The Michigan Educational Assessment Program, commonly known as MEAP, is a standardized test

Standardized test

A standardized test is a test that is administered and scored in a consistent, or "standard", manner. Standardized tests are designed in such a way that the questions, conditions for administering, scoring procedures, and interpretations are consistent and are administered and scored in a...

. The test is taken by all public school students in the U.S. state

U.S. state

A U.S. state is any one of the 50 federated states of the United States of America that share sovereignty with the federal government. Because of this shared sovereignty, an American is a citizen both of the federal entity and of his or her state of domicile. Four states use the official title of...

 of Michigan

Michigan

Michigan is a U.S. state located in the Great Lakes Region of the United States of America. The name Michigan is the French form of the Ojibwa word mishigamaa, meaning "large water" or "large lake"....

 from elementary school

Elementary school

An elementary school or primary school is an institution where children receive the first stage of compulsory education known as elementary or primary education. Elementary school is the preferred term in some countries, particularly those in North America, where the terms grade school and grammar...

 to middle

Middle school

Middle School and Junior High School are levels of schooling between elementary and high schools. Most school systems use one term or the other, not both. The terms are not interchangeable...

/junior high school. For high school students the MEAP test was replaced in 2007 by the Michigan Merit Exam

Michigan Merit Exam

The Michigan Merit Exam is a replacement for the Michigan Educational Assessment Program test, a minimum-competency test for high school students. It was optional for class of 2007 but was required for the class of 2008 and beyond...

., .

History

The program was started by the State Board of Education and supported by then Governor

Governor

A governor is a governing official, usually the executive of a non-sovereign level of government, ranking under the head of state...

 William G. Millken

William Milliken

William Grawn Milliken , is an American politician and served as the 44th Governor of Michigan from January 1969 to January 1983.-Biography:...

. The MEAP tests were first administered during the 1969-70 school year for the purpose of determining at various points in a student's career, their progress compared to standards set by the State Board of Education.

Criticism

Many of the criticisms of the test are common to all standardized tests. Opponents feel that standardized tests cannot correctly measure student knowledge, performance, or learning. Others feel that Michigan should not waste so much money on developing their own test and instead should use national tests, that would conform better to the standards of the rest of the country.

In October 2007, a Jackson newspaper reporter published an article containing the topics of the 5th and 6th grade MEAP test, jeopardizing the integrity of later sections of the test yet to be completed by students in many districts. These compromised portions of the test were retaken by all students, levying a cost of hundreds of thousands of dollars to the Michigan Department of Education.http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071012/SCHOOLS/710120406/1026&imw=Y

External links

• Michigan Department of Education
• Michigan Educational Assessment Program from the Michigan Department of Education website
• Michigan Merit Award from the Michigan government Financial Aid website