AUGUSTA — Sample questions on the fourth-grade Maine Educational Assessment test include this math problem:

“This line plot shows the amount of water, in cups, that Matt’s jars hold. Which equation shows the total amount of water, in cups, that can be put in all the jars that hold exactly 1/4 cup?

The question may be confusing to adults, let alone to a fourth-grader.

It’s the kind of question, said new Maine Education Commissioner A. Pender Makin, that is contributing to lower test scores in the state. It’s something she wants to change.

Scores from last year show that 50 percent of Maine students are meeting standards in reading, and 37 percent are meeting standards in math.

That’s down from 2013, when 71 percent of Maine students met expectations for reading and 63 percent met expectations in math.

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Scores have gone down not because students aren’t capable, Makin said. They’ve gone down because in recent years tests kept changing, too many initiatives were thrust on schools and there are “flaws” in the tests.

Some questions “are extraordinary challenging,” she said. “We are asking young kids to engage in developmentally questionable rigor around the academic work they’re doing.”

Just as confounding, a few test questions have been given to students indicating there was only one right answer when, in reality, all of the answers were correct, Makin said. “We made the testing company aware.” 

On the job as acting commissioner in January and sworn into office Feb. 5, Makin said in a recent interview that she hopes to change the tests and how Maine measures success. Change isn’t about reducing challenges, it’s about showing a broader picture, she said.

Makin said Maine schools do so much creative teaching that isn’t captured in test scores that she wants to “widen the lens” and show “where we are phenomenally successful.”

Change isn’t about reducing challenges, she said. It’s about showing a broader picture. Makin wants to encourage school districts, businesses and residents not to use the scores as the big measure of a school or a district.

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It’s so harmful in so many ways,” she said. “It denigrates the public trust in the great work that’s done in schools. It’s not a particular valid picture of the holistic” work done in schools.

“I want to open with how unimportant the (reading) and math scores really are in the big picture of what schools do.” 

What she called an over-importance on test scores is part of a national situation driven by the federal No Child Left Behind Act, she said, which aimed to improve education through standards-based reforms.

That said, Maine must continue to give standardized tests, Makin said, calling them “a necessary evil.”

If Maine doesn’t, the state could lose $75 million from the federal government, money that goes to Maine schools. And if the state doesn’t have 95 percent student participation in that testing, it could lose federal money.

In Lewiston and other parts of Maine, there has been push-back by some parents who cite the downsides to such testing.

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Lewiston public schools have among the highest opt-out rates and lowest test scores in Maine. Lewiston’s MEA test scores last year showed 16.87 percent of students were meeting math standards and 25.5 percent were meeting reading standards. Lewiston’s student participation in the tests was 80 percent.

Asked if principals and teachers should ignore test results, Makin said no. “They’re not useless.”

She said she is advocating less attention be paid to scores. “Consider them to be a tiny glimpse into a much larger composite of measures of schools and student success.”

Maine employers aren’t looking for workers who are great test-takers, she said. Employers are looking for employees who are problem-solvers, flexible, critical thinkers and nimble.

Contributing to lower scores, she said, are too many federal and state mandates, ranging from teacher evaluations to the state law requiring high schools to issue proficiency-based diplomas. The law was dropped last year after school districts struggled with implementing diploma standards.

In addition, school districts have complained about a lack of leadership and guidance at the state level, with a revolving door of education commissioners under Gov. Paul LePage’s administration.

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That will change, Makin said. “We are hoping to provide lots of information, technical support, professional development, all those things that help a district decide how to move forward.”

The state goal for education “is to stop the stream of imposed mandates,” Makin said. She wants to let school districts, principals and teachers evaluate what’s working and what isn’t. “I think that will reinvigorate professionalism of leaders and educators in our classrooms to be able to exercise their expertise.”

She doesn’t expect change on state assessments for at least a year, and not until after stakeholder meetings are held throughout Maine to get input on how schools should be measured.

Those measures, in addition to test scores, could include assessments by classroom teachers, student success after high school graduation, and the amount of family involvement in schools, Makin said.

“There are so many questions we could be asking,” she said.

(The answer to the test question at the beginning of the story is A. To see more sample test questions, go here: tinyurl.com/SampleTestQs.)


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