MEAP Scandal

Okay, every licensed educator in every district in the state reads hundreds of pages full of ethics rules every year for the MEAP.

This week, Jackson Public Schools allowed their students to be interviewed by the newspaper, and the reporter's story told what the kids wrote about on this year's MEAP. The prompts are TOP SECRET. Teachers aren't supposed to read them, and we are prohibited from talking about them. Our licenses are at stake.

Here's the "Media Breech" from the Jackson paper. (Yes, that's the MI Dept of Ed's term for what happened.)

Here's the Free Press story about the ramifications.

Here's the reporter's response to the scandal.

Wow--if the reporter is telling the truth and not just covering himself, that school screwed up. Big-time. I stopped counting how many details of that story were "against the MEAP law" as I say to my eight and nine year olds. That is NOT the tone in any building I have ever been in for testing. Now the "teachers don't take this test seriously" fire has been fanned.

If you're bored by this post or think "What a huge amount of bureaucracy" or "What a waste of money," welcome to the world of single-measures of accountability for schools. And these tests don't even represent what professional educators want for kids.

My opinion is that this district should face paying the cost for reprints, mailings, etc. (Not that any MI district has that kind of extra money.) This scandal will only hurt the kids. Thousands of children will be re-doing the Writing from Knowledge and Experience prompt, and I hope you all realize that a large number of children CRY while writing for MEAP. Now they will twice. High stakes testing--what a great idea.

(I think this is one of the first times in my life that I actually sound like a disgruntaled NEA member!)