9486 in the collection
Kids Must Retake MEAP
Some of the 260,000 fifth- and sixth-graders across the state must
retake the the writing portion of the Michigan Educational Assessment
Program (MEAP) test, a state official confirmed.
The situation was brought on Monday when Hunt Elementary School
officials gave Citizen Patriot staff writer Chad Livengood permission
to interview students about the test.
During those interviews, Livengood asked about the writing questions
on the test. Livengood was not told that doing so was off-limits, he
said.
(Read
Chad's statement here.)
The student answered and the response
was
printed in the Citizen Patriot, thereby leaving the potential that
students across the state who have yet to take the test could receive
the questions in advance.
Jackson Public Schools officials declined to comment.
All students statewide must take the same test. It is uncertain how
many students have taken the writing test so far, said an official
from the Michigan Department of Education.
Regardless, this situation compromised the integrity of the MEAP
test, said department spokesman Martin Ackley.
For more on this story, visit
mlive.com/citpat Friday or
pick up Friday's Citizen Patriot.
THE REPORTER"S STATEMENT IS BELOW
As many have already heard, my story in Tuesday's paper,
"Testing
Time: Students start MEAP testing," has triggered the Department of
Education to recall 260,000 MEAP writing exams for fifth- and-sixth graders.
The story discloses the writing prompt questions for both grades.
Jackson Public Schools is under investigation for what the state
calls "a breech of test security."
I have issued the following statement regarding this story and my role in it:
MEAP STORY STATEMENT from Chad Livengood, Staff Writer, Jackson
Citizen Patriot, October 11, 2007:
On Monday, October 8 I was assigned to write a story about the first
day of the three-week Michigan Educational Assessment Program (MEAP)
exam period.
After a possible story at Bennett Elementary School fell through, I
called Hunt Elementary Principal Mary Jo Raczkowski-Shannon to see if
I could come by to write a story about MEAP testing in her building.
Raczkowski-Shannon said she would get back with me to see if any
teacher were testing in the afternoon, as it was already past 10 a.m.
(Most teachers test 8 a.m. to 10 a.m.)
She called back and told me teacher Tracey Lowder was behind and
would be testing his children from noon to 12:35 p.m. and that I
could come by to talk with Mr. Lowder and the kids then.
I told her a photographer would come by during the test, but only
shoot photos of the kids testing through the window (a state rule I
knew we needed to follow). She agreed.
(I later found out from Mr. Lowder that he invited the photographer,
Jennifer Harnish, into his class to take photos of the children just
before they started. These photos were published on A1 and A3 of
Tuesday's paper).
When I arrived at Hunt Elementary at about 12:30 p.m., I followed
typical protocol and signed in at the front desk, said hi to Ms.
Raczkowski-Shannon and asked for directions to Mr. Lowder's classroom.
When I arrived at Mr. Lowder's classroom at about 12:35 p.m., the
door was open and many of the children were talking and Mr. Lowder
was at his desk. I assumed the test was over, but then I saw some
students still taking the test.
I said "hi" to Mr. Lowder, of whom I have met previously and spoken
to for past stories. But I said I would step outside while the
students took the test. I then went back in the hallway and looked at
some photos and profiles tapped to the window of the student's in
this 5th/6th grade gifted and talented class.
Mr. Lowder came out in the hall and we talked mostly about how he
teaches differential learning models for his advanced students
because I have been wanting to write about the program for a while. I
asked him if I could talk to a couple of students after the test. He
said that OK.
I wasn't given any guidelines on what questions were off limits.
Mr. Lowder then went back in the classroom and reminded the two
students that time was running out. He gave the class instructions on
how we would dismiss them for a bathroom/water break. And then most
of the students began to be dismissed.
After most of the students had left the classroom, I walked back in
and stood near the door and Lowder struck up a conversation with some
of the students as the two students continued to take the test. I
thought it was odd he was letting me in the classroom and letting the
kids chat among themselves while kids were taking the test.
But given my knowledge that Mr. Lowder is an 11-year veteran teacher
(with known aspirations of being a principal), I figured it must be
OK for me to be in the classroom during testing.
Lowder then asked one student what writing prompt did he have: the
person he was thankful for or how to be in a group or on a team? The
child, a fifth grader, corrected Mr. Lowder saying fifth graders had
the question about someone "you were thankful for" and sixth graders
had the other question. I wrote down what they were saying, but
understood Mr. Lowder may have mixed up which students have what
tests because he teaches two separate grade levels.
Mr. Lowder then asked the same student how did he do?
"I think I did good," the child responded.
"You think you did good?" Lowder responded. "You're supposed to know
you did good. We aced this."
I wrote all this down because I interpreted this as part of Lowder's
teaching/coaching style. He's Jackson High School's men's basketball coach.
After that, I walked back into the hall to catch a couple of students
to talk to them about both the MEAP and being in Mr. Lowder's class,
which include more interactive learning models. I was hoping to kill
two birds with one stone by getting their thoughts about the MEAP
test and the class structure for a future story.
The students were sixth-grader Eric Vinton, 11, and James Ransom, 10,
the fifth grader I used for the first two paragraphs of my October
9th story, "Testing Time: Students start MEAP testing."
I asked them how the test was going and they both said fine. I tried
to ask them about if it was stressful being under a timed format, but
like most kids, they didn't have much to say.
I then asked them about the writing test and they both confirmed with
me what Mr. Lowder and the other student had said were the essay questions.
Ransom told me he wrote about his mom. I decided I could use Ransom
for my story and thanked them for their time.
As I was finishing up my short interview, a female paraprofessional
walking in the hall with other children stopped to thank me for
coming by and writing about the importance of MEAP testing. Her name
escapes me.
Before I could talk to another student, Mr. Lowder came out and told
me he just found there was going to be a fire alarm drill any minute
and apologized that he would have to cut this short.
I told him no problem, knowing I had the basis for my story, which I
wanted to do on the high stakes of this year's writing exam (14 out
of 20 Jackson-area school districts scored below the state average in
fourth grade writing last year, making improvement for fifth graders
like Ransom vital to meet federal improvement mandates). We shook
hands and I left.
I stopped in the office to chat with the principal, Ms.
Raczkowski-Shannon, and find out how many Adequate Yearly Progress
(AYP) ethnic, racial and special-needs subgroups the school has to
show testing progress in annually. She had a secretary call a teacher
who tracks that information and they relayed the answer I needed.
I left the school around 1 p.m. and returned to work to write the story.
I feel bad about the problems this simple feature story has caused.
I apologize for any problems this story created, but I'm not an
expert on MEAP rules and I rely heavily on school officials to tell
me what the classroom access boundaries are.
Chad Livengood
Staff Writer
Jackson Citizen Patriot
clivengood@citpat.com
517-768-4918
THE ORIGINAL STORY PRINTED IN THE JCP
http://www.mlive.com/news/citpat/index.ssf?/base/news-22/1192041303272970.xml&coll=3
memorable quote from this article:
Last year's fourth-graders in 14 of 20 area school districts had
writing scores below the state average, according to results released
in January.
To ease the tension of testing, schools often provide snacks and
bottled water on test days or have MEAP kickoff events.
Hunt had a ``High School Musical'' look-alike contest among the
children on Friday with the theme ``We're all in this together.''
At Jackson's Bennett Elementary School, teachers created a ``racing
into victory lane'' bulletin board outside third-grade classrooms and
gave all of the children matching shirts for Monday's first tests.
— Chad Livengood
Jackson Citizen Patriot
2007-10-11
INDEX OF OUTRAGES
Pages: 380
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