Saline educator blames 10-point drop in math scores on new algorithm

A Michigan educator blamed a new algorithm for a 10-point drop in math scores in 2024.

Participants at an Oct. 8, Saline Area Schools Board of Education meeting reviewed the district’s performance on a test from the Northwest Education Association. Math scores for the district’s fifth grade students dropped 10 points between the spring and fall tests of 2024.

Board member Jennifer Steben asked about the decline in Rasch units, which the evaluation association uses to measure a student’s achievement in each subject.

Caroline Stout, a teaching and learning team member with the district, blamed the 10-point drop in the test’s algorithm. The test result is “not a 10-point drop in what we think of as student achievement,” Stout told those assembled.

The district, not the evaluation association, performed the analysis that used the new algorithm. She added that the new algorithm contributed to the 10-point drop between the spring and fall test.

Molly Macek, education policy director at the Mackinac Center for Public Policy, said the newer scores are more accurate.

“It is not that the students’ 10-point-drop in testing scores means the students’ proficiency decreased from previous testing,” Macek told Michigan Capitol Confidential. “It means that the old tool used to measure achievement was not as accurate.”

Macek said the new algorithm is a more accurate tool. The score produced with the new algorithm is thus a better indicator of a student’s math proficiency.

The Saline district did not respond to an email seeking comment.

The evaluation association did not respond to a request for comment. Its website, however, explains the change in the algorithm.

“The enhanced MAP Growth item selection algorithm is part of our commitment to leading the market in the validity and reliability of test data,” the association said. “The new tests will better reflect student instruction and strengthen our connections to Instructional Content Providers” and various instructional tools.

“NWEA believes that presenting students with more grade-level content will create a better testing experience by reducing the chance of students seeing items that are aligned to standards from significantly higher or lower grade levels.”

In 2019, 71.6% of Saline’s fifth graders scored advanced or proficient on the math M-STEP. Only 59.3% scored advanced or proficient in 2024.