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	The Manchester Enterprise A Heritage Newspaper Weekly Publication

MEAP test scores show improvement

Writing in lower grade levels is below state average

By Edward Freundl, Heritage Newspapers

PUBLISHED: January 25, 2007

Manchester school district officials say they are pleased with the results of standardized tests that show their students surpassing state benchmarks in many subject areas.

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"Overall it looks like we did very well," said Manchester Community Schools Superintendent David Oegema.

"It looks like we exceed state standards in every subject except writing, and I'm very proud of that."

The Michigan Educational Assessment Program tests were administered in October, and the Michigan Department of Education released the results Monday.

Oegema conceded that the writing scores for Klager Elementary School are below expectations, but the students seem to rally as they reach the older grades.

"Our weakest area seems to be in writing at the elementary level, but we catch up and exceed state standards at the middle school and high school levels," he said.

Oegema said his staff has identified problem areas in previous years and concentrated on bringing those scores into acceptable ranges.

"One of our weak areas before was social studies, but our work there has been good," he said.

"We've had a lot of people working very hard to improve that, and it looks like we're doing a good job with our curriculum."

Klager Elementary School Principal John McGuire said it's difficult to compare the performance of one group of students to another from year to year.

"The test changes and the kids change," McGuire said.

He added that his staff has focused attention on addressing problem areas and making needed changes.

"We spent a lot of time on math curriculum and have seen changes in that, and we're trying to spend more time on writing," he said.

Edward Freundl is a reporter for Heritage Newspapers. He can be reached at 428-8173 or efreundl@heritage.com.