DeWitt High School Michigan Merit Exam Performance Summary For DeWitt High School Juniors Assessed in Spring of 2007 Michigan Merit Exam (MME)
With the 2006-07 school year, a change was made to require all 11th grade students take the MME/ACT exam, replacing the MEAP. Students must pass math, science, reading and writing (all four) at a level 1, exceeds standards or level 2, meets standards to qualify for the MERIT scholarship at this assessment level. Social studies assessments are given but do not yet count towards the scholarship. The following scores include all eleventh grade students who took the assessments in spring of 2007 for graduation in 2008.
DeWitt High School Eleventh Grade Test Scores*
Graduating class (year of graduation) Math Reading Science Social Studies Writing ELA (Reading and Writing) Focus Areas
Overall, high school scores for eleventh grade students are significantly improved from previous performances. Efforts to analyze test scores, align the curriculum with the Michigan Merit Core Content Expectations and include increased authentic instruction and assessment have been successful. Writing instruction across all content areas must receive continued attention from all departments. High school curriculum departments must also continue efforts and professional development activities that ensure improvements to instruction in order to maintain long-lasting improvement in student achievement. For example, student writing instruction must include frequent review of basic grammar, mechanics and format skills. Increasing the required writing quality and writing for different purposes will also support students’ acquisition of mastery level writing skills. Strategies such as the following can be used to improve student performances. 1. Increased requirements for writing across all content courses. 2. Align instruction with core curriculum content expectations. 3. Daily review of basic skills. 4. Increased rigor in required writing. 5. Of particular interest is the percentage of students at level three, or just below the satisfactory bar, and also level four, those in need of remediation.
2008 78% 83% 82% 97% 71% 78%
6.
2007 70% 71% 77% 92% 63% 68%
2006 78% 94% 80% 60% 78% 90%
2005 71% 85% 84% 59% 63%
2004 70.6% 68% 75% 41.1 64.3%
* The percent of students tested is 98%
A gap analysis of these students’ performances could identify areas of weakness that curricular or course adjustments could address, particularly in the area of Writing. 7. Students must write for a purpose that stretches their thinking and promotes development of critical thinking skills. In all content areas (except social studies), the highest percentage of students placed in a level two. Efforts to shift more students up a level is required to improve scores. Students should more evenly be split between levels one and two and the numbers of students placing in levels three and four should be significantly reduced. Students placing in level three are very close to master and percentages performing satisfactory could easily improve by focusing on this population of students. The social studies sub test is not included as a component of the MERIT scholarship requirement as of yet but is soon scheduled to be incorporated and our students appear well prepared for this transition. The commitment of DeWitt High School to use data to make deliberate and strategic changes to curriculum and programming is evident in this year's scores. Continued focus should improve student performance. Identification by teacher of student performances will give important feedback to staff in order to reinforce what is working and eliminate what is not. Improvement across all content is noteworthy.