Tests provide information to teachers, families, and students about their learning.  As district staff continue to support student learning, it is important to monitor students’ progress towards grade level standards.  

Benchmark tests are provided to assess the district’s overall academic performance and individual student’s academic progress. Individual test results are shared with families. Schools receive test results for students enrolled at that school. All test results are shared with district. Teachers, schools and the district use test information to make decisions to better support student learning in the future.  

Under Michigan’s Return to Learn legislation, the District is required to administer the i-Ready assessment.  While the assessment administration is a legal requirement, the i-Ready and District Benchmark assessments are used by teachers, along with school and district leaders, to provide support to students and to be transparent about how students are doing academically.  

Your student’s teacher is the best measurer of your student’s learning. They consider many pieces of data to understand and guide your child’s learning. This includes student work, classroom contributions, results from district-administered assessments (iReady, etc), and teacher-administered assessments like tests and quizzes.   

No, there will not be any penalties for students who do not participate in testing.  However, if students do not take the benchmark assessments, teachers will be unable to use their data to know exactly where your student needs academic support. This could delay the creation of instructional plan that meets your students’ needs during the school year.   

State-mandated test data is used to provide benchmark information to teachers and administrators that will support students at their individual level of proficiency. If your student does not do well, there is no penalty to a student for not performing at any given standard in Grades 4 - 11.  At this time, students in Grade 3 may be recommended for retention based on their performance on the Grade 3 MSTEP ELA Test.  If so, the District will work with families to apply eligible good cause exemptions.    

At this time, students in Grade 3 may be recommended for retention based on their performance on the Grade 3 Reading MSTEP Test.  Students who do not meet the qualifying score on the M-STEP may also be promoted based on exemptions requested by teachers and/or parents.

Yes. The Office of Bilingual Education will provide Interpretation and Translation services to parents. Training and Support Coordinators for ELs provide instructional strategies to teachers and staff working with English Learners (ELs).