Bill Text: MI HB4311 | 2021-2022 | 101st Legislature | Introduced
Bill Title: Education: examinations; Michigan merit examination; suspend for the 2020-2021 school year. Amends sec. 1279g of 1976 PA 451 (MCL 380.1279g) & adds sec. 1279i.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 40-0)
Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2021-02-24 - Bill Electronically Reproduced 02/23/2021 [HB4311 Detail]
Download: Michigan-2021-HB4311-Introduced.html
HOUSE BILL NO. 4311
February 23, 2021, Introduced by Reps.
Koleszar, Stone, Brenda Carter, Shannon, Camilleri, Anthony, Hood, Garza,
Hertel, Hope, Breen, Cavanagh, Brixie, Weiss, Clemente, Brabec, Aiyash,
Pohutsky, Sowerby, Morse, Young, Tyrone Carter, Coleman, Cambensy, Tate,
Liberati, Steenland, Bolden, Manoogian, Rabhi, Kuppa, O'Neal, Thanedar,
Scott, Neeley, Cherry, LaGrand, Puri, Hammoud and Yancey and referred to
the Committee on Education.
A bill to amend 1976 PA 451, entitled
"The revised school code,"
by amending section 1279g (MCL 380.1279g), as amended by 2016 PA 170, and by adding section 1279i.
the people of the state of michigan enact:
Sec. 1279g. (1) The Except
as otherwise provided in this subsection, the board of a school
district or board of directors of a public school academy shall comply with
this section and shall administer the Michigan merit examination to pupils in
grade 11, and to pupils in grade 12 who did not take the complete Michigan
merit examination in grade 11, as provided in this section. However, subject to federal law, the board of a school district or
board of directors of a public school academy is not required to administer the
Michigan merit examination as described in this subsection for the 2020-2021
school year.
(2) For the purposes of this section, the department of
technology, management, and budget shall contract with 1 or more providers to
develop, supply, and score the Michigan merit examination. The Michigan merit
examination shall must
consist of all of the following:
(a) Assessment instruments that measure English language
arts, mathematics, reading, and science and are used by colleges and
universities in this state for entrance or placement purposes. This shall must
include a writing component in which the pupil produces an
extended writing sample. The Michigan merit examination shall must
not require any other extended writing sample.
(b) One or more tests from 1 or more test developers that
assess a pupil's ability to apply at least reading and mathematics skills in a
manner that is intended to allow employers to use the results in making
employment decisions. The department of technology, management, and budget and
the superintendent of public instruction shall ensure that any test or tests
selected under this subdivision have all the components necessary to allow a
pupil to be eligible to receive the results of a nationally recognized
evaluation of workforce readiness if the pupil's test performance is adequate.
(c) A social studies component.
(d) Any other component that is necessary to obtain the
approval of the United States Department of Education to use the Michigan merit
examination for the purposes of the no child left behind act of 2001, Public
Law 107-110, or the every student succeeds act, Public Law 114-95.
(3) In addition to all other requirements of this section,
all of the following apply to the Michigan merit examination:
(a) The department of technology, management, and budget and
the superintendent of public instruction shall ensure that any contractor used
for scoring the Michigan merit examination supplies an individual report for
each pupil that will identify for the pupil's parents and teachers whether the
pupil met expectations or failed to meet expectations for each standard, to
allow the pupil's parents and teachers to assess and remedy problems before the
pupil moves to the next grade.
(b) The department of technology, management, and budget and
the superintendent of public instruction shall ensure that any contractor used
for scoring, developing, or processing the Michigan merit examination meets
quality management standards commonly used in the assessment industry,
including at least meeting level 2 of the capability maturity model developed
by the Software Engineering Institute of Carnegie Mellon University for the
first year the Michigan merit examination is offered to all grade 11 pupils and
at least meeting level 3 of the capability maturity model for subsequent years.
(c) The department of technology, management, and budget and
the superintendent of public instruction shall ensure that any contract for
scoring, administering, or developing the Michigan merit examination includes
specific deadlines for all steps of the assessment process, including, but not
limited to, deadlines for the correct testing materials to be supplied to
schools and for the correct results to be returned to schools, and includes
penalties for noncompliance with these deadlines.
(d) The superintendent of public instruction shall ensure
that the Michigan merit examination meets all of the following:
(i) Is designed to test
pupils on grade level content expectations or course content expectations, as
appropriate, in all subjects tested.
(ii) Complies with requirements of the no child left behind act
of 2001, Public Law 107-110, or the every student succeeds act, Public Law
114-95, as applicable.
(iii) Is consistent with the code of fair testing practices in
education prepared by the joint committee on testing practices of the American
Psychological Association.
(iv) Is factually accurate. If the superintendent of public
instruction determines that a question is not factually accurate and should be
excluded from scoring, the state board and the superintendent of public
instruction shall ensure that the question is excluded from scoring.
(4) A school district or
public school academy that operates a high school shall include on each pupil's
high school transcript all of the following:
(a) For each high school
graduate who has completed the Michigan merit examination under this section,
the pupil's scaled score on each subject area component of the Michigan merit
examination.
(b) The number of school
days the pupil was in attendance at school each school year during high school
and the total number of school days in session for each of those school years.
(5) The superintendent
of public instruction shall work with the provider or providers of the Michigan
merit examination to produce Michigan merit examination subject area scores for
each pupil participating in the Michigan merit examination, including scaling
and merging of test items for the different subject area components. The
superintendent of public instruction shall design and distribute to school
districts, public school academies, intermediate school districts, and nonpublic
schools a simple and concise document that describes the scoring for each
subject area and indicates the scaled score ranges for each subject area.
(6) The Except as otherwise
provided in this section, the Michigan merit examination shall must be
administered each year after March 1 and before June 1 to pupils in grade 11.
The superintendent of public instruction shall ensure that the Michigan merit
examination is scored and the scores are returned to pupils, their parents or
legal guardians, and schools not later than the beginning of the pupil's first
semester of grade 12. The returned scores shall must indicate at least the pupil's scaled score for each
subject area component and the range of scaled scores for each subject area. In
reporting the scores to pupils, parents, and schools, the superintendent of
public instruction shall provide standards-specific, meaningful, and timely
feedback on the pupil's performance on the Michigan merit examination.
(7) A school district or
public school academy shall administer the complete Michigan merit examination
to a pupil only once and shall not administer the complete Michigan merit
examination to the same pupil more than once. If Except as otherwise provided in this section, if a pupil
does not take the complete Michigan merit examination in grade 11, the school
district or public school academy shall administer the complete Michigan merit
examination to the pupil in grade 12. If a pupil chooses to retake the college
entrance examination component of the Michigan merit examination, as described
in subsection (2)(a), the pupil may do so through the provider of the college
entrance examination component and the cost of the retake is the responsibility
of the pupil unless all of the following are met:
(a) The pupil has taken
the complete Michigan merit examination.
(b) The pupil meets the
income eligibility criteria for free breakfast, lunch, or milk, as determined
under the Richard B. Russell national school lunch act, 42 USC 1751 to 1769j.
(c) The pupil has
applied to the provider of the college entrance examination component for a
scholarship or fee waiver to cover the cost of the retake and that application
has been denied.
(d) After taking the
complete Michigan merit examination, the pupil has not already received a free
retake of the college entrance examination component paid for either by this
state or through a scholarship or fee waiver by the provider.
(8) The superintendent
of public instruction shall ensure that the length of the Michigan merit
examination and the combined total time necessary to administer all of the
components of the Michigan merit examination are the shortest possible that
will still maintain the degree of reliability and validity of the Michigan
merit examination results determined necessary by the superintendent of public
instruction. The superintendent of public instruction shall ensure that the
maximum total combined length of time that schools are required to set aside
for pupils to answer all test questions on the Michigan merit examination does
not exceed 8 hours if the superintendent of public instruction determines that
sufficient alignment to applicable Michigan merit curriculum content standards
can be achieved within that time limit.
(9) A school district or
public school academy shall provide accommodations to a pupil with disabilities
for the Michigan merit examination, as provided under section 504 of title V of
the rehabilitation act of 1973, 29 USC 794; subtitle A of title II of the
Americans with disabilities act of 1990, 42 USC 12131 to 12134; the individuals
with disabilities education act amendments of 1997, Public Law 105-17; and the
implementing regulations for those statutes. The provider or providers of the
Michigan merit examination and the superintendent of public instruction shall
mutually agree upon the accommodations to be provided under this subsection.
(10) To the greatest
extent possible, the Michigan merit examination shall must be based on grade level content expectations or
course content expectations, as appropriate. Not later than July 1, 2008, the
department shall identify specific grade level content expectations to be
taught before and after the middle of grade 11, so that teachers will know what
content will be covered within the Michigan merit examination.
(11) A child who is a
student in a nonpublic school or home school may take the Michigan merit
examination under this section. To Except as otherwise provided in this subsection, to take
the Michigan merit examination, a child who is a student in a home school shall
contact the school district in which the child resides, and that school
district shall administer the Michigan merit examination, or the child may take
the Michigan merit examination at a nonpublic school if allowed by the
nonpublic school. If a school district is contacted by a
child who is a student in a home school as described in the immediately
preceding sentence, the school district is not required to administer the
Michigan merit examination to that child for the 2020-2021 school year if the
school district is not administering the Michigan merit examination to pupils
enrolled in the school district for the 2020-2021 school year. Upon
request from a nonpublic school, the superintendent of public instruction shall
direct the provider or providers to supply the Michigan merit examination to
the nonpublic school and the nonpublic school may administer the Michigan merit
examination. If a school district administers the Michigan merit examination
under this subsection to a child who is not enrolled in the school district,
the scores for that child are not considered for any purpose to be scores of a
pupil of the school district.
(12) In contracting
under subsection (2), the department of technology, management, and budget
shall consider a contractor that provides electronically-scored
electronically scored essays with the
ability to score constructed response feedback in multiple languages and
provide ongoing instruction and feedback.
(13) The purpose of the
Michigan merit examination is to assess pupil performance in mathematics,
science, social studies, and English language arts for the purpose of improving
academic achievement and establishing a statewide standard of competency. The
assessment under this section provides a common measure of data that will
contribute to the improvement of Michigan schools' curriculum and instruction
by encouraging alignment with Michigan's curriculum framework standards and
promotes pupil participation in higher level mathematics, science, social
studies, and English language arts courses. These standards are based upon the
expectations of what pupils should learn through high school and are aligned
with national standards.
(14) In addition to the
other requirements of this section and the requirements of 1970 PA 38, MCL
388.1081 to 388.1086, beginning with assessments conducted during the 2016-2017
school year, the superintendent of public instruction shall ensure that the
Michigan merit examination social studies component and the M-STEP and any
successor state assessment for social studies, as appropriate, include
questions related to the learning objectives in the state board recommended
model core academic curriculum standards concerning genocide, including, but
not limited to, the Holocaust and the Armenian Genocide.
(15) As used in this
section:
(a) "Armenian
Genocide", "genocide", and "Holocaust" mean those
terms as defined in section 1168.
(b) "English
language arts" means reading and writing.
(c) "Social
studies" means United States history, world history, world geography,
economics, and American government.
Sec. 1279i. Notwithstanding any provision of this act to the contrary, for the 2020-2021 school year, the progress of the pupils in a public school academy and the pupil performance of a public school academy is not required to be assessed using the Michigan student test of educational progress (M-STEP) or the Michigan merit examination under section 1279g.
