Starting this fall, Michigan teachers will get more help in the form of a CD-ROM that clarifies the state’s secondary education standards. Information on the CD explains concepts students should know and provides sample lesson plans.
“The standards used a lot of specialized words that teachers weren’t familiar with,” Karen Todorov, a consultant for the state Department of Education, told the Detroit News for a July 9 story.
Educators hope the clarified benchmarks will help teachers across the state improve scores on the Michigan Educational Assessment Program (MEAP) tests.
“The first step to improving MEAP scores is making sure everyone knows what we’re testing,” Todorov said. “If you don’t know exactly what you should be teaching, you’re working toward a goal that’s not right.”
The state is distributing the CDs through county-level intermediate school districts, which were responsible for training educators from every local district in their areas this summer.