Portage Central and Northern see drop in ACT, MME scores for 2013

PORTAGE, MI -- About 26 percent of students in Portage Public Schools' Class of 2014 recently tested as fully "college-ready" compared to 31 percent of the Portage Class of 2013 when they were tested last year.

The drop in test scores was evident almost across the board at Portage Northern and Central highs schools, based on an analysis of results from the 2013 Michigan Merit Exam, which is administered to high school juniors in March. The MME includes the ACT college entrance exam.

On Monday, the Michigan Department of Education released three sets of results: Passage rate on the MME, which is the state assessment test; average scores on the ACT, and "college-readiness" numbers, which is the percent of students who scores at or above the ACT college-readiness benchmarks in math, reading, science and English.

The good news for Portage: Results for Central and Northern remain well above the state average, and both high schools are among the top performers in southwest Michigan.

View full size

However, Central High School did not improve its ACT scores or MME passage rates in any subject. Northern fared a little better, improving its MME passage rate in math and science and its ACT results in English.

By contrast, Community High School -- Portage's alternative program -- improved its results across the board, although those scores are considering below the state average. In fact, none of the Community High students tested as college-ready in all four subjects, although that is not unusual for alternative education programs.

Statewide, the passage rate on the MME was down slightly, while most ACT results were up slightly.

Among the highlights of the Portage data:

• Compared to Central, Portage Northern had the better results in terms of MME passage rates. That's a change from last year, when Central outperformed Northern. This year, Central saw its passage rate on the MME reading test drop from 75 to 64 percent and its passage rate on the MME social studies test drop from 61 to 49 percent.

•  However, on average ACT scores, Central did slightly better than Northern this year, which was also true last year.

• In terms of college-readiness in math, English, science and social studies, Central once again outpaced Northern, even though both schools saw some big drops compared to 2012. College-readiness in science dropped from 42 to 35 percent at Central and from 42 to 33 percent at Northern. College-readiness in math dropped from 57 to 49 percent at Central, while Northern stayed about the same at 48 percent.

• Overall on college readiness, 28 percent of Central students and 25 percent of Northern students tested as college ready in all four academic subjects, compared to 35 and 29 percent respectively in 2012.

read more >>