FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Nancy Knight, MEA Director of Communications and Public Policy, 517-337-5508
MEA urges postponement in using M-STEP results because of testing
problems
EAST LANSING, Mich., April 21, 2015 — In an open letter to Gov. Snyder and state education
stakeholders, MEA President Steve Cook is asking that data from the Michigan Student Test of
Educational Progress (M-STEP) not be used this year in teacher evaluations, district rankings, or for
any other purposes. The letter details numerous problems associated with the test, which is now in
its second week of implementation in school districts across the state.
Cook said, “After just five days, we’re hearing loud and clear from our members just some of the
many problems associated with M-STEP. It’s impossible to believe that this test could be an
accurate measure of student growth. We can’t use unreliable data to judge teachers and school
districts.”
The letter points out that M-STEP is taking huge amounts of time away from classroom instruction
and curriculum. In some cases, a whole school day is absorbed with testing, when only a few hours
were scheduled. Teachers reported that students are not finishing the test and were “locked out” of
completing the test later.
Since M-STEP is an online test, computers and computer labs are unavailable to other students and
classes to do their work. In many schools, computer labs are in school libraries which are now off
limits during the testing period.
In too many cases, a school district’s infrastructure isn’t able to provide the technology needed for
administration of M-STEP. A middle school test coordinator spent the first days of the testing
window working with computers locking up or crashing; insufficient server capacity, equipment
failures, and software issues. “It seemed M-STEP became an assessment of a student’s ability to
manipulate the technology, and less a test of what a student learned.”
Cook said, “MEA is urging that any use of the test results be postponed until we have adequate and
reliable data. At this point, the M-STEP is not capable of providing a reliable measure of student
growth. We can’t judge students, educators or school districts on such an unreliable assessment. The
stakes are too high.”
M-STEP replaced the 44-year old MEAP this year after the Legislature denied funding for the
Smarter Balanced assessments which corresponded to the Common Core State Standards (CCSS).
M-STEP was only to be used for one year, but the state recently awarded a three-year contract to
Data Recognition Corporation and Measurement, Inc., the two vendors that currently administer the
M-STEP.
“The mission of the MEA is to ensure that the education of our students and the working
environments of our members are of the highest quality.”
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