Wyandotte's 11th-Graders Score Lower than State Average on Michigan Merit Exam

Wyandotte's 11th-graders performed worse than the statewide average on all five subject areas tested on the Michigan Merit Exam, according to results released this morning by the Michigan Department of Education.

While the state average rose in three subject areas in 2011 from 2010 (writing, mathematics and science), students improved in writing alone.

The district's ACT scores, however, continue to be higher than the state average, in both 2011 and 2010.

The Michigan Merit Exam is given every March and tests 11th-grade students on statewide high school standards in reading, writing, mathematics, science and social studies.

, who begins Friday as Wyandotte's superintendent of schools, said she plans to meet with high school administrators and teachers to analyze the results.

"We are going to look at those scores to see what we need to bring them up," she said. "We’re never happy when it looks like we are going backward."

Harting said it's important to analyze all the data and not just the raw scores. She said the district's scores will be compared with county and state scores. That information will be shared with all the district's teaching staff, she said.

"We’ll look specifically to see what goals aren’t we meeting (and) try to pinpoint where did we go down," Harting said. "That's important so teachers can concentrate on those areas. ... They’re not happy, either, that they feel they have been doing their best job and that perhaps the test has changed. So we need to see where we are and where we can go from here."

(Source: Michigan Department of Education)