The Maine Department of Education would have to fail itself – if it used the same grading system that high school students use.
More than half of the grade 11 students who were tested with the annual Maine Educational Assessment failed to meet the standards set by the state. Some educators question the validity of these findings.
Maine Commissioner of Education Susan Gendron announced this year that the state would drop their old test for Maine high school juniors and have them take the national SAT designed for college admissions.
Gendron said she believed this would encourage some students to apply for college who otherwise would not have.
The state average score was 441. The scale ranges from 200 to 800 points.
The Maine Department of Education declared a score of 460 or higher would mean the student met the standards set by the state.
“The difference of a few points is not significant statistically,” said Suzanne Lukas, superintendent of SAD 6 schools, which includes Bonny Eagle High School in Standish.
On a 100-point scale, the state average on the SAT would become a 40.2. The intended standard set by the state on the same scale would be a 43.3.
Lukas said the SAT was designed for students who plan to go to college. In this case, which was a first for Maine and the nation, all grade 11 students were tested.
“That leaves some question marks around the validity of the test,” Lukas said. “It was designed for college-bound students.”
Special eduction students were required to take the same test as the rest of the student population, Lukas said, unless they had a handicap severe enough to prevent them from being able to fill out a written test.
“Its not clear yet what is a significant point [difference],” said Lukas, whose students averaged a 434, or a 39 on a 100-point scale.
Windham High School Principal Deborah McAfee agrees. McAfee said she doesn’t know what to think of her school’s average score of 439, or a 39.8 on a 100-point scale.
“It’s kind of hard to say because we haven’t gotten any feedback yet, just scores,” McAfee said. The Maine Department of Education has not yet released a written evaluation of the test results.
“For many of our kids, it was more discouraging to get those scores,” said McAfee. She added that the description to use the SAT probably did encourage some kids to consider college.
Lukas said the state results, presented as a mean average, are misleading because of high scorers when compared to the average student.
“If they were to give a median, then the picture would be quite different,” said Lukas.
Frank Gorham, superintendent of SAD 6, that includes Lake Region High School in Naples, was not available to comment. His school had an average score of 422, or a 37 on a 100-point scale.
SAT scores are not normally represented on a 100-point scale and are shown for ease of comparison.
The SAT uses multiple choice questions with five given answers. Students are given one point for each question answered correctly, docked one quarter of a point for each wrong answer, and given no points for those left blank.
“I don’t know that it’s harder, it’s just a different test,” said McAfee.
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