More MEAP with School-by-School Charts: Round Leads Hartland Elementary Schools that Shine with 100s

In three out of five state MEAP tests, was perfect — with 100 percent of students meeting or exceeding state standards, according results recently released.

All third-graders who took the Michigan Educational Assessment Program tests — about 65 — met or exceeded state standards for reading and math, while 95 fourth-graders hit the mark in math, the results show.

Other Hartland elementaries achieved similar results. had all third- and fourth-graders passing in math, and saw 100 percent in third-grade reading.

At Round, Principal David Minsker said the school is proud of the scores, but he added that teachers are already focusing on new higher standards to be implemented on the MEAP tests in the fall.

"We're pleased. It's been a lot of hard work for our staff," Minsker said. "We've never stopped, really. The target is going to be much higher next year. … We still have more work to do."

Higher standards

For instance, the current test breaks out students who are proficient vs. students who are advanced. At Round, 68.2 percent of third-graders were advanced in reading and 72.3 percent in math, while 87.4 percent of fourth-graders were advanced in math.

Jan Ellis, a spokeswoman with the Michigan Department of Education, said the state board has approved the new standard that will be more line with the advanced scores. The change, she said, reflects the changing needs in education.

"The world has changed," she said. "Students are competing for international jobs."

Ellis also said the new standard will be similar to the writing test that was on the MEAP this year in which the state averages were just below 50 percent. Round's was at 60 percent.

Minsker said the writing numbers were lower because writing is inherently more subjective, and it's a new test. But he said the staff is hard at work to improve the achievement.

"Literacy is a huge part of what we do," he said. "We are looking at it — why was it in the 60s, and what we do (next)."

'Still significant'

Nevertheless, Ellis said the 100 percents in the current system show an uncommon achievement.

"While it's a basic level, it's still significant," she said. "(One hundred percent) usually happens at the lower grades. Content gets harder as grades get higher."

The scores also tend to vacillate, with plenty of ups and downs compared to 2009 scores. Such shifts ranged from a third-grade reading drop of 5.3 percentage points at to multiple 6.8 percentage point increases, such as with fourth-grade reading at Round.

Meantime, nearly all grades met state averages. Those not meeting state averages were third-grade reading results at Village (93 percent) and Lakes (92.1 percent). The average was 95.3 percent.

Small group focus

At Round, Minsker credited, in part, the school's new effort this year to provide all students daily opportunities of about 30 minutes to work in small groups.

The sessions are designed to help students who struggle while challenging students who excel, he said. This is possible because all teachers, including those who specialize, such as in music, speech and special education, participate to provide enough staff and because the school has a the district's smallest elmentary enrollment with 400 students, he said.

For example, while struggling students might review basic skills, higher-performing students use the time to work on harder material, such as articles for the school newspaper, he said.

"I give full credit to my staff for being team-oriented and doing what's best for the kids," Minsker said. "This is way out of the box."

For complete school-by-school results with a comparison to 2009 scores, see below. For our original MEAP story that focuses on grade-by-grade districtwide results, click here.

+1.4%

Sources: Michigan Department of Education and Hartland Patch comparisons of 2010 and 2009 results.