Standardized Assessment Assignment

Below are series of questions regarding M-Step results from 2015. Please make sure you are
looking at the correct report as you answer each question. This assignment is worth 100 points.
The handout Computer Adaptive Testing from M-STEP should be used as a resource.
Introductory Questions
1. When is M-STEP given? What content areas are tested at which grades? (2 points)
a. M-STEP is given to elementary and middle school students each
spring. Grades 3-8 are tested on ELA and Math. Science and social studies are
measured in grades 5, 8, and 11.
2. Where do the claims and targets on the reports come from? (2 points)
a. At each grade level within mathematics and English language arts,
there is one overall claim encompassing the content area and four specific
content claims. The targets map the standards in Michigan’s Academic Standards
onto assessment evidence that is required to support the claims. Assessment
targets are used to guide the development of items and tasks that will measure
the Michigan Academic Standards.
3. Where could you go to get more information about M-STEP? (2 points)
a. You can go to this website for more information:
https://www.michigan.gov/mde/0,4615,7-140-22709_70117---,00.html

Individual Student Report - Grade 4 Mathematics

4. What accommodations did the student receive for the math test? (1 point)
a. Accommodations he received was OSA Multiplication table
5. What is the lowest and highest possible scores a student could receive? (2 points)
a. The lowest score possible is 1310
b. The highest score possible is 1433
6. What was the student’s scaled score? How would you interpret the result of partially
proficient? (3 points)
a. The students scale score is 1384. I would interpret partially
proficient as the students was not quite comfortable in many areas, but had
some areas where they strived in. They were not fully understanding, but on the
other hand they knew somethings that made them partially proficient.
7. Which claims measured in the test did the student score Near/At or Above Claim
Proficiency? (1 point)
a. Claim 4 and Claim 3 the students scored Near/At or Above Claim
Proficiency.
 8. For Claim 1, the student answered 8 out of 20 questions correctly, but scored Below
Claim Proficiency even though they received perfect scores on 3 targets. How would
you explain this result to his/her parents? (3 points)
a. I would start the conversation to this students’ parents about
what areas the student earned perfect scores on which were using the four
operations with whole numbers to solve problems, generalize place value
understanding for multi-digit whole numbers, and build fractions from unit
fractions by applying operations on whole numbers. I would point out how the
student appears to be doing well with operations with whole numbers. Then I
would move into that the student does have areas that need improvement like
geometry topics, measurements, and decimals. Two of these areas could
correspond and some extra assistance and practice can help this student
improve his scores. There are more target areas being tested and the student
answered many of the targets incorrectly.
9. For Claim 3, the student answered 2 question out of 10 correctly, and yet scored
Near/At or Above Proficiency. How would you explain this result to his/her parents? (3
points)
a. There are less target areas being tested, and the student nearly
got one target fully correct. There are still areas that the student will need
reviewed and covered, but the target that he did get majority correct is a lot of
what the main claim was asking which results in a Near/At or above proficiency
level.
10. If you had results like this for each student in your class, how would you use the results
to improve your practice (3 points)
a. I would look at the students results individually and categorize the
class based on the areas that need to be revisited and taught. It will also show
me if there are many students that are struggling in areas or if it is a couple. I
would find the areas that many did not understand and find new ways and
engaging ways to teach the student. Different ways than what was previously
taught as the results show that the practice needs improvement.

Individual Student Report - Grade 4 English Language Arts

11. What accommodations did the student receive for the ELA test? (1 point)
a. None
12. What is the lowest and highest possible scores a student could receive? (2 points)
a. The lowest score possible is 1301
b. The highest score possible is 1434
13. What was the student’s scaled score? How would you interpret the result of partially
proficient? (3 points)
 a. Students scale score was 1399. That score placed the student at
the very edge of the partially proficient category. The student was more on the
proficient side than the not proficient. The student had more of an
understanding of ELA versus math as they scored higher.
14. Which claims measured in the test did the student score Near/At or Above Claim
Proficiency? (1 point)
a. The claims that measured in Near/At or Above Claim proficient is
all of them, 1, 2, 3, and 4.
15. Did the student score higher in math or ELA? Why? Include a discussion of margin of
error in your answer. (3 points)
a. From looking at the scores directly, the student scored higher in
ELA with a score of 1399 versus math which they scored a 1384. The students
margin of error for math was higher than ELA. Margin of error means that if the
student was tested repeatedly with parallel assessment, the Margin of error
would be the estimate of the range of scores the student would have. For math
their range is 1377-1391 and with ELA the range would be 1405-1393 which is
higher than the math range.

Orchard View Schools – Social Studies

16. Based on the graph, what percentage of the 5th grades scored at the not proficient level?
(1 point)
a. Approximately 22.5% of 5th graders scored at the not proficient
level.
17. Based on the graph, what percentage of the 8th graders scored at the advanced level? (1
point)
a. Approximately 0% scored at the advance level as there is no dark
blue shown on the graph.
18. Which grade scored better in social studies, 5th grade or 8th grade? Provide evidence to
justify your answer. (2 points)
a. 5th grade appears to have scored better than the 8th graders. The
5th graders had more students score a partially proficient and proficient score
than the 5th graders. 5th grade had higher percent of those two categories as it
total at 77.5% (65% scored at partially proficient level and 12.5% scored at
proficient level). In comparison to 8th grade which was 65% (50% partially
proficient and 15% proficient). *8th grade did have more students score
proficient then 5th grade.
19. How did the 5th grade Orchard View results compare to the statewide results in the
“Advanced or Proficient Category”? (2 points)
 a. The 5th grader at Orchard view scored a 11.8% in the advanced or
proficient category. The statewide results for the same category were 22.2%.
Orchard view was nearly half of that percentage.
20. How did the 8th grade results compare to the Muskegon Area ISD results in the “Not
proficient” category? (2 points)
a. The 8th graders at Orchard views had a percentage of 33.9 in the
not proficient category. In comparison, Muskegon Area ISD had percentage of
33.2. Which is nearly the same as the Orchard view 8th graders in the same
category of not proficient.

Orchard View Schools – Science

21. Based on the graph, what percentage of the 4th graders were partially proficient in
science? (1 point)
a. Based on the graph, approximately 35% of the 4th graders were
partially proficient in science.
22. On page 2, where did the percentages come from to create the 7th grade bar graph? (1
point)
a. On page two, the percentage of students who scored proficient or
above is what created the bar graph.
23. What percentage of 4th graders did NOT score Proficient or Advanced? (1 point)
a. 92.1% (36.1% Partially Proficient and 56% not proficient) of
students did not score proficient or advanced.
24. In the table on page 3, for the 7th grade “Advanced” and “Proficient” columns, the cell
read “<10%”. Estimate the exactly percentages using the data and graphs provided. (2
points)
a. Looking at the table and the graph for 7th grade advanced and
proficient columns, it appears that for Advanced: 7.5% and for Proficient: 9.6%
for a total of 17.1%.

Utica Community Schools – English Language Arts

25. What trends appear in the bar graph as you look across grades 3-8? (2 points)
a. Looking at the graphs for grades 3-8, I can see a decrease in the
advance section as the grades get higher. I also see that as the advance get lower
by grade getting higher, the proficient category is growing larger when grades
increase as well. Not proficient appears to be lower in each of the grades.
26. On page 2, is the overall performance across the grades similar or different? Why or
why not? Include numerical evidence from the graph to support your thinking. (2
points)
 a. By looking at the graphs, they look similar in their overall
performance. However, this graph is based on percentage. 3 rd grade is at a
approximately 55%, 4th grade is at a 50%, 5th grade is at a approximately 53%, 6th
grade is approximately 52%, 7th grade is at about 49%, and 8th grade is about at
47%. Between 3rd and 8th there is nearly an 8% difference in their overall. Which
can be high depending on their student count.
27. At which 2 grade levels are Utica students below the statewide average in the
“Advanced or Proficient” category? (2 points)
a. 7th grade percentage for advanced or proficient at Utica was 48.4
versus statewide which was 49.1%. 8th grade percentage for advanced or
proficient at Utica was 46.4 versus statewide which was 47.6%. Both of these
grades scored lower than statewide percentage.
28. What percentage of the 3rd graders in Macomb ISD come from the Utica Community
Schools? (2 points)
a. Approximately 4.65% of 3rd graders in Macomb ISD come from the
Utica Community Schools.
29. How do Utica’s 3rd grade ELA results impact the Macomb ISD results? (2 points)
a. If the students that come from Utica scored higher or lower , this
would skew the results of Macomb ISD. If the students at Utica score higher than
the results may look differently at Macomb ISD.

Shiawassee Regional ESD – Mathematics

30. List the school districts that are included in this report. (2 points)
a. Shiawassee Regional ESD which is an ISD. No districts specifically
are shown up on the document provided. Grade levels 3rd through 8th of this ISD
are given. Schools in this district however are: Owosso Public schools, New
Lothrop Area Public Schools, Corunna Public Schools, Laingsburg Community
schools, Perry Public schools, Morrice area schools, Durand Area schools, Byron
Area schools.
31. Why does the Michigan Department of Education produce an ISD/RESD level report? (2
points)
a. To show an overall of the district versus the ISD. The ISD covers a
variety of districts and seeing the total percentage in the area can be compared
to other ISD’s as well.
th
32. For 5 grade mathematics, how many students were in each category (Advanced,
Proficient, Partially Proficient, Not Proficient)? (2 points)
a. Advanced there was approximately 86 students. Proficient there
was approximately 143 students. Partially Proficient there was approximately
278 students. Not Proficient there was approximately 308 students for total of
815 students assessed.
 33. If you were a consultant at Shiawassee RESD in charge of math, what additional
information would you seek in order to help district improve their results? Be specific.
(3 points)
a. I would look into the way the teachers are teaching the students
the material. Are they just teaching for the exam or they teaching the students
with a purpose in mind? What are the students’ grades like on quizzes and
exams throughout the school years? Are the students engaged in the lessons?

Overall Questions
For each of the 3 questions below, write a minimum 250 word response. Each question is
worth 12 points.
34. Take the sample MSTEP Item Set. What would you tell parents about the test, based on
these questions?
a. Based on this question, I would tell the parents how many of
these questions are asked in an advanced way. Some students may stumble on
words they may not understand, and the tools students may not now how to
utilize. Vocabulary is a big thing that confuses students during these tests and
teaching the language in the classroom and outside the classroom will help
students feel comfortable with what they are being asked. The tools that are
present in the test may also be confusing for the students a practice with that. I
would explain how each question that the student answer, guides the rest of the
test. If the student gets the question correct, the next question may be harder. If
the question they get wrong, the next question may be easier. I think it is
important to explain to the parents to prepare the students emotionally and
mentally before a test, so they feel ready to take the test. The students should
be reassured to take their time and do the best that they can to answer the
question. Also, to read through the questions thoroughly. Do not get caught up
on words that they may not know. Also, the students are not able to go back on
questions and they should feel comfortable with the answer they choose before
moving on. On the sample there is no time limit, maybe have the students
practice some questions breaking down the questions so they understand how it
works before they do the real thing.
35. How would you prepare your students for taking an online test with these types of
questions? In your response, focus on the logistics of the test, not the content.
a. I would not spend the whole year concentrating on the content
that is being asked in the test. I would use a variety of strategies to teach the
content through the curriculum in ways that students will absorb and
understand. I want to avoid having students trying to memorize information like
how we would do regular tests in the classroom. I would also, starting on day
 one in the classroom, use vocabulary that may show up on the M-STEP when
they take it. I aim to teach 4th or 5th grade and I would make sure to cover
vocabulary like explain, statement, how many, enter, sum, and represent. These
are just some examples of vocab we would cover just based off the sample
questions. I would also prepare the student by doing sample questions before
the test or teaching them how to use the tools that are utilized during the M-
STEP, so they do not get caught up in the technology portion. I would also
prepare them by explaining that there are tools on the site that they can utilize
like for math there are notepads present to type in. I would also have a
discussion with them before they take the test to do the best they can when
answer the questions. This is not a grade, but it does show what information
they know and not know. Answer to the best of their ability and read through
the questions thoroughly. I would do research on test taking and try find tips to
help them get through without testing anxiety.
36. What did you learn from doing this exercise? In particular, what would you highlight in
a job interview about what you know regarding interpreting and using data in the
classroom?
a. This activity gave me a lot of information at looking at data and
how to use that data to my advantage. During an interview I can explain how I
have experience look at districts test scores and tell them I can use that to my
benefit to change up my teaching strategies to benefit the students to
understand the knowledge. I would understand what topics I will need to do
better on explaining in math or ELA. I have further experience with looking at
data through different courses during college and knowing that M-STEP is a big
thing for many schools this could be a plus on our end for doing this assignment.
We also got experience at looking at what accommodations’ students use during
the test and how to look if the student who took test had some. We got chance
to interpret bar graphs and calculate how many students are proficient,
advanced, not proficient, or partially proficient. We got to look at specific school
districts and compared the results of the one school to statewide. This will show
us if we are below or higher than the average state. If we go further, we can
investigate different districts nearby or other schools in the ISD to see if we are
below or above. This would look to the interviewers as that is knowledge that
will impress them that we knew. I think this activity may have been time
consuming but was great practice at examining data of the M-STEP and learning
more about the M-STEP. It is also great that we had to think about the students’
parents and how we would prepare them for these tests.