Assessment Update

This year, we have many shifts in the assessments that will be administered for students. Because of this, I wanted to make sure to communicate to you what your child will be assessed on throughout the year. If you have any questions regarding any of the below assessments please do not hesitate to contact me.

7^th grade MiPHY (Michigan Profile for Healthy Youth)

This is a research survey that asks about health behaviors for 7^th, 9^th, and 11^th grade students. If you have a 7^th grade student, a letter will be included in this envelope covering all details about the MiPHY. Student privacy is a key part of this survey. It is completely anonymous, and used to simply look at a range of health risk behaviors and attitudes that as a district and county we need to be aware of when it comes to our students. 7^th grade students will be taking the MiPHY on December 9^th in Mr. Kevin Townsend’s Health class.

8^th grade PSAT

Last year, the state of Michigan made a significant shift in testing when they adopted the new Redesigned SAT as the college and career readiness tool to be used for students. This test replaces the ACT that has been taken in previous years. To help students prepare for the shift, Michigan is offering schools the option to take the Redesigned PSAT in 8^th, 9^th, and 10^th grade. Freeland Middle School 8^th grade students will be taking the redesigned PSAT on December 9^th. There are many tools available to your child when it comes to practicing for this new test. Please visit the website below for more details on how to support your child as this testing transition takes place for students in Michigan.

https://collegereadiness.collegeboard.org/state-partnerships/michigan

M-Step

During the 2014-2015 school year, Freeland Middle School successfully tested all students on the new state test, the M-Step. Tests were administered online in the spring of 2015. The state of Michigan has communicated with schools that individual student test results will be made available to students and parents sometime in the near future. Further communication for the distribution of these individual test scores will be communicated to you as we gather more information from the state.

This year, the M-Step testing will take place for 8^th grade students between April 11^th-April 29^th. 7^th grade testing will be between May 9^th-May 27^th. The testing cycle is three weeks long for each grade level; however, your child will not be testing during the entire three weeks. Last year, we were able to create a schedule where students only tested for 2.5 days, and then were able to resume classes as normal. Please plan on making attendance a priority for your child during the testing period. A testing schedule will be sent out to you in the spring. The M-Step test this year will cover Math and English/Language Arts for both 7^th and 8^th grade students, and will test 7^th grade Science, and 8^th grade Social Studies. State test results for the 2014-2015 school year have been released, and can be accessed at the link below if you are interested in how the state performed on the M-Step.

http://www.michigan.gov/mde/0,4615,7-140--368037--,00.html