Accountability
State or district policies related to holding districts, schools, and/or students responsible for performance. School and district accountability systems typically include efforts to assess and rate schools or districts based on student performance and other indicators, to publicly report on school or district performance, and to provide rewards and sanctions for schools or districts based on performance or improvement over time. Student accountability generally refers to efforts to hold students responsible for their own performance by requiring students to pass a test to be promoted from grade to grade or to pass an exam to graduate from high school.

ACT Test  see PLAN
Beginning with the Junior class of 2007 all juniors will take the ACT as part of the MME Michigan Merit Exam.  See MME test.

 The American College Testing (ACT) Program, or "A-C-T" as it is commonly called, is a national college admission examination that consists of tests in: 

English       Mathematics    Reading          Science Reasoning

All U.S. colleges and universities accept ACT results. The ACT includes 215 multiple-choice questions and takes approximately 3 hours and 30 minutes to complete with breaks. Actual testing time is 2 hours and 55 minutes.

AP Program 
The Advanced Placement (AP) Program is an intensive program of 34 university-level courses and examinations sponsored by the College Board, a nonprofit educational association. In 2000, approximately 750,000 high school students took more than 1.25 million AP Examinations globally. Approximately 3,000 colleges and universities used the grades from these exams worldwide as one means of determining the academic qualifications of matriculating students.

When the College Board founded it in 1955, the Advanced Placement Program set new standards for education in the United States. In The National Education Goals Report, issued annually by the National Education Goals Panel, participation in the AP Program is recognized as an indication of a commitment to educational excellence. The National Center for Education Statistics cites in The Condition of Education, which is published each year, "Students who took AP Examinations" as one of 60 indicators of the status and progress of education in the United States. 

The Program is regarded by the College Board as a way of enabling an increasing number of advanced students to accelerate their university studies in the United States, as well as a means of furthering student mobility throughout the world. Students in more than 50 countries can achieve these benefits.

The AP Program develops course descriptions, curricular outlines, teaching guides, and examinations in art, biology, calculus, chemistry, computer science, economics, English, environmental science, French, German, geography, Human Geography,  government and politics, history, Latin, music, physics, psychology, Spanish, and statistics.

Assessment
An exercise--such as a written test, portfolio, or experiment-- that seeks to measure a student's skills or knowledge in a subject area.

Basic Skills
The traditional building blocks of a curriculum that is most commonly associated with explicit instruction in early elementary language arts and mathematics. Basic skills have historically been taught in isolation. Basic skills include teaching the letters of the alphabet, how to sound out words, spelling, grammar, counting, adding, subtracting, and multiplying.

Criterion-Referenced Test (CRT)
An assessment that measures a student’s performance according to specified standards or criteria rather than in comparison to the performances of other test takers.

DIBELS Test
A series of short tests given to children in kindergarten through the third grade to screen an monitor their progress in learning the necessary skills to become successful readers.

Grade Equivalent (GE)
A score on a scale developed to indicate the school grade (usually measured in tenths of a year) that corresponds to an average test score. A grade equivalent of 6.4 is interpreted as a score that is average for a group that ahs completed the fourth month of Grade 6. Grade equivalents do not compose a scale of equal intervals and are not usable in drawing profiles.

MEAP 3-8th grade
MEAP stands for the Michigan Educational Assessment Program. It is a statewide testing program initiated by the State Board of Education, supported by the governor, and funded by the legislation. 

MME - Michigan Merit Exam
Replaces the MEAP testing at the high school level and includes a free
ACT test for juniors. Exams include the WorkKeys and the Michigan math, science, and social studies test.

NWEA - MAP (Measures of Academic Progress) Replaces the TERRA NOVA
Standardized testing for students at South Redford  in the 2nd through the 9th grades.  Reading, language use and Math test will be given.

The MAP program will replace the Terra Nova testing program as of March 2007, when the Board of Education approved the adoption of the program. The MAP test adapts to student's ability level. The test will measure the ability level of students on the high or low side of the scale. Teachers can utilize the assessment to find out the best way to help a student improve.   See NWEA     Parent Tool Kit for NWEA

Norm-Referenced Test (NRT)
A standardized assessment-that is, an assessment in which all students perform under the same conditions that compares a student or group of students with a specified reference group, usually others of the same grade or age.

Percentile Rank
The percentage of scores for a particular group that fall below a given student’s score. For example, a score with a percentile rank of 90 indicates that 90 percent of the scores for that particular group are below that student’s score.

Performance Standard
A level of performance on a test established by education experts as a goal of student attainment.

PLAN Test
As a "pre-ACT" test, PLAN is a powerful predictor of success on the ACT. At the same time, many schools recognize the importance of PLAN testing for all students, as it focuses attention on both career preparation and improving academic achievement. Typically, PLAN is administered in the fall of the sophomore year.
See PLAN

PSAT
The Preliminary Scholastic Aptitude Test (PSAT)/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test (NMSQT) gives you firsthand practice for the SAT I and SAT II: Subject Test in Writing. It also gives you a chance to qualify for scholarship and recognition programs.

The PSAT/NMSQT measures the critical reading, math problem solving, and writing skills that you've been developing throughout your life. It does not measure things like creativity and motivation, and it doesn't recognize those special talents that may be important to colleges.

Terra Nova  Replaced by the NWEA - MAP
Terra Nova uses multiple measures to ensure reliable assessment of a wide range of skills and proficiency levels. It meets the highest standards of accuracy and reliability, and it is compatible with accommodations to ensure inclusion of all students. CTB's unique scoring process integrates selected-response and open-ended questions, to show what students truly know and can do--the key to your informed decisions about their knowledge. The test is provided by CTB/McGraw-Hill Publishing.

SAT
The Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) is a three-hour exam that measures two sets of skills-verbal and mathematical reasoning-that you need to do college-level work in any academic area. About 2 million students take it every year. 

Standards
Subject-matter benchmarks to measure students' academic achievement. Curriculum standards drive what students learn in the classroom. Most agree that public schools' academic standards need to be raised. However, there is national debate over how to implement such standards--how prescriptive they should be, and whether they should be national or local, voluntary or mandated.

Standardized Test
An assessment with directions, time limits, materials, and scoring procedures designed to remain constant each time the test is given, to ensure comparability of scores. Many standardized tests have norms. All norm-referenced tests are standardized.  

School Evaluation Services tool with data regarding South Redford Schools: http://www.SES.standardandpoors.com.