By JOHN EBY

Dowagiac Daily News

Assistant Superintendent Patti Brallier and Union High Principal Paul Hartsig reviewed with the Dowagiac Board of Education Oct. 18 in the middle school cafeteria the Michigan Merit Exam (MME), the state assessment required to be taken by all 113 juniors.

It replaces MEAP.

“We’re talking about something that was done in the 2009-2010 school year,” Brallier led off. “The ACT is not due back until this summer, which makes it very difficult to build a plan off that information.”

The MME assessment consists of three parts: ACT, math, reading, writing, English and science; WorkKeys, math and reading; and Michigan items, math, social studies and science.

In addition to administering MME to 11th graders, “We do the PLAN test (with 10th graders), a precursor to the ACT. At the middle school we do another precursor to the ACT. Students can choose to take the PSAT, which is a preliminary test to the ACT. That’s something we make available to them, but students pay for that individually.”

“MME is given only in the spring,” Brallier continued. “These scores are used to determine if the high school is making its Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP), as we are required to do under No Child Left Behind. Everybody is supposed to be at 100 percent by 2014, so stay tuned.”

High school MME scores are reported as raw numbers of students — not percentages — and at four performance levels — level one, advanced; level two, proficient; level three, partially proficient; and level four, not proficient.

“We are looking for students at levels one and two,” she said. “At levels three and four, we are looking to decrease those.”

The “meat of it” Brallier arrayed in a trend chart year by year since 2007.

At levels one and two, “In three of five content areas we increased our percentage of students achieving proficiency. In two content areas, there were decreases in proficiency,” Brallier informed the school board.

At levels three and four, “In three of five content areas, we decreased in our percentage of students achieving below proficiency. In two content areas, there were increases in non-proficiency.”

At the top end, reading proficiency went up 7, from 55 to 62; math, up 4, from 45 to 49; and social studies, up 2, from 83 to 85; but in writing, down 3, from 41 to 38; and in science, down 6, from 58 to 52.

At the lower end, levels three and four reading proficiency increased 7, from 45 to 38; math moved positively 4, from 55 to 51; and social studies changed 2, from 15 to 17; but writing was -3 , 59 to 62; and science, -6, 42 to 48.

Hartsig reported on ACT. “In the past, we looked at the MME and focused on Michigan Merit curriculum. We’ve found over time that the Michigan Merit Exam is based a lot on the ACT, so this year we spent a lot of time adjusting our curriculum to match ACT benchmarks and standards. We feel ACT is tried and true curriculum that we can focus on and stay with as things around us change.”

Benchmark ACT scores, such as 18 in English, 22 in mathematics, 21 in reading and 24 in science “are what students need, on average, to be successful in college courses. For example, the ACT feels if you have an 18 in English, you’ll be successful in English composition when you take that in college,” Hartsig said.

According to Dowagiac’s ACT profile, 42 percent of students are ready for college-level coursework in English; 22 percent, math; 28 percent, reading; 11 percent, biology; and 7 percent, all four.

Hartsig showed the board with a five-year trend table that Dowagiac’s composite for 2010, 18.4 — stands three-tenths of a percentage point lower than 2009’s 18.7. Dowagiac’s composite for 2008 was 18.2 and 18.5 for 2007.

The state exceeded 19 all four years, including 19.5 percent of students meeting college readiness benchmarks for 2010.

“We’re about a point below state average at this time,” Hartsig confirmed. “Students who are pushing themselves and taking advantage of the full upper curriculum are averaging 19. Those who are not average 17 on the ACT — about a two-point difference.”

Hartsig also said, “Forty percent of our class last year enrolled at SMC.”