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As Kids Age, Math Scores Slide on the MEAP Test: Special Programs, Teacher Training Could Aid Students

Posted on: Friday, 10 March 2006, 06:00 CST

By Lori Higgins and Peggy Walsh-Sarnecki, Detroit Free Press

Mar. 10--Most Michigan students did well on the MEAP exams taken last fall, but the scores released Thursday reveal some troubling news for a state bent on requiring more math of high school students: Achievement in the critical subject worsens as students get older.

This year's scores can't be compared with those from previous years because the tests changed considerably to accommodate new standards and a federal requirement that tests be given at more grade levels.

Still, the scores provide a snapshot of how well third- through eighth-graders met state expectations for what they should learn.

And in math, that picture isn't bright.

Eighty-seven percent of third-graders scored at the top two levels, considered passing. But the percentage of students who passed consistently dropped in higher grades, to just 63% passing at the eighth-grade level.

"The need for higher math proficiency is there because our world is becoming a lot more math-based, and it's important for our children to have the math skills for the technological positions that are out there," Karin Scheiber, whose children attend Grosse Ile Township Schools, said Thursday.

"The question is: Are we teaching toward the MEAP, or are we working on improving our children's math skills?"

The scores should be no surprise to Michigan educators.

Nationwide, there is evidence that student achievement -- especially in math -- drops off while children are in middle school. On the National Assessment of Educational Progress -- the only test given in all 50 states and the District of Columbia -- 38% of fourth-graders were proficient at math in 2005, compared with 29% of eighth-graders.

It's a problem Michigan must solve if its students are to meet tougher high school graduation requirements. Several proposals in the Legislature would require students to take four years of high school math, including algebra I, geometry and algebra II, possibly beginning with the class of 2010.

"Our kids, at that age level of 9 to 14, are crashing," Jim Ballard, executive director of the Michigan Association of Secondary School Principals, said Thursday. "Is it the teaching? Could be. Is it that Mom and Dad don't care? Could be. Is it that they're too busy playing games; they don't see the interest? That could be, too."

One solution may be to create more programs like one the Macomb Intermediate School District offers to middle school math teachers, giving them new and different ways to teach higher-level math.

That training has been popular, said Gayle Green, chief academic officer for the district. The need for that class became evident when curriculum experts in the county saw achievement slipping in middle school math students.

The reason: By the time students reach the middle school level, math classes require more abstract thinking.

"If we're going to teach it to all kids -- kids who might not naturally be abstract learners -- we need a variety of teaching methods," Green said Thursday.

The bottom line, said Kathleen Straus, president of the State Board of Education: "We have to learn how to teach math more effectively."

At Detroit Public Schools, the emphasis will be on giving students who need help in math more attention, said Juanita Clay Chambers, chief academic officer for the district.

"At this point, our kids need additional support after school, in summer school and Saturdays," she said.

The district has two math-intervention programs -- one specifically for middle school students -- that help kids who are having trouble learning. The plan now, Chambers said, is to evaluate whether those programs are working and decide what needs to be changed.

Contact LORI HIGGINS at 248-351-3694 or lhiggins@freepress.com. Staff writers Jocelyn Faniel-Heard, Chastity Pratt and Victoria Turk contributed to this report.

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Copyright (c) 2006, Detroit Free Press

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Source: Detroit Free Press

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