Wayland Union Schools this week received aggregate results for its students on the 2014-15 statewide assessment, known as M-STEP.

“As we anticipated, our students’ scores were lower than they were on Michigan’s previous MEAP test,” said Superintendent Norm Taylor. “We are pleased with our scores in some areas. There are also areas that we will be targeting for improvement. As with previous standard and cut score changes, we will focus our future efforts on making progress toward Michigan’s challenging learning standards.”

Taylor said the next few years will require significant transitions for students, families, and educators. Stronger standards and more dynamic assessments require new levels of effort and skill on behalf of the entire district community.

Teresa Fulk, Director of Instruction, said”Wayland Union Schools is committed to providing our students with the best educational experience possible. We have many programs in place to meet the needs of our students and assist them in growing academically during their time in our district and prepare them for success after leaving our schools. The district utilizes many assessments such as NWEA’s Measure of Academic Progress, DIBELS, AIMSWeb, as well as teacher created assessments to ensure that our students are meeting academic standards and are meeting academic growth targets and benchmarks. Rest assured that we will use the results of the M-STEP assessment to continue to help us improve our programming in order to meet the needs of our students.”

“We have a lot of work to do,” Taylor said. “We know it is right to ensure stronger standards and tougher assessments for our students and we’re working every day to deliver the results they need. Fortunately, the results we received this week indicate we’re off to a running start.”

For more information, contact Fulk, email fulkt@wayland.k12.mi.us or call (269) 792-2181.