented in the academic field. The test scores we receive back in the summer could possibly be inaccurate. There's a seriously limited range on which we're graded; essay writing and reading comprehension in the English MEAP, and just multiple choice questions in Math and Science MEAPs.
Of course, this could happen with every test we take throughout the school year, but our MEAP scores are especially important (though not as important as our SATs in high school). They measure how much we have learned in our school year. If our scores are not represented correctly, it could cast us in a completely different light as students. Kamie P, 8th, says "MEAP doesn't really grade you fairly; all they see is just the essays that you write and the answers that you bubble in, its not like they know who we are."
So is it really necessary to listen to the repetitive, droning words of the rule sheets on the MEAP? Or is there a more fair way to take a test that measures our intelligence?
