The Milan News-Leader
A Heritage Newspaper
Weekly Publication
MEAP scores up in Milan
Milan students show increases in math and reading scores
By Brian Cox, Staff Writer
PUBLISHED: January 25, 2007
"We're very pleased with the math scores and reading scores in general," said Milan Superintendent Dennis McComb. "It shows us our math curriculum in particular is starting to work."
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More than 96 percent of Milan third-graders tested proficient in math, 12 percentage points over last year's number and eight points above the state average of 88 percent. That number slowly falls away at the higher grades, though, with only 64.9 percent of eighth-graders testing proficient, which is reflective of the state trend.
In reading, the larger jumps were seen at the seventh- and eighth-grade levels. More than 89 percent of seventh-graders tested proficient in reading, up eight points from last year, and almost 77 percent of eighth-graders met or exceeded standards, up seven points.
There was an oddity in the test results.
The percentage of Milan fourth-graders who met or exceeded state standards declined across the board compared to last year, particularly in writing, where there was a dramatic 19.6 point drop from 51.8 percent proficient in 2005 to 32.2 percent proficient this year. Fourth-graders also slumped in math and reading at a time all the other grades were moving up.
"We're talking about and looking at what caused the dip in the fourth-grade scores," said McComb. "We'll be looking closely at the data to see if we can determine what happened and if there are any changes we think we might need to make."
Fifth-grade science scores held steady, while at the eighth-grade level there was a 9-point drop from 84.5 percent proficiency last year to 75.5 percent this year.
In social studies, 70 percent of ninth-graders met or exceeded standards, up from 61.2 percent last year.
The one subject area McComb said he would like to see improvement is in writing, which was down at every grade level except third. The percentage of third-graders who met or exceeded proficiency standards in writing jumped a whopping 22 percent from last year, climbing from 34.4 percent to 56 percent.
In 2005, Milan third-graders meeting or exceeding standards was 18 points below the state average. This year, Milan third-graders outdistanced the state average by four points.
McComb credited the dramatic improvement to a new writing curriculum at Paddock Elementary School that he hopes will continue to raise scores. The district began revising its writing curriculum in the fall.
As the district reviews the MEAP results, McComb said he is looking for steady improvement and specifically for improvement among those students in the levels below met or exceeded standards.
"We want to move students up," he said. "We want to find out what we need to do to get them over the hurdle. Success is movement up."
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