How Do Farmington Schools MME, ACT Results Compare?

Farmington Schools standardized test results outpace the statewide and Oakland Schools average, but fall behind some neighboring districts.

While Farmington Schools performs above state average when it comes to the percentage of students meeting benchmarks on the ACT college entrance exam, less than 30 percent of students met state benchmarks. By comparison, nearly 58 percent of Bloomfield Schools students hit the state mark, the highest rate among neighboring district scores reviewed by Patch. Southfield's 2.1 percent ranked lowest on our list.  Local results for the ACT college entrance exam composite score show 27.6 percent of Farmington juniors met state benchmarks for college readiness that are part of Gov. Rick Snyder's Education Dashboard. That's 10 percentage points above the statewide average.  The dashboard number measures the percentage of students meeting the ACT …

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Farmington Public Schools MME, ACT Scores Show Year-Over-Year Progress

While students still struggle in social studies, gains are made over last year's results in reading, writing, math and science.

Farmington Public Schools (FPS) students have improved their performance this year in most areas of both the Michigan Merit Exam (MME) and ACT college entrance exam. The Michigan Merit Examination is given each spring to Michigan 11th grade students. The test is administered to most students over a three-day period. Results released today by the Michigan Department of Education (MDE) show increases over last year in the percentage of students judged proficient in reading, writing, math and science. Students continue to struggle in the area of social studies, moving from 50 percent proficient last year to 47 percent this year. State-wide, the percentage of high school students scoring proficient dipped slightly from last year (0.7 percent…

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Michigan Department of Education Plans for New Online-Based Assessments

Changes will take place during the 2014-2015 school year.

Paper and pencil for statewide tests will soon be a thing of the past for Michigan students as they prepare to take a new online assessment detailed during a roundtable Monday by the Michigan Department of Education. The exam will replace the standardized MEAP and MME assessments in math, reading and writing, beginning during the 2014-2015 school year. The MEAP and MME assessments will still be given in science and social studies. But unlike the tests students are used to, the new statewide exam will not have a common set of questions. Subsequent questions will be determined based on how a student answers the previous one. A correct answer yields a harder one. An incorrect responce yields an easier question. The goal is to have students …

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The Editor's Notebook

On Cut Scores, Scale Scores and the Meaning of MEAP

While standardized test scores come with complex calculations, a simple question can also help measure a child's success.

I've spent hours talking and reading about the one test that seems to matter to parents above all others. Michigan Educational Assessment Program (MEAP) test results were released Wednesday, and that same day, I and two other reporters met with Farmington Public Schools MEAP guru, Kristin Gekiere. This was the second time in three months that we talked about the tests; she also explained last fall the impact of new "cut" scores implemented this year. I don't think anyone's going to argue that the cut scores – test scores that determine whether a student is judged "advanced", "proficient", "partially proficient" or "not proficient" – needed to change. The previous definition allowed a student to get just 40 percent of the answers correct to…

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Farmington Schools Endures Challenging Year

In 2011, the district struggled with the demolition of four buildings, a lawsuit, tense union negotiations and tougher academic standards.

It seemed like the hits just kept on coming for Farmington Public Schools in 2011. From a controversial building sale to unsettling news about academic performance under new state standards, officials often faced angry parents at board meetings. But the district also celebrated some significant milestones. Here are a few of the year's biggest stories:  A controversial vote in January authorized the solicitation of bids for the demolition of elementary buildings closed in 2010, and Fairview Early Childhood Center, closed in 2006. Wooddale, Flanders and William Grace Elementary and Fairview Early Childhood Center were eventually leveled, but officials in January received an offer for Eagle Elementary, from the Islamic Cultural Association (…

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Joni Hubred-Golden

3:11 pm on Tuesday, January 3, 2012

S, we will be doing stories about the progress of Farmington's program in its first year.   more ›

Farmington School Officials Take a Hard Look at New Standards

The district is looking at 'a different way of teaching' in light of tougher passing requirements on statewide tests.

A look at how Farmington Public Schools students would perform under new "cut", or passing, scores on standardized tests have officials looking at different ways to teach a new generation of learners. Kristin Gekiere, the district's director of assessment and school improvement, said Michigan is only the third state in the country to move to more rigorous scoring, which was approved by the state School Board in September. The cut scores – the passing scores that distinguish between whether a student is advanced, proficient, partially proficient or not proficient in certain subjects - require students to get roughly 65 percent of the answers correct to “pass” the state test, instead of only 39 percent, which was the previous benchmark. …

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