If you have lived in Maine, or currently attending school, more than likely you have heard of or have taken MEA’s. MEA’s are the Maine Educational Assessments for all Maine students in grades three through eight. MEA’s are weeklong tests. Depending on grade, students are tested in Math, Science, Reading, and Literacy. This year the eighth grade is going to be tested on all subjects. To be perfectly honest, MEA’s are a long, boring process but they must be done. It is months of preparation and studying.

I don’t really like the MEA’s personally but I do understand their purpose. They are done to measure overall achievement of each of the students. It is the state’s way making sure all the schools are learning the same thing and interpreting it. With that conclusion, this Advocate reporter wondered what other people thought of MEA’s and the purpose for them.

According to Mrs. Karin Dionne, a PWS eighth grade Literacy and Social Studies teacher, “I see that the MEA’s have several purposes. It shows if students can demonstrate life skills and read for more than one purpose. We are able to see what students can and can’t do. It gives information to the state to see if we meet up with learning standards and if we meet up with other schools around us. The MEA’s show if students can demonstrate math concepts, literacy concepts, writing concepts, and science concepts in a variety of ways.”

Principal Mr. Rick Green shared “Statewide assessments are used to determine the student growth progress. These tests measure what is learned and understood in all grade levels.”

Grace Lemay, a parent of one student of P.W.S and guest teacher commented “I think we have MEA’s to see how you’re learning. To see what you’ve done. And to understand what they’re teaching you.”

PWS eighth grade student Kimberly Morse comments “MEA’s are a way to figure out what level students are at overall compared with the county, state, etc. They are also used to decide if teachers need to teach more of a subject.”

This is what I expected to see for responses. No matter what the relationship was to the school, whether administrator, teacher or a parent, they agreed MEA’s are used to measure how students are doing in school. I am not so sure if the reasons for the tests are understood by everyone. Some students get nervous about tests and can’t perform well. Fortunately the test doesn’t count as a grade for students on their report cards. Students and their parents do get the results over summer vacation. This Academic Advocate reporter personally does not find the results reflect the grades I receive in school.